What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma

What My Bones Know is notable for exploring the topic of Trauma and Silence in Asian American Communities. Stephanie Foo finds it unfortunate that despite enduring and surviving traumatic experiences, refugees and immigrants from Asia often refuse to speak of their past experiences. As people with unacknowledged and unprocessed trauma, they occasionally perpetuate destructive behaviors in their interactions with their families, including their children, resulting in a traumatized, anxious, and equally silent second generation. She discusses her father’s family’s background and history as ethnic Chinese Malaysians and how they persevered through personal and social upheavals. Indeed, Foo claims that most immigrants and refugees who arrived in the United States from Asia between the mid-19th and 20th centuries lived through some degree of traumatic experience. A brief survey of recent Asian history—with a focus on the Chinese Malaysian experience—from the colonial period to the Cold War illuminates this claim.

Many Asian immigrants to the US came from countries that suffered under European (and later Japanese) colonialism. This includes, for example, the Indian and Vietnamese communities. Malaysia, as a hub for seaborne trade between India, the West, and East Asia, has also been touched by colonialism. In 1511, the Portuguese conquered Malacca, which was then taken over by the Dutch just over a century later. During this period, Chinese immigrants in Malaysia were encouraged to work in tin mines, and they established villages as their numbers grew.

Most of these Chinese immigrants were from Southern China and arrived after the British had established trading ports in Penang (1786) and in Singapore (1819). They generally retained their culture and heritage, living in villages alongside the mines they worked. After British colonization of Malaysia in 1867, colonialist racial theories began to take root in the region, giving rise to racial conflicts between its various ethnic groups. Meanwhile, Chinese Malaysians had begun to enrich themselves, encouraging an even greater flow of immigration and further fueling social tensions.

During WWII, the Japanese gradually took control of the region from the British, further fueling anti-Chinese sentiment. At the same time, internal social unrest in China encouraged the various fighting factions to appeal to the Chinese overseas diaspora. The Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party both saw supporters in Chinese Malaysian communities.

Foo’s paternal great-aunt, called “Auntie,” was born in Malaysia to ethnically Chinese parents. Her family lived in severe poverty: Auntie’s father was disabled and could not work, and her uncle’s business had been decimated by war. As a result, the women in the family were tasked with both raising their children and earning income, sometimes through illegal means. They also witnessed the increasing racial violence against Chinese Malaysians. Although she admires her ancestors for their resilience, Foo believes these hardships altered their genetic makeup and that these traits have been passed down to her as well.

Malaysia entered a period of social unrest after World War II, and the Chinese Malaysian population saw itself stuck between local and international tensions. On one hand, racial violence on the domestic front gave rise to increased cohesion within the Chinese Malaysian community, while on the other hand, the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang vied for their attention and support in the global Cold War. Foo argues that America’s proxy wars in Asia have been a major source of trauma for many locals—some of whom later fled their countries to avoid the violence.

Malaysia’s history with colonialism and racial violence, along with the Chinese Communist Party’s prominence in China, culminated in the establishment in 1949 of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), a communist guerrilla army that fought against British control and for Malaysian independence. Their leader, Chin Peng, had previously fought against Japanese occupation as well. The resulting bloodshed affected Chinese Malaysians disproportionately: Even those who wished to stay out of the conflict found it difficult to remain neutral, as to do nothing was in effect to aid the British colonists. Foo’s own great-uncle was an unfortunate scapegoat, jailed and presumably tortured for years. By the time he was released, he had lost all his teeth and could no longer work, once again forcing the women in their family to become the primary source of income.

In Malaysia, racial clashes continued in the late 20th century, while elsewhere, the Cold War encouraged bloody fights between the US and Soviet spheres of influence. Much of recent Asian history is therefore characterized by war, racism, colonial violence, and poverty. These traumatic events have silently shaped Asian American immigrant communities, and Foo believes that older generations’ sustained attempt at erasing the past can only be counterproductive in the long run.