Malay Perspectives on Ming China during the Age of Exploration

Abstract:When the Portuguese and Spaniards first arrived in the South China Sea (ca. early 1500s), the commercial worlds they encountered in centres like Melaka and Manila were closely connected with the politics and economy of China under the Ming dynasty (r. 1368–1644). This article examines how the Malay sultanates conceptualized China in three works of Malay epic literature (Malay: hikayat)—the Hikayat Raja Raja Pasai, Hikayat Hang Tuah, and Sejarah Melayu. A comparison of these semi-fictional texts with historical accounts provides evidence that during Europe’s Age of Exploration, when Southeast Asia first became the crossroads of global maritime exchange, the sultanates of Southeast Asia were deeply intertwined with Chinese diplomacy in ways that help explain European colonial-era activities in the South China Sea well into the twentieth century.