B3: Malaysia

Melayu (Malay) is a term that resonates with a multiplicity of meanings. It refers both to a culturally diverse people, a language, and a cultural sphere that has historically included a wide variety of ethnic groups from distant places in the world. Whereas once we would have associated Melayu with a culturally fluid Malay world spread across Muslim Southeast Asia, today the term is primarily associated with its racialised usage in the nation-state Malaysia. People who regard themselves as Malay are nevertheless found in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region. Melayu therefore constitutes a rich field of inquiry for the study of representations of changing social orders.

This research project builds on the earlier study of representations of Melayu as a discursive field. Then, Melayu was identified with four topoi or sites of the imaginary, namely kampung (village), masjid (mosque), istana (palace), and pasar (market). The boundary and character of Melayu in this regard have been renegotiated time and time again.

In the present phase, the researchers focus on the interactions between those regarded Malay and other ethnic groups, in the context of crises. The primary area of research is Malaysia, seen nevertheless in global context. The researchers combine historical and cultural studies approaches that require both archival research and fieldwork. The research is organised along two primary but inter-related thrusts.

Representations, crises and social order

Central to this thrust is the nature of the representation of Melayu in relation to ethnic others. The underlying assumption is that there must be a balance between representations and the social order in order to maintain stability. Crises occur when there is an imbalance in several dimensions of othering (the spatial, institutional, ideological, and religious). The key questions posed include:

• What role does othering play in the constitution and reconstitution of Melayu, and the establishment as well as the stability of the social order in Malaysia?
• What may we learn from crises about the actors and negotiation processes that shape representations and the social order?
  

By examining particular historical crises in Malaysia in the second half of the twentieth century, this thrust aims to improve our understanding of the way representations function in the social order.

Cultural diversity and its representations

This thrust explores cultural diversity in Malaysia in the face of the extensive racialisation of public life. The historical cultural fluidity characteristic of the Malay world has been rendered in racialised terms by both the colonial and independent state. The country’s ethnic and religious diversity is officially celebrated, but by maintaining the bounds of the categories Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Others. Nevertheless, both transnational and local cultural politics produce significant counterpoints to the official categorisation. The primary questions asked include:

• How has cultural diversity been represented in Malaysia and with what effect?
• What is the shape and significance of the politics of cultural diversity in Malaysia in the global context?

By interrogating categories and articulating counterpoints in cultural politics in Malaysia, this thrust offers a means to advance meaningful understandings of cultural diversity.

(Photo: Stamps issued by the Malaysian postal service and representing Malay, Chinese, and Indian wedding dress respectively.)

Publications by members of this sub-project

• Vincent Houben, Mona Schrempf (Hg): Figurations of Modernity. Global and Local Representations in Comparative Perspective. Campus, 2008.  (mehr)