1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

Today we have a very sizeable Chinese community in Malaysia. It is a very strong force to be reckoned with economically as well as culturally as well. They are one of the sort of newcomers. The official policy today is divided today into gen... and immigrants. The Chinese are the immigrants................ Indians have come in. They form about 10% of the population. They have the ...... schools like the Chinese schools, they speak their own languages. They are very a sort of self-contained communities trying to operate within the larger context of the nation. Then we go on to the arrival of the British. We can see these kind of shop houses all over Australia. I think your country all have houses. They are nineteenth century onwards, 1820's onwards. They started to ...... Nepal, ........ European architecture came in, new classical values came in and we were finally on the road to modernity. Now lets have a look at what has happened since the shop houses were built. For those of you who have never been to South East Asia, this is what Kuala Lumpur looks like at night so you realise where we are now. So clearly we made a very quantum jump in less than 70 years and we are right now a nation made up of multi cultural realities but we have managed I think one way or another with all our complexities to subtly avoid racial disharmony with a view to what has happened in Sri Lanka, Bosnia, what has happened in India, the muslim thing; we have avoided these except for one time it happened in 1969. We are now on to NIC status - Northern Industrialised Country status so there are pros and cons about art movements, artists being radical avant garde. In the Malay society a subtle politeness, a subtle accommodation has prevailed, a kind of give and take and we have managed to survive. I think that is a miracle in itself. Lets go on. If you look at Malaysian history you will find that the search for cultural identity is even more imperative and very very serious because we have so many different types. The actual population of the country, the Malays make up less than 40% and the S...... , ......the Indians, the Chinese and the Europeans they all make up more than 50% generally, so we have a kind of very precariously balanced kind of situation but when you look at it you will find. I just wanted to show this building before we start, from the 1910/20. This is folk architecture arising ...... kind of European form arising out of the intermingling of the Chinese, Malay, European