Malaysia Youth: Imagination and the Search for Traditional Arts
Editor’s Note: Pauline Fan, Creative Director of PUSAKA, offers observations on Malaysia’s youth and their relationship with traditional culture. She challenges the common misconception that young people are disengaged from traditional arts, and points to a deep curiosity among urban youth, a desire to know their history. She also highlights their imaginative energy—they do not want to be mere consumers of culture, but active participants, creators, and storytellers in their own right.
I have been involved in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage for quite some time. I’m from PUSAKA and the core of what we do is safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. What does intangible cultural heritage mean? It refers to oral traditions, practices, and, in particular, traditional performing arts. We focus our work on places like Johor, mostly in the peninsula, with some work in southern Thailand, but not as much. We tend to focus our work on local communities that are facing challenges, because we are a small organization with limited capacity. We try to focus on communities that are truly facing challenges such as cultural politics. I think this is something we don’t speak about enough, because it is one of the greatest challenges to cultural heritage in this country. Sometimes we try to evade this issue, but it is actually the reason our organization came into being.
One thing I would say about youth is that there is sometimes a misconception among Malaysians—and perhaps across Asia in general—that traditional arts are practiced by a dying generation, something done by the elderly, obsolete, and that young people are not part of it or uninterested. They're not involved. The first thing I would say is that this is absolutely not true. There are certain traditions that have challenges with youth participation, but that is not necessarily because of a lack of interest. Sometimes it's because the youth in that community have moved away for economic reasons, such as going to study or seek jobs. And there are just no more youth in that particular village. There is huge interest when there is an opportunity to engage in properly.
So three words I would use to encapsulate youth: youth is not homogeneous. Just like culture is not homogeneous, Malaysians are definitely not homogeneous. Youth itself includes urban youth, semi-urban youth, and youth from all corners of the country. What I would say is that they are present everywhere, including in traditional and cultural heritage communities. They are absolutely present—whether directly involved or sometimes not practicing, but they are of a particular lineage, and this also involves them somehow. Sometimes this presence emerges in subliminal ways, not necessarily through direct engagement, but it is there in their subconscious and can still be extracted and reinvigorated.
The second thing I would say is that even among urban youth or youth not necessarily directly engaged in traditional arts communities, there is a deep searching, a wanting to know. There's definitely curiosity. I do see that they are very interested to know more about their history, their cultural heritage, and their own communities. They're trying to make sense of things. And this is not a rejection of globalization. I think it's perhaps a compliment to it, feeling comfortable in the world while also wanting to know who you are and what your place is. I don’t think these two things exclude each other at all. But I do think there is a searching every time we organize a traditional performance.
What we do is work with masters from the community. It's not the kind of commercialized or sanitized performances that you might usually see in the mainstream theaters. We bring the kind of raw energy, sometimes even ritual traditions that you would usually only see in the compounds. When we bring these into the city, it is packed with youth—absolutely packed with young people who really want to experience something they don’t usually have a chance to experience. So that interest is definitely there.
The third thing I would say as a keyword is that youth also have an enormous amount of imaginative energy. That is something to harness because they don't want to engage with their traditional culture as just consumers. I don’t think they are just interested to look, consume, see what it is, and sit and see a pretty performance. I don't think anyone is interested in that anymore. I think they want to really engage, understand, talk to practitioners, and maybe even participate and create something out of it. There is a wanting to be part of that and it doesn't mean you have to become a traditional arts master—it doesn't mean that—but there's still a way to participate in what you do. If you're a writer, you can write about it. If you are a filmmaker, you can make a film about it. If you are a painter, you can paint about it, or you can do something with it. I think there is that kind of energy—even enterprising energy—of people who want to make creative products out of these traditions. And the Instagram generation loves taking photographs and using historical sites as their new backdrop.
But what I would say is that there has to be a link when we talk about safeguarding cultural heritage, particularly heritage that faces challenges. Cultural politics—meaning mostly religious politics in this country—is the reality of it. And this is not only for Islam; there are also issues with some of the Christian groups who don't quite agree with some of the more ritualistic traditions. This is a big issue in this country, and not one that is talked about enough.
But those are the kind of links that need to be made as well. What is this youth interest as youth energy? We have our institutions and civil society doing what they can, but one element is not enough. Sometimes the links need to be made stronger. I think we all have to be a little bit more cohesive, perhaps have more conversations about how we work together.
(If you have specific expertise, or would like to share your thoughts, please send us your writings at CAobservation@outlook.com)
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