Reflections | After Fan Bingbing’s Malaysia award, China’s history of honorary titles and medals
Honorary titles have existed in China for millennia, and apart from a rejection of such notions in the 20th century, are still awarded
That order carries the title “Datuk”. She can be referred to as Datuk Fan Bingbing, but only when she is in Malaysia.
Malaysia has an intricate system of federal and state honours. While honorary, they confer immense social prestige, signalling recognition for service to the nation or individual state. They remain a prominent feature of Malaysia’s political, business and social landscape.
At the national level, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, or king, confers orders bearing honorifics such as Tun, Tan Sri and Datuk.
Each of the hereditary rulers in the nine royal states, as well as the governors of Malacca, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak, also grant their own awards, which often carry the title Datuk or its multiple variations.
Because each state has its own hierarchy and nomenclature, the proliferation of awards has led to many permutations of the Datuk title, making it the most common, yet not uniformly ranked, distinction.