In this issue of our newsletter, Professor Seok-Joon Hong, a cultural anthropologist, examines the diversity of Malaysian culture, its origins, and the transformations it has undergone. In our interview, we try to get one step closer to Malaysia in order to learn more about its mixed culture and multiple ethnic groups, and a relatively unique feature among Southeast Asian countries.
Islam is the official religion of Malaysia.
How has the traditional culture of Malaysia changed with the revival of Islam?
Islamic Revivalism (also referred to as various names including Dakwah, Islamization, or Islamic Resurgence) started in the early 1970s among intellectuals and university students and continues even to this day.
The Islamic Revival has had a great influence on the culture of Malaysia, inscribing them with the distinctive color of Islamic values and norms. Previously, Hindu influence was more strongly felt, but as the Islamic Revival spread, these Hindu elements became perceived as non-Muslim or non-Malaysian. Efforts to emphasize Islamic principles and values brought about great changes in traditional Malaysian arts and culture.
What elements set Malaysian culture apart from the cultures of other ASEAN countries, especially in terms of music and other types of traditional art?
When it comes to traditional arts such as performance, music, or dance, Malaysia can be distinguished from its neighbors thanks to the hybrid nature of its culture. The tribes in Malay can be largely divided into Malay, Chinese, Indian, the Orang Asli indigenous peoples of the Malay Peninsula, and the Iban and Kadazan people living in the Sarawak and Sabah areas in the northern Borneo.
The Malays are predominantly Muslim; the Chinese are Buddhist, Taoist, and Christian; and the Indians are Hindu and Muslim. The Orang Asli have a traditional religion that resembles animism or shamanism, and a subset of the people practices Christianity. For this reason, Malay arts focus on Islam, the Chinese inherited the Buddhist and Taoist world of art, the Indians have developed Hindu and Islamic culture and arts, and the Orang Asli have built their own unique arts based on their shamanistic and animistic beliefs.
The diversity of the population of Malaysia (Malay, Chinese, Indians, indigenous peoples, etc.) has certainly influenced the country's culture. What do you think about the current Malaysian culture as the product of a multicultural society?
The diverse composition of the population has had a great impact on the formation and transformation of Malaysian culture. As of 2019, the population of Malaysia is 62% Malay, 22% ethnic Chinese, 8% ethnic Indian, and 2% indigenous, with the remaining 6% being composed of various other ethnic groups.
One of the most notable changes in the population in recent years is the gradual decline in the proportion of ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. Chinese influence has diminished in favor of Islamic Malay influence, which now dominates.
As an expert on ASEAN countries, can you briefly explain how Southeast Asia is perceived in Korean society? How should we understand and approach Malaysia and other ASEAN countries?
A few years ago, there was a survey of Koreans' perception of ASEAN countries. The results, for the most part, were not positive. However, this perception has recently undergone significant change. I believe that the founding and activities of the ASEAN Culture Center have greatly contributed to this.
Our understanding of ASEAN countries, including Malaysia, should be based on friendly relations, mutual respect and recognition, and cooperation that enables effective mutual assistance and exchange in order to achieve sustainable development. To this end, it is imperative that practical efforts be made to build mutual understanding, respect, and consideration between the two countries in the areas of political security, economy, social culture, and history.
At the same time, I wonder how Korea is perceived in Malaysia.
A few years ago I created a survey to get a better idea of how Korea was perceived in Malaysia. It showed that Malaysia's perception of Korea was generally favorable and positive. This was primarily due to Koreans being perceived as diligent workers.
In some cases, respondents emphasized that Korea was a country that had achieved rapid economic growth, furthered the development of science and technology, and produced the world famous Korean Wave. Based on these results, we can conclude that it is important for us to establish and implement practical and concrete measures to continue improving the perception of Korea in Malaysia.
In South Korea, Southeast Asian studies center on language, international politics, and trade, and the role of a researcher in anthropology or cultural anthropology seems to be important. As a scholar specializing in Southeast Asian studies, are there any goals that you wish to achieve?
Currently, Korea is studying Southeast Asia through interdisciplinary research focusing on politics, international politics and relations, economics, history, sociology, linguistics, geography, and anthropology. Although all research is important, I think that interdisciplinary research of the region as a whole should be our first priority. The field of cultural anthropology, on the other hand, emphasizes interdisciplinary research in combination with a narrower, more discipline-based approach.
As a Southeast Asian studies scholar, my academic and practical efforts are aimed at establishing a new theoretical and methodological framework, and finding unique and original topics for interdisciplinary research of the entire region based on case studies and the previous achievements of cultural anthropology.
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