本書收入英文論文四篇，作者分別來自馬來西亞、新加坡與美國，他們都是文學研究者，其中林玉玲與馬拉凱．維達馬尼更兼具英文詩人、小說家身份。他們在論文中析論一九六九年五月十三日發生在馬來西亞首都吉隆坡的一場種族流血衝突事件對社會、文學、文化的影響。在事件發生五十年後回顧、反思，更有鑑往知來的歷史意義。

編者沈偉糾(Sim Wai Chew)為新加坡南洋理工大學人文學院副教授、張錦忠(Tee Kim Tong)為國立中山大學外文系退休教授兼約聘研究員。

INTRODUCTION: May 13 and Its Post-memories
By SIM Wai Chew

OVER half a century has passed since the watershed events of May 13, 1969—the series of politically spurred racial riots that left hundreds dead in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, forced the resignation of its then prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, and instigated a two-year lapse in parliamentary rule. Its effects continue to ramify in the socio-politico arena. The ushering in, in the name of national security, of a rash of policies that effectively institutionalized a reified ethnie-based order. Mahathir Mohamad’s 1991 invocation of “Bangsa Malaysia” (“Malaysian nation/race”) as a counterweight to the social exclusion partly normalized by that institutionalization. The entrenchment of a complacent, self-serving elite and the rise of the “Bersih” or “Clean” movement questioning egregious abuses of power. These and other developments it may be argued are directly or indirectly the consequences of the fractiousness unleashed on that fateful day.
Not surprisingly perhaps, the fiftieth anniversary of the event in 2019 prompted calls for a public re-assessment and review. The activist and educator Kua Kia Soong, for instance, called for the establishment of a commission to examine disputed aspects of the riots, not least the official death count of 196 which he contended was grossly understated. In order to get a clear picture of what transpired, public institutions such as hospitals, the army, the police and the Special Branch should be made to declassify their files, Kua argued. Only then would a modicum of “reparation” be made to families of the victims; and only then would Malaysia get to “exorcise” its many May 13 revenants. [……]

CONTENTS
vii | SIM Wai Chew: Introduction--May 13 and Its Post-memories
01 | Shirley Geok-lin LIM: The Breaking of a Dream May 13th, Malaysia
19 | Malachi Edwin VETHAMANI: The Malaysian Albatross of May 13, 1969 Racial Riots
51| Florence KUEK: Post-trauma--A Comparison of the Malay and Chinese Psyches in Response to
the May 13 Tragedy in Their Literary Works from 1969 to 2019
75 | SIM Wai Chew: “Do Cultures Leak into Each Other?” Polycultural Considerations in Selected Malaysian Anglophone and Sinophone Texts
101 | TEE Kim Tong: Afterword
105 | List of Contributors