CULTURAL APPROPRIATION, ACCULTURATION AND MALAYSIA

Not so long ago, I encountered a tweet on Twitter and it’s merely about an Indian woman using the term of cultural appropriation towards a Malay woman that posted a picture while wearing saree. The Indian woman said that the Malay was doing that just to get profit. But the truth is completely different from what the Indian woman accused earlier on. Ironically, that issue arose a few days before Merdeka Day. From what I can infer, the Indian woman seems irritated with the action. To be noted, both of them are Malaysians that live in Malaysia some more. Many of people on Twitter react to the issue and the thoughts and opinions are overflowing throughout the social media for days. The most common reaction is probably disagreeing with the Indian woman. They found it ridiculous to Not so long ago, I encountered a tweet on Twitter and it’s merely about an Indian woman using the term of cultural appropriation towards a Malay woman that posted a picture while wearing saree. The Indian woman said that the Malay was doing that just to get profit. But the truth is completely different from what the Indian woman accused earlier on. Ironically, that issue arose a few days before Merdeka Day. From what I can infer, the Indian woman seems irritated with the action. To be noted, both of them are Malaysians that live in Malaysia some more. Many of people on Twitter react to the issue and the thoughts and opinions are overflowing throughout the social media for days. The most common reaction is probably disagreeing with the Indian woman. They found it ridiculous to point out about cultural appropriation when all we have done in our country was sharing our variety cultures together. How can a country filled with diverse races be related with this kind of idea? I personally don’t find it suitable to conclude this whole situation with cultural appropriation term. I never agree. We should live in a peaceful country despite the number of races that we have. Malaysians probably shouldn’t spend time creating hatred between each race, isn’t it? This term, cultural appropriation was quite famous nowadays. I never have the chance to dig more info about this before but ever since this issue came, I can’t stop from searching confirmation about what cultural appropriation really means and I was thinking if this term is correct to be used to the people in Malaysia. We have been achieving independence for about 63 years, yet we still easily swayed by wrong idea that can affect the country peacefulness. With that, I think I should write about this for this essay as the theme was “From Malaysia to All Around the World”. The least that I can do is trying the luck to tell about Malaysia’s peacefulness and how united we are in this essay. I just hope that I can portray that in this essay.

As I am wondering more, I still felt that the term is wrong to be mentioned in our country. How can such a term be associated in this country where in fact Malaysia is a multi-racial and multi-cultural country? To get the fact straight, I actually looked up for the real definition of the cultural appropriation. According to Greenheart Club (2016), they defined this term that was coined in the late 19th century by Edward Taylor as “…simply taking one aspect of a culture that is not your own and using it for your own personal interest”. A slightly identical definition was also given by Cambridge Dictionary, “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture”. By looking at these two definitions, it concludes how negative this term was and this term is irrelevant to be used in our beloved country. From the definition, someone can be accused under cultural appropriation when he ignorantly uses the culture of other race without knowing the deep meaning behind the culture. It was said too that if only someone use other culture to gain profit for their own, then he falls under this term too. The example of cultural appropriation stated by Greenheart Club (2016) is when someone buy a meaningful accessory or clothing that bring meaning to a particular culture, but this individual use it just to be fashionable only .

But for Malaysia, I think the correct term to be used when we see other races practicing any culture belongs to a different race is acculturation. I looked up to its definition too. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, acculturation is “the process of changing so that you become more like people from a different culture, or of making someone change in this way”. A definition by Shamsul Amri Baharuddin (2012) about acculturation is “…merupakan satu proses penerimaan unsur kebudayaan dalam kalangan individu atau kelompok daripada sesuatu kebudayaan lain yang berbeza” (p. 60). Shamsul Amri Baharuddin stated that acculturation is a one process of this one culture accepting another different culture. The culture that receive that process can still remain as it is but some of the elements are altered. By using this term, it’s completely understandable to see a Malay woman with a saree on. As we all know, we live in a diverse society. We can have many cultures along with our original culture and we adapted to it. Throughout the days, we even socialize with different races and some of their culture might be embedded in us and I don’t think it was wrong. This term is better to be used more than the cultural appropriation term. As for me, it is beautiful to see a Malay wearing an Indian saree or even a Chinese wearing a Malay baju kurung. We still respect other cultures. Malaysians know that culture is a very important element in any races. That shows their identity, something that every one of us proud to have it. And, do we feel mad to let others try our culture? No, right? We should open our eyes and our mind wide. I still amazed with the fact that some Malays put chicken rice as their favourite food even the food somehow belongs to the Chinese. We should celebrate our diversity and don’t make fuss over it.

In addition, Malaysia is known as a country that practices cohesion in diversity. This beloved country has a multiracial resident, but the majority groups are Malay, Chinese and Indian. It’s normal for people to follow others especially if they have been socializing with them for so long. Living more than 63 years together in Malaysia that has various ethnics such as Bumiputera, Orang Asli, Malaysian Malay, Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians, Murut, Kadazan, Melanau and many more surely affected the way of living of everyone despite races. For example, we can see that during Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Malays often give ang pau to the relatives. As we know, the ang pau belongs to the Chinese but we have no issue to share the tradition. Sometimes, we even converse in a daily basis with the words that have already been mixed with other races language like ta pau. Malaysians even proud with the presence of many kinds of food in Malaysia. If one day we feel bored to eat nasi kerabu, we can shift to Wonton Soup. Do we fight over it? Do we need to be Malay just to enjoy nasi kerabu? Or, should we mad at an Indian seller that sell Wonton Soup? No, we absolutely don’t. This shows how much we appreciate other culture till we Malaysians feel eager to preserve and adapt it in our daily life .

What matter the most is just the peacefulness of the country. In order to get that, we need to cooperate so we can build a united place to live in. Malaysia is dear to every Malaysian’s heart. I personally will prefer to live in Malaysia more than everywhere else. I dedicated a special place in my heart for this country because no other country could comfort me the best as Malaysia can. Yes, we have so many issues going on right now but that doesn’t mean we should break the unity and do as we please. We still need to protect this country, the country that give us the safe feeling every day. I may not capable enough to govern this country or even fight in any wars, but I still want to contribute to this country with all the might that I have. I hope by writing this essay that shows how peace our country is will be one of the contributions even that it will be not as impacted as what others are doing but I still feel proud for doing this. I should spread the news about how united this country is. I want to tell everyone that in Malaysia, we have no issue if different races want to practice any culture that belongs to any races as long as we don’t cross the line. We should let aside everything that can lead to chaos. We should firmly protect the harmony that we currently have. No one could protect Malaysia if we, the citizens don’t have the initiative to protect. Let’s live a happy and harmony life together in Malaysia. May we, the current generation can help and preserve the harmony that Malaysia has so that our next generation can have the chance to live happily just like us.

References

ACCULTURATION: Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/acculturation

Baharuddin, S. A. (2012). Modul Hubungan Etnik (Edisi kedua). Institut Kajian Etnik.

Cultural Appreciation vs. Cultural Appropriation: Why it Matters. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://greenheart.org/blog/greenheart-international/cultural-appreciation-vs-cultural-appropriation-why-it-matters/

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION: Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cultural-appropriation