MALAYSIAN COMMUNITY ORAL HISTORY PROJECT:

The Malaysian Community Oral History Project is part of the larger Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project and is a partnership between the Minnesota Historical Society and the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Malaysian Community Oral History Project, Oral history interviews of the Malaysian Community Oral History Project. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Location of Originals:

Original digital sound recordings, Minnesota Historical Society Oral History Office.

Accession Information:

Accession number: AV2013.5

Processing Information:

Processed by: Jennifer Huebscher, October 2013

Catalog ID number: 007747148

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Noor Ainnah Abdullah was born in 1957 in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia; she is of Indonesian (Bugis and Javanese) ancestry. She moved to the U.S. in 1975 to attend Macalester College.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family; Malaysian education; relationships; marriage and divorce; discrimination in Minnesota; acclimating to American culture; Malaysian community in Minnesota.

Interviewed by: Lina Jau.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Connie Mei Ledford was born of Chinese ancestry in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At age 19, Ledford moved to the United States to attend Kansas State University. She has been an active member of the Minnesotan community, volunteering for the GOP (McCain-Palin Campaign), the Chinese Heritage Foundation, and the Council of Asian-Pacific Minnesotans.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family; Malaysian education; jobs in Asia and the United States; marriage; volunteer community work; religion.

Interviewed by: Lina Jau.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Kim Sai Sia, born in 1934, grew up Chinese Malaysian in Pahang, Malaysia. After studying agriculture in college, Kim Sai Sia worked for the Malaysian government to help Malaysia’s poor farmers. He then met his wife, a Peace Corps nurse from Minnesota, and moved to Minnesota where Sai Sia built Summerhill Pre-School and Day Care and later worked as a landscape architect. He is also the former chairman of the Chinese Service Center of St. Paul.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family; father's experience as an indentured slave; education in Malaysia and the United States; working in the United States; Malaysia’s poor; travel experiences.

Interviewed by: Lina Jau.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Sew-Wah Tay was born in Bukit Rambai, a rural village of Malacca, Malaysia. She speaks of her upbringing and education through the perspective of a Chinese Malaysian. After graduating from MIT in 1983, Tay moved to Minnesota with her family and is currently the founder and CEO of Libra Medical, a medical consulting company.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family; Malaysian education system; graduate education at MIT; marriage; working in the United States.

Interviewed by: Lina Jau.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Asian Americans -- Minnesota.

Asians -- Minnesota.

Emigration and immigration.

Immigrants -- Minnesota.

Malaysians -- Minnesota -- Social life and customs.

Malaysians -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Abdullah, Noor Ainnah, interviewee.

Jau, Lina, interviewer.

Ledford, Connie Mei, interviewee.

Sia, Kim Sai, interviewee.

Tay, Sew-Wah, interviewee.

Document Types:

Interviews.

Oral histories (document genres)

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