Transnationalising Malay cinema: P. Ramlee in Hong Kong

• Main Author: Yeo, Min Hui
• Other Authors: School of Humanities
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2025
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities; P. Ramlee; Malay films
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/182291
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This article investigates P. Ramlee's little-known attempt at transnationalising Malay cinema in the early 1960s. Using biographical records, newspaper reports and film magazines, I trace the star's earliest direct contact with Hong Kong cinema, his plans to make Malay films in Hong Kong, the controversy that ensued, and the outcomes of these grand plans. Situating this episode in its historical context, this article unsettles standard narratives of P. Ramlee, and Malay and Malaysian film histories. It demonstrates that, as opposed to the seemingly inevitable ethnonational route, and in contrast to the hypernationalist characterisation of P. Ramlee today, a transnational model was once envisioned through P. Ramlee as a potential future for Malay cinema in the face of tumultuous geopolitical changes. It also brings to light the complex role that labour activism played in shaping post-studio era development of Malay cinema, and the roots of Malaysian national cinema.