The stirrings of a national consciousness that had begun to identify itself with the Malayan way of life were perhaps best witnessed in the world of literature. In the variety of literary works that were written – essays, songs, poems and plays – the Malayan theme was omnipresent and the tone, literary expressions and metaphors used indicated that Singapore and Malaya were now regarded as the new homeland. The notion of a common Malayan culture is reinforced by the literary interaction that existed, as seen from the Malay adaptation of a Chinese play, in addition to the Chinese translations of popular Malay folk stories.
