Malaysian Culture : Do We Even Have One?

As I was standing in queue to catch the train today I glanced over at the headline of this article the person in front of me was reading.

It wrote : "What are you?"

I think it was written by Rafidah Abdullah from Gol & Gincu (I'm not sure because I saw her face stamped on it so like maybe she wrote it or maybe it was about her? I don't know).

I also think that article was about how people who are of mixed parentage always get that question : what are you?

When you come from a mixed parentage, you get dual, triple or sometimes quadrapole cultural experiences. But then again it all depends on how much your parents want you to embrace your family heritage.

But many families of mixed parentage (as far as I know), would embrace whatever culture they can get because you know, culture makes one feel the sense of belonging towards a social group.

Rakella and I had an interesting conversation in her car the other day about the culture in Malaysia.

She asked me: what culture does Malaysia have?

In my opinion, Malaysia's culture is nothing like any other.

I mean, we all know we live in a multi-racial community but hey! so do many other countries in the world but one could argue that a country like America and United Kingdom have diluted most of their people's culture into something else altogether.

But hey! that is the answer : a culture is made of the common activities that a particular society does. I.e celebrating New Year means getting drunk and laid, or going to the mamak stall to have teh tarik, or having a good luck charm etc.

So Malaysia's culture is nothing like any other country because:

• Celebration : We celebrate all cultural celebrations and with major ones we even give holidays . I.e Chinese New Year, Wesak Day, Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas, Deepavali, Thaipusam etc. I mean, name me any other country in the world who would have this much public holidays for different races? United States? Please. We've got to be at least at top 5 in the list of countries with the most public holidays! That is our culture. Perpetually on holiday.

• Language : Most Malaysians can speak and/or at least understand more than one language. In urban KL, I think everyone can at least understand English and Malay (minus the foreigners of course) but of course if we go to the rural villages in East Malaysia, there is the possibility that they don't understand English. However, they would understand their own dialect and at least would be able to understand some basic Malay. Also, many rural Malays say they cannot speak English. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt for the older ones but the younger generation? It's not that they don't speak it it's just they are afraid they'd speak it wrongly. I mean, it's in the school syllabus damn it. Are you telling me you don't know a single word of English? LIES. ALL LIES. Broken pun, broken lah. At least can speaking a bit right? Heh.

• Food : Ah, how I love thee. This is probably one of the key aspects that make Malaysia oh so awesome. The first thing I answer when my Canadian friends ask me what I miss about Malaysia would always be FOOD. I mean, where else can you get such colorful choice of food? Of course in big cities like New York, London or Vancouver they have their little mini towns where you can get the ingredients of the food or even the same type of food but trust me, it ain't the same. The joy of watching the Mamak making your Roti Canai, the pakcik putting your uncooked satay on the grill, the uncle frying your Char Kuey Teow on the spot, or the makcik at Nasi Lemak Antrabangsa cutting your sambal sotong with the same pair of scissors she's been using for years is, sigh, priceless. You can't get that anywhere else but Malaysia.

• Attitude : The Malaysian Attitude. What is it? Are we rude? No, we're just afraid to be called nosy but we like to look at the scene (which actually, does make it seem rude). Are we always late? No, we blame it on the traffic and the fact that we know nobody is going to be on time because of it (heh). Are we open minded? We'd like to be but perhaps the censorship board is protecting us. Then again, I can't stand the sight of two gays making out. Hmmm. The Malaysian attitude. I think a lot of Malaysians are still confused as to which direction they'd like their mind to think due to exposure to many cultures and beliefs. Do you know what I mean? It's like, Hi I'm Malaysian and I grew up believing that it's okay to see the bomoh to make myself prettier but at the same time I would very much like to purchase that Prada purse I saw at KLCC. You know what I mean? It's like, I don't slow down to look at car accidents but I'll slow down to make sure my co-pilot takes a good look at it. Hehe. But hey, that is the Malaysian culture. Embrace it.

• Race : Ah, the race card. When have you never pulled it out. You may secretly admit it if you like but in the Malaysian culture, you must've at least once pulled out the race card (irregardless of you hating racists). Come on, don't lie that you don't get frustrated with the fact that Bumiputeras get all these privileges from the government and that they're not using it to their advantage or perhaps you're frustrated as to why if you're not Chinese you don't get a better discount when doing trading or when you see the irresponsible mat motor drive you'd yell something along the lines of "melayu bodoh" because you know, most of them are Malays anyway? Tsk Tsk. I could get into a lot of trouble for bringing up this issue but hey! It is our culture. We DO pull out the race card every now and then but so far, they are pretty harmless (as long as nobody hear's you it's okay right? or is it?) Sigh. Prejudice is amongst us all. Sad but true.
  

• Religion : Malaysia's official religion is Islam. I have no problems with that. In fact there should be no problems because we are tolerant enough to allow other races to practice any religion they want and at the same time we also do not imply our Islamic laws towards them when in some other Islamic countries, they would. Lucky!

After looking at the many aspects that makes the Malaysian culture, I've realized that we are what we call a blend of everything.

Maybe the tag line Malaysia "Truly Asia" is right.

We have after all, a large amount of Chinese and Indians that migrated here and they sure as hell play a big part of Asia (just look at how North Americans perceive what is Asian?). And not to mention a whopping amount of Indonesian descents of which we call Melayu now. If you really look properly the only people who should be called bumiputera are those who's ancestors have been here for more than 1000 years or something aka ORANG ASLI?

But you see, we are so tolerant we give face to those who migrate. Most of us Malaysians are migrate descents anyways.

Thus, the Malaysian culture is easily defined as a big GIANT Rojak : consists of different kinds of elements with different flavors and colors and has a unique taste to it.

Some may like it and some won't.

But we all can agree on one thing : we'll tolerate it.

Because we're Malaysians like that.