KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — When Violet Lee Zi Yi began researching Malaysian Chinese youths, she admitted she initially approached the community with assumptions about its relative economic advantages, resources and access to opportunities.
What she discovered through interviews with these youths across Peninsular Malaysia was a much more complicated picture.
“I initially thought Chinese is a unitary block. It is so different,” Lee said in an interview about the findings of IMAN Research’s report, Kami Orang Sini Juga: Chinese Youths and Democratic Belonging — The Politics of Pragmatism and Fairness.
The report, prepared by Lee and co-researcher Liew Liang Hong, is based on interviews with 116 Malaysian Chinese youths aged between 18 and 35 conducted from August 2025 to April 2026.
It examines Chinese youths on how they understand their identity, navigate opportunities and inequality, and relate to politics and public institutions.
Rather than treating Malaysian Chinese youths as a single political or cultural group, the research found that their experiences were shaped by factors including family history, language, schooling, religion, socioeconomic background and where they grew up.
For some, regional identities such as being Penangite, Johorean or an anak Terengganu were just as important in defining who they were.
“When I started the research, I went into it with a mindset of — apa lagi Cina mahu or what else do the Chinese want?
“I wanted to understand what more Malaysian Chinese youths wanted, so I had assumptions about the community’s relative advantages.
“But the interviews changed my perception. Everyone’s experience is so diverse, so different, and every conversation just added what I had never imagined before,” she said.
One example was how family history could shape identity differently across generations.
Lee said she had not initially considered how being a third-generation Malaysian Chinese could produce a different outlook from being fourth-generation, depending on how grandparents and great-grandparents had spoken about China and their family’s history.
She said these differences emerged naturally during the conversations, illustrating how the research uncovered experiences that the team had not anticipated when designing its questions.
Belonging is not always straightforward
The report found that national identity did not necessarily come at the expense of Chinese cultural identity.
Some participants described themselves primarily as Malaysian, while others considered Malaysian Chinese an inseparable identity.
Others placed strong emphasis on their state or hometown.
For some interviewees from the East Coast, being an anak Terengganu was central to how they described home, even as they recognised restrictions associated with being part of a minority community.
One participant described the distinction between feeling at home and feeling politically restricted, saying: “As a layman I feel I belong, but in politics I feel being restricted, like in Matriculation and fund allocation.”
The report said these feelings could coexist: participants could feel emotionally attached to Malaysia while questioning how public resources and institutions treated different communities.
It also found that everyday interactions could foster a sense of shared Malaysian identity.
Participants spoke positively about ordinary experiences such as eating at mamak restaurants, mixing languages and joining one another’s festivals.
However, the researchers cautioned against romanticising these interactions, noting that cordial relationships did not necessarily translate into deeper understanding or erase concerns about institutional fairness.
The cost of pragmatism
One of the report’s central findings is what it calls “self-cornering” — the tendency to find private ways around perceived problems rather than challenge the institutions behind them.
The report found that some young people responded to uncertainty over public opportunities by working harder, relying on family networks, paying for alternatives or looking overseas.
These decisions could be practical and help individuals secure their futures, but the researchers argued that they also carried wider consequences.
When those with sufficient resources could find private alternatives, the institutions and policies behind their concerns remained unchanged. Those without the means to find alternatives could be left with fewer options.
The report also distinguished between inequality personally experienced by participants, barriers they anticipated and accounts they had heard from family or community members.
It cautioned against treating every disappointing outcome as proof of discrimination, while recognising that inherited accounts could influence how young people assessed their prospects.
Wanting to be heard
Another finding concerned the distance between young people and the organisations or institutions expected to represent them.
Lee said she was struck by how some interviewees did not consider their own opinions valuable simply because they were not politically vocal.
“We wanted to include young people who were not already active in community organisations or political circles, rather than relying mainly on those who were accustomed to speaking publicly.
“Only about 10 to 15 per cent of those recruited were young leaders.
“This was important because young people who were already involved in organisations were often more comfortable expressing their views, while others might not see their own experiences as worth sharing,” she said.
The research team also found that established community leaders could say they wanted younger people to participate, yet were sometimes reluctant to give them meaningful space.
Lee said this could leave young people struggling to find where they could contribute, while older leaders continued to hold the resources and decision-making positions.
She also questioned the narrow definition of success within parts of the community, where financial achievement and professional status could be valued more visibly than civic or political participation.
“Chinese youth are not rewarded socially if you are in politics. Only if you become a politician, you become someone famous, then yes, you’re recognised,” she said.
Those working behind the scenes, she added, were less likely to receive recognition.
Lee said the research also found that some young people wanted to move beyond racialised political thinking but were unsure how to do so.
“They are conditioned in the racial politics. They are conditioned into thinking along the communal lines, but they want to break through that.”
Among the many challenges
She said one challenge for the researchers was to ensure that the findings did not simply reflect the views of the loudest or most visible members of the community.
“Being the loudest did not mean that they have a full understanding of a stipulation on ground,” she said.
Not particularly looking for a solution, Lee said the report is a qualitative research and is not statistically representative of all Malaysian Chinese youths.
“Its findings are intended to provide insight into how the participants understood their experiences, rather than measure how widespread particular views are.
“We actually only included 30 per cent of the data collected, there were just too much data which we thought was better to leave them for further research into specific communities and experiences,” she said.
For Lee, the next step is to create more opportunities for young people from different communities to speak to one another.
She said the responsibility should not fall on young people alone, but also on researchers, the media and civil society organisations to create space for discussion.
For her, the research is ultimately about giving young people more room to think about their place in the country, rather than seeing them only as voters whose views matter during elections.
“This research gets the conversation starting especially for Chinese youths who don’t know where to start, or what to do first,” she said.
