Chinese Culture and Polity in Nineteenth-Century Malaya: The Case of Yap Ah Loy

On a side wall in the ancestral hall of the Yap Clan Association, located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown, hang pictures of the last three Chinese kapitans of nineteenth-century Kuala Lumpur: Yap Ah Loy, Yap Ah Shale, and Yap Kwan Seng. The latter two kapitans are shown clothed in the embroidered gowns and conical hats of Mandarin officials; Yap Ah Loy wears a plain black tunic top, wide white trousers, and a small dark circular cap. These two styles of dress caught my attention on my first visit to the Yap Clan Association, their iconography suggesting tantalizing variations in Chinese leadership styles during this period of Malayan history. A closer look at the lives of these men, particularly that of Yap Ah Loy, shows that these variations reflect competing and overlapping views about social status and political legitimacy in nineteenth-century Malayan Chinese society. ¹