Azalanshah Md Syed

Malay women, non-Western soap operas and watching competencies:

Soap opera is a potent cultural site for Malay women to imagine the meanings of modernity. Initially the Malaysian government promoted non-Western soap operas to circulate the state’s vision of alternative Asian-style modernities. Now the authorities have voiced a concern that some images and discourses of transnational modernity articulated even in non-Western soaps pose a threat to the cultural integrity of Malay women. This paper studies the significance of non-Western soaps to an understanding of gendered expectations and the progressive re-territorialization of the socio-political order in the context of an ethos of mediatized cultural globalization. Our referent is patriarchal Islamist state Malaysia. We conduct an empirical case study exploring Malay Muslim women’s negotiation and understanding of non-Western soap operas in Malaysia. Results from a series of guided in-depth interviews with 12 rural and urban Malay women enable us to understand how they negotiate their position as viewers of these non-Western soaps, given the criticism about the supposed immorality of these programs. We argue that Malay women act as strategic audiences who mobilize sophisticated viewing tactics that we call ‘watching competencies’ to negotiate the pleasures and potential conflicts of their access to non-Western soaps. This research indicates that Malay women are neither passive, vulnerable consumers of foreign soap, nor easily manipulated by those who claim authority; rather, they confidently assert their autonomy as consumer-citizens of a modern Islamic state.

Malay women as discerning viewers: Asian soap operas, consumer culture and negotiating modernity

This article examines how Malay women in remote Malaysian villages engage with images of transnational modernity shown in popular soap operas imported from other Asian countries. While the government promoted these Asian soap operas at first as appropriate vehicles for the cultural project of modernising the mindsets and attitudes of the masses, authorities have now expressed some discomfort and ambivalence about the excessive representation of consumer culture in these soaps, which they fear will compromise the cultural values of Malay women. However, I argue that Malay women are discerning viewers who are able to critically negotiate the images of consumer culture in these soaps without necessarily ignoring their cultural values or social responsibilities. This debate about whether these soaps broaden the mindsets of Malay women viewers or teach them degenerate values of consumerist culture is part of an ongoing contestation over the cultural ramifications of modernity in Malaysia. This television genre...This article examines how Malay women in remote Malaysian villages engage with images of transnational modernity shown in popular soap operas imported from other Asian countries. While the government promoted these Asian soap operas at first as appropriate vehicles for the cultural project of modernising the mindsets and attitudes of the masses, authorities have now expressed some discomfort and ambivalence about the excessive representation of consumer culture in these soaps, which they fear will compromise the cultural values of Malay women. However, I argue that Malay women are discerning viewers who are able to critically negotiate the images of consumer culture in these soaps without necessarily ignoring their cultural values or social responsibilities. This debate about whether these soaps broaden the mindsets of Malay women viewers or teach them degenerate values of consumerist culture is part of an ongoing contestation over the cultural ramifications of modernity in Malaysia. This television genre of Asian soaps can be conceptualised as a site for negotiating modernity, where Malay women derive pleasure from the consumerist modernity depicted in the Asian soap operas while remaining mindful of the strictures posed by local culture.

Constructing interpretive ethnicity in between two nations: Television and diasporic discourses of identity in Malaysia

ABSTRACT This article discusses the interpretation of television in relation to ethnic identity embraced by the female members of Javanese diaspora in Malaysia. The Javanese diaspora in this context refers to the descendants of the colonial Javanese migrants from Indonesia. In contemporary Malaysia, they are considered as Malays, but essentially they retain some cultural identifications of Javanese ethnicity, especially the language. As Malaysia becomes one of the destinations for Indonesian migrant labour and popular culture, the Javanese diaspora are certainly exposed to manifold images of their ethnic origin. Through the audience ethnography in a Javanese community of Selangor, this article reveals that the Malaysian Javanese women negotiate both representative and distant images of Javanese identity on television. Their interpretation of ethnic identity from television represents the notion of ‘interpretive ethnicity’.

Bridging identities through religious television contents: Javanese female descendants, Islamic viewing and Malay identity projection

ABSTRACT This study explores the uses of Islamic television content in bridging the gap between Javanese and Malay identity among the Malay women of Javanese descent in Malaysia. Malaysian religious television programmes have constantly promoted the Islamic identifications of Malayness, enabling the Malay audience to reconstruct the culturally religious identity. While the reconstruction of Islamic identity through television viewing simply represents a lived experience for the majority of the Malay society, it has some cultural meanings for certain Malay sub-ethnic communities, such as the Javanese. This ethnographic study on a Malaysian Javanese community reveals that the interpretive engagement of this particular community in Islamic television viewing serves the purpose of negotiating Malay identity. The results of this study suggest that religious content can serve as an engaging platform to construct multi-ethnic identities beside popular and ethnic-related contents.

Communicating with global modernity: Malay women, Asian soap opera and adult capacity

This article is concerned with how urban and remote Malay women communicate with the images of global modernity mediated through Asian soap operas. Asian soap operas have been identified as a popular platform for Malay women to engage with modernity in contemporary Malaysia. While promoting it at first, as appropriate television programme, this television genre has created some discomfort amongst the Malaysian authorities due to excessive representation of foreign images such as consumer culture and middle-class lifestyle. They believe the excessive of these representations might compromise the cultural values and identity of Malay women. However, we want to argue that Malay women are critical viewers who are able to communicate and negotiate global modernity without necessarily ignoring their identity. Importantly, as an adult and matured audience, they perform specific watching competencies with which to engage the depiction of various issues of modernities in the Asian soap operas.

Imagining Modernity in Contemporary Malaysia: Non-Western Soap Opera and the Negative Urban Morality

This chapter is concerned with how urban Malay women negotiate and imagine modernity mediated through imported television dramas. In the earliest phase of television broadcasting in Malaysia (during the 1960s and 70s), Western soap operas were reported as being the most popular programs among local audiences. This trend continued after the privatization of the television industry in the early 1980s. Many Western soap operas, particularly those from the United States, such as Dallas, Dynasty, Baywatch, and Beverly Hills 90210, were the most popular programs.1 However, the images of modernity in these American soap operas, with their emphases on consumerism, materialistic lifestyles, and sexuality, were criticized by local authorities as a threat to Malay cultural life. Therefore, from the early 1980s onwards, authorities sought to counter the perceived negative influences of American popular culture by promoting images of modernity from culturally proximate, non-Anglo-American locales. Nowadays, soap opera remains a popular television genre that Malay women utilize to engage modernity discourse.