Malaysian Chinese in the context of "West Coast Division"

Min is a broad group of Sinitic languages with about 75 million native speakers. These languages are spoken in China in a region centered on modern Fujian Province, stretching from Southern Zhejiang to Eastern Guangdong, as well as on Hainan Island and the neighbouring Leizhou Peninsula. Min varieties are also spoken in Taiwan, and by a large international diaspora, particularly in Southeast Asia. The name Min is shared with the Min River in Fujian, and is also the abbreviated name of Fujian Province. Min languages are not mutually intelligible with one another nor with other varieties of Chinese.

The most widely spoken variety of Min outside of China is Hokkien, a variety of Southern Min which has its origin in Southern Fujian. Amoy Hokkien is the prestige dialect of Hokkien in Fujian, while a majority of Taiwanese people speak a dialect called Taiwanese Hokkien or simply Taiwanese. The majority of Chinese Singaporeans, Chinese Malaysians, Chinese Filipinos, Chinese Indonesians, Chinese Thais, and Chinese Cambodians are of Southern Min-speaking background (particularly Hokkien and Teochew), although some of these communities are shifting to national or regional languages. Communities speaking Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, Haklau Min, Leizhou Min, and Hainanese can also be found in parts of the Chinese diaspora, such as in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country with a diverse population. As of 2024, the official population estimate is about 34.1 million. According to the 2020 census, there were 32,447,385 people including non-citizens, placing Malaysia as the 43rd most populous country globally. In 2010, around 5.72 million lived in East Malaysia and 22.5 million in Peninsular Malaysia. Population distribution is uneven, with about 79 percent of citizens residing in Peninsular Malaysia, which covers less than 40 percent of the country's total land area.

As of 2017, Malaysia's population was growing at an annual rate of 1.94 percent. Based on projections from the 2010 census, fertility rates among the three largest ethnic groups were estimated at 2.4 children per woman for Malays and Bumiputeras, 1.8 for Indians and 1.4 for Chinese. Malay fertility rates were about 40 percent higher than those of Indians and 56 percent higher than those of Chinese. By 2023, Malays and other Bumiputeras made up 69.9 percent of the population, while Chinese and Indians comprised 22.8 and 6.6 percent respectively.

Ketuanan Melayu (Jawi: كتوانن ملايو‎; lit. "Malay Overlordship" or "Malay Supremacy") is a political concept that emphasises Malay hegemony and preeminence in present-day Malaysia. The Malaysian Malays have claimed a special position and special rights owing to their longer history in the area and the fact that the present Malaysian state itself evolved from a Malay polity. The oldest political institution in Malaysia is the system of Malay rulers of the nine Malay states. The British colonial authorities transformed the system and turned it first into a system of indirect rule, then in 1948, using this culturally based institution, they incorporated the Malay monarchy into the blueprints for the independent Federation of Malaya.

The term Tanah Melayu in its name, which literally means "Malay homeland", assumes proprietorship of the Malay states. In this method, the colonial government strengthened Malay ethno-nationalism, Malay ethnicity and culture and Malay sovereignty in the new nation-state. Though other cultures would continue to flourish, the identity of the emerging political community was to be shaped by the "historic" political culture of its dominant Malay ethnic group. The Chinese and Indian immigrants, who form a significant minority in Malaysia, are considered beholden to the Malays for granting them citizenship in return for special privileges as set out in Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia. This quid pro quo arrangement is usually referred to as the Malaysian social contract. The concept of ketuanan Melayu is usually cited by politicians, particularly those from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

Personal names in Malaysia vary greatly according to ethno-cultural group. Personal names are, to a certain degree, regulated by the national registration department, especially since the introduction of the National Registration Identity Card (NRIC).

Malays, Orang Asli, some Bumiputera of Sabah and Sarawak, and Malaysian Indians adopt patronymic naming customs. On the other hand, Malaysian Chinese, some Malays and Bumiputera of Sabah and Sarawak use family names.

Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particularly targeted by the Japanese military during the occupation. However, Japanese soldiers engaged in indiscriminate killing and did not try to identify who was 'anti-Japanese.' Singapore was a crucial strategic point in World War II. From 8 February to 15 February, the Japanese fought for control of the city. The combined British and Commonwealth forces surrendered in a stunning defeat to the outnumbered Japanese on 15 February which led to its fall. The loss of Singapore was and still is Britain's largest surrender in history.

Three days later after the fall, on 18 February, the occupying Japanese military began mass killings of a wide range of "undesirables", who were mostly ethnic Chinese, influenced by the events of the Second Sino-Japanese War that was raging simultaneously as far back as 1937. The operation was overseen by the Imperial Japanese Army's Kempeitai, its secret police. Along with Singapore, the Sook Ching was subsequently also extended to include the Chinese population in Malaya, which was also under occupation by the Japanese. Concurrently, non-Chinese individuals were also not completely spared in other parts of Asia under Japanese occupation. The Japanese also brutally subjugated civilians in Burma and Thailand, with estimates of up to 90,000 additional deaths. Many of these victims were also forced to work on the Siam–Burma Railway, infamously known as the Death Railway.

The communist insurgency in Sarawak was an insurgency in Malaysia from 1962 to 1990, and involved the North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP) and the Malaysian Government. It was one of the two communist insurgencies to challenge the former British colony of Malaysia during the Cold War. As with the earlier Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), the communist insurgents in Sarawak were predominantly ethnic Chinese, who opposed British rule over Sarawak and later opposed the merger of the state into the newly created Federation of Malaysia. The insurgency was triggered by the 1962 Brunei revolt, which had been instigated by the left-wing Brunei People's Party in opposition to the proposed formation of Malaysia.

The communist insurgents in Sarawak were also supported by Indonesia until 1965, when the pro-Western president Suharto assumed power in a coup and ended the confrontation with Malaysia. During that period, the NKCP's two main military formations were created: the Sarawak People's Guerrilla Force (SPGF) or Pasukan Gerilya Rakyat Sarawak (PGRS), and the North Kalimantan People's Army (NKPA) or the Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (PARAKU). Following the end of the confrontation, Indonesian military forces would co-operate with the Malaysians in counter-insurgency operations against their former allies.

Bumiputera or bumiputra (Jawi: بوميڤوترا‎, Native), often shortened to Bumi in casual contexts, is a term used in Malaysia to refer to the Malays, the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, various indigenous peoples of East Malaysia and certain Peranakans sub-groups. The term, rooted in the Sanskrit word later absorbed into the classical Malay bhumiputra (Sanskrit: भूमिपुत्र, romanized: bhū́miputra), literally translates as "son of the land" or "son of the soil". In Indonesia, a related term, "Pribumi", is used, although in Malaysia it more broadly denotes indigenous peoples.

Following the 13 May incident in 1969, the government implemented the New Economic Policy (NEP), a set of measures granting extensive social, economic and political advantages to bumiputera communities. These included affirmative action in education, housing and preferential treatment in the public sectors, officially aimed at improving the socioeconomic position of the bumiputera and appeasing the Malay majority by granting them a constitutionally enshrined privileged status over Malaysian citizens who are Chinese or Indians. Although originally presented as a temporary solution to interethnic tensions, the policy has remained in force for decades and has been described as a form of institutionalised racism.