ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the reproduction of colonial representation and identification in the postcolonial urban landscape of Kuala Lumpur. It explains the legacies and implications of British colonialism and its race ideologies in the production of the urban forms and architecture in colonial Kuala Lumpur in the period 1880-1930. The chapter interrogates how race ideology, embedded within colonialism, had taken shape in buildings and urban forms in colonial Kuala Lumpur and how, in turn, these colonial buildings and built forms helped to shape the colonial power and race relations. It investigates the racialisation embedded within the process of indigenisation of the colonial urban centre. The chapter argues that China town had existed and had been represented as an 'other' place both in relation to the colonial buildings, as well as the native Malay kampongs and settlements. It served as a racial container in the city and was instrumental in the definition of the Chinese race itself and segregation of different racial groups.
