This is a study in depth of a typical pioneering Chinese community which sprang into being on the fringes of the deep jungle in Negeri Sembilan, a traditional Malay state of the Malaysian Peninsula, during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The author traces succinctly the evolution of this isolated Chinese peasant society through a series of vicissitudes and challenges which many ways represents the history of microcosm of the Chinese in Malaya as a whole. The role of the founding Siow clan and their links with their homeland, the emergence of secret societies and Chinese nationalist politics, the traumatic experiences of the Japanese Occupation and the equally bitter years of the Emergency and finally the emergence of a new Malayan-entered community in the formative years of independence are all vividly portrayed. The study is based on a close research of government and private papers, an on interviews carried out with leading members of Jelebu Chinese society. The result is to present a unique picture of a Malayan Chinese community in transition.