“On the day of his (Sonny Tay) birth in May 1969, violence broke out once again- in Malaysia this time. Malay Muslims, incited by the youth of the United Malay National Organisation, went on a jihad against Malaysian Chinese and Indians, murdering some and maiming others. The killing spree had been organised according to a precise café colour scheme: after susu (the milky-white Chinese) the kopi (the coffee-coloured Indians).”
Racism triggers the massacres in Malaysia because the killings are governed by skin colours. Additionally, racism intersects with religious differences considering the war is instigated by Malay Muslims. Accordingly, skin color and religion are the building blocks of the racism which explodes into a war in Malaysia. Accordingly, religion can be a trigger of inhumane actions when it is founded on extremist ideologies.
“I don’t even know what or who I’m looking for. It’s the eve of my mother’s wake and I feel no pain, no grief, and no guilt. Nothing. I just want to live without ghosts, sleep without dreams. I want to blur the boundaries of my body in a mechanical and mindless fuck. Instead, I walk back to the hotel, strip, shower, then dry myself off and climb into bed. Alone in the dark, with the motor of the air conditioning humming away, I hug myself for comfort, turn my face into the pillow and begin to masturbate.”
Grace suppresses the pain of being bereaved of her mother. She anticipates that suppressing her agony would secure her from the ghosts of her departed mother. She focuses on her body and masturbation to elicit a pleasure that would reduce the unconscious distress ascribed to her mother's death. The suppression is intended to overpower her vulnerability and to make her strong in the face of death.
“But when his ( the patriarch) son popped into the world, he immediately recognised that he no longer held first place in his wife’s life. It was an intolerable situation, even if only a temporary one. How such an Oedipal situation could have arisen in a Chinese household always remained a puzzle. For a man who venerated his Chinese culture, this rejection of his first-born son was distressingly un-Chinese.”
In this case the Oedipal Complex is reversed, because, based on the Freudian framework of Oedipal complex, it is Sonny who would have been envious of his father. The patriarch’s envy towards his Biological son is a psychological issues arising from the dread of being displaced from his wife’s life in terms of ranking as the first man. The Oedipal scenario results in the violation of culture whereby Chinese men are expected to adulate their sons. The patriarch experiences a psychological versus cultural war.
