21/08/2025
【海峡殖民地和半唐番Sino：《谁是“沙巴之子”？》分享会】
The Straits Settlements and the Sino–KDM Community
在马来西亚的族群光谱中，除了我们熟悉的峇峇娘惹，还有一个鲜为人知的群体——来自沙巴的Sino。这些华人与原住民的混血后裔，其身份延续自十九世纪的海峡殖民地，至今仍交织着复杂的历史与认同。你可能听过峇峇娘惹，却未必听过Sino；他们的存在挑战了我们对族群分类的固有想像。9月7日下午，《谁是"沙巴之子"?: Sino与土著地位的距离》作者吴佳翰（Bernard Ng Jia Han）将在槟城分享这段人类学研究，带领我们重新思考身份认同与族群界线的本质。吴佳翰毕业于新加坡南洋理工大学环境工程学系，获国立台湾大学人类学硕士学位，目前是新加坡国立大学人类学博士生，同时也是《当今大马》和《关键评论网》的专栏作者，并经营自媒体播客“沙砂作响”。
这部著作以“沙巴之子”（Anak Negeri Sabah）为核心，剖析马来西亚法律体系中“Sabah Native”、“Sabah Indigenous”与联邦层级“Bumiputera”的差异，并揭示这些定义如何在不同历史阶段被建构与重组。从殖民政府承认Sino群体的土著地位，到独立后政策的模糊与变动，再到八十年代土著主义兴起后权益的被压缩，Sino的处境折射出整个东南亚族群政治的复杂性。当南岛语族的卡达山杜顺文化逻辑与汉藏语族的华人认同模式相遇，新的族群身份随之生成，传统的“纯粹”族群概念也被动摇。吴佳翰在书中结合在地民族志的写作，展现族群认同在现实社会中的流动性与矛盾。
《谁是"沙巴之子"?: Sino与土著地位的距离》是吴佳翰十年研究的结晶，在学界与公共领域引发广泛回响。此书获得台湾人类学与民族学学会“李亦园先生纪念奖学金”、台湾东南亚学会硕博论文奖，并获选为马来西亚《星洲日报》2023读家选书（非文学）与2024年度马来西亚华人研究学术专著奖，出版一年内即完成二刷。Sino的经验说明，文化认同能够改变、能够重叠，也能超越固有标签，为我们提供新的理解框架，协助社会跳脱种族二元对立。9月7日的分享会，邀请所有关心马来西亚族群与身份议题的朋友，共同参与这场兼具学术深度与社会反思的对话。
Within Malaysia’s spectrum of ethnic identities, alongside the more familiar Baba–Nyonya, exists a lesser-known community—the Sino of Sabah. These descendants of Chinese–Indigenous intermarriage trace their identity back to the nineteenth-century Straits Settlements and continue to embody complex histories of belonging. While the Baba–Nyonya are widely recognised, the Sino remain less understood, challenging assumptions of fixed ethnic categories.
On 7 September, Bernard Ng Jia Han, author of “谁是‘沙巴之子’?: Sino与土著地位的距离”, will be in Penang to present findings from a decade of anthropological research. His study examines the foundations of identity and the shifting boundaries of ethnicity. Ng holds a BEng in Environmental Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, an MA in Anthropology from National Taiwan University, and is currently a PhD student in Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. He is also a columnist for Malaysiakini and The News Lens, and the host of the podcast 沙砂作响 (Echoes of Sands and Stones).
The book centres on the concept of Anak Negeri Sabah (literally, Son of the Land of Sabah), tracing how the categories “Sabah Native,” “Sabah Indigenous,” and the federal “Bumiputera” have diverged and overlapped across historical periods. It demonstrates how these identities were recognised during colonial rule, became ambiguous in the post-independence years, and were subsequently constrained under the rise of indigeneity-based politics in the 1980s. The Sino experience illustrates the complexity of Southeast Asian ethnic politics. When the Austronesian Kadazan–Dusun framework intersects with the Sinitic Chinese framework, new identities emerge, unsettling conventional notions of ethnic “purity.” Through the writing of native ethnography, Ng highlights the fluid and contested nature of identity in practice.
This study represents the culmination of ten years of research and has received significant academic and public recognition. It was awarded the Li Yih-yuan Memorial Scholarship by the Taiwan Society of Anthropology and Ethnology, the graduate thesis award of the Taiwan Society for Southeast Asian Studies, named a 2023 Sin Chew Daily Readers’ Choice Book (non-fiction), and received the 2024 Academic Monograph Award in Malaysian Chinese Studies. A second print run was completed within a year of publication.
The Sino case demonstrates that cultural identities can change, overlap, and transcend rigid classifications. It offers a framework for rethinking entrenched binaries of race and belonging. This talk on 7 September invites all those engaged with questions of ethnicity, cultural plurality, and identity in Malaysia to participate in a dialogue that combines academic depth with social reflection.
【海峡殖民地和半唐番Sino：《谁是“沙巴之子”？》分享会】
主办单位：岛读书店、COEX
日期：7 September 2025 (SUNDAY)
时间：2 pm - 3:30 pm
地点：COEX Tangga (Hin Bus Depot, Penang)
报名：RM10（赠送岛读等值书券）
报名链接：https://forms.gle/6PPfaED23zDq5rFm9 或扫描海报 QR
分享人：
吴佳翰（《谁是“沙巴之子”？: Sino与土著地位的距离》作者）
#槟城岛读书店 #谁是沙巴之子
