Constructing multiculturalism and national identity in Penang, Malaysia
A perspective from the 2020 Penang International Container Art Festival
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.24466Keywords:
multiculturalism, murals, art installations, urban, rural, linguistic landscape, national identity, Penang, MalaysiaAbstract
This study focuses on examining how multiculturalism is constructed in public spaces in Penang, Malaysia. In doing so, we argue for the significance of murals in constructing multiculturalism symbolically. Data consist of 10 photos of murals displayed during the 2020 Penang International Container Art Festival in both urban and rural areas in Penang, a state with a long history of multiethnic communities living together. The analysis shows that multiculturalism is portrayed according to specific themes – occupation, living culture, and imagination – which are marshalled to create a sense of identity and belonging. Such sense is deeply imbricated in the making process of Penang’s national identity in which a series of compromises and accommodations is much needed to achieve the vision of multiculturalism. The findings contribute to the current discussion of finding a balance between studies related to urban- and ruralscapes and offer a creative sociolinguistic perspective on understanding multiculturalism.
References
Abdullah, F. H. (1983) Sejarah perusahaan batik: Warisan kelantan II. Kelantan: Perbadanan Muzium Kelantan.
Albury, N. J. (2021) Forging and negating diasporic linguistic citizenship in ethnocratic Malaysia. Lingua 263. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2018.08.003.
Ang, I. (2005) The predicament of diversity: Multiculturalism in practice at the art museum. Ethnicities 5(3): 305–320. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796805054957.
Arensberg, S. M. (1978) Javanese batiks. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts.
Backhaus, P. (2007) Linguistic landscapes: A comparative study of urban multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Choong, K. K. (2006) Father of Batik painting. The Star, 3 December. Retrieved from: https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2006/12/03/father-of-batik-painting/
Delgado, M. and Barton, K. (1998) Murals in Latino communities: Social indicators of community strength. Social Work 43(4): 346–356.
Department of Statistics Malaysia (2010) Population distribution and basic demographic characteristics. Putrajaya: Department of Statistics Malaysia.
Department of Statistics Malaysia (2020) Population statistics. Putrajaya: Department of Statistics Malaysia.
Fowers, B. J. and Richardson, F. C. (1996) Why is multiculturalism good? American Psychologist 51(6): 609–621. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.51.6.609.
Hanauer, D. I. (2004) Silence, voice and erasure: Psychological embodiment in graffiti at the site of Prime Minister Rabin’s assassination. The Arts in Psychotherapy 31(1): 29–35.
Hefner, R. W. (2001) Introduction: Multiculturalism and citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. In R. W. Hefner (ed.) The politics of multiculturalism: Pluralism and citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, 1–58. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press.
Jaworski, A. (2015) Globalese: A new visual-linguistic register. Social Semiotics 25(2): 217–235. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2015.1010317.
Jaworski, A. (2019) X-Scapes. Linguistic landscape 5(2): 115–141. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.5.2.
Jaworski, A. and Thurlow, C. (2010) Introduction semiotic landscapes. In A. Jaworski and C. Thurlow (eds) Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space, 2–15. London: Continuum.
Kalerante, E. and Mormori, P. (2006) Graffiti as a form of social and cultural conflict: The Greek case. International Journal of the Humanities 3(4): 128–131. Doi: https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9508/CGP/v03i04/41633.
Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2021) Reading images: The grammar of visual design. (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Lanza, E. and Woldemariam, H. (2009) Language ideology and linguistic landscape: Language policy and globalisation in a regional capital of Ethiopia. In E. Shohamy and D. Gorter (eds) Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery, 189–205. New York: Routledge.
Lin, L. C. (1991) Batik, creating an identity. Singapore: National Museum.
Marten, H. F., Van Mensel, L. and Gorter, D. (2012) Studying minority languages in the linguistic landscape. In D. Gorter, H. F. Marten and L. Van Mensel (eds) Minority languages in the linguistic landscape, 1–15. Basingstroke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Moore, D. and Castellotti, V. (2011) Dessins d’enfants, recherche qualitative, interprétation. Des poly-textes pour l’étude des imaginaires du plurilinguisme. In P. B. Chardenet (ed.) Guide pour la Recherche en Didactique des Langues: Approches Contextualisées, 118–132. Paris: France Éditions des Archives Contemporaines.
Ong, T. W. S. (2021) Re-imaging the art scene in George Town, Penang. In S. D. Brunn and R. Kehrein (eds) Handbook of the changing world language map, 1–30. Cham: Springer.
Ong, T. W. S. and Ben-Said, S. (2022) Accommodating Chinese community languages in Penang: Evidence from the linguistic landscape and local voices. In S. H. Mirvahedi (ed.) Linguistic landscapes in South-East Asia: The politics of language and public signage, 87–113. London: Routledge.
Ooi, K. J. (2015) Disparate identities: Penang from a historical perspective, 1780—1941. Kajian Malaysia 33(2): 27–52.
Pennycook, A. (2009) Linguistic landscapes and the transgressive semiotics of Graffiti. In E. Shohamy and D. Gorter (eds) Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery, 302–311. New York: Routledge.
Pennycook, A. (2010) Spatial narrations: Graffscapes and city souls. In A. Jaworski and C. Thurlow (eds) Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space, 137–150. London: Continuum.
Pennycook, A. (2012) Language and mobility: Unexpected places. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Pennycook, A. and Otsuji, E. (2015) Metrolingualism: Language in the city. Oxon: Routledge.
Philipps, A., Zerr, S. and Herder, E. (2017) The representation of street art on Flickr. Studying reception with visual content analysis. Visual Studies 32(4): 382–393. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2017.1396193.
Radaviciute, J. (2017) Linguistic landscape of Tbilisi: A case study of graffiti. Respectus Philologicus 32(37): 80–90. Doi: https://doi.org/10.15388/RESPECTUS.2017.32.37.08.
Shohamy, E. and Waksman, S. (2009) Linguistic landscape as an ecological arena: Modalities, meanings, negotiations, education. In E. Shohamy and D. Gorter (eds) Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery, 313–331. New York: Routledge.
Smith, W. A. (2003) Culture and management in Malaysia. In M. Warner (ed.) Culture and management in Asia, 115–134. London: Routledge.
Spolsky, B. (2020) Linguistic landscape: The semiotics of public signage. Linguistic Landscape 6(1): 2–15. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.00015.spo.
Stokoe, S. (2000) Practical batik. London: Lorenz Books.
Swettenham, F. A. (1910) Vocabulary of the English and Malay languages. With notes. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh.
Tajuddin, S. N. A. A. and Zulkepli, N. (2019) An investigation of the use of language, social identity and multicultural values of nation-building in Malaysian outdoor advertising. Social Sciences 8(1): 18. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8010018.
Thomas, K. M. and Plaut, V. C. (2008) The many faces of diversity resistance in the workplace. In K. M. Thomas (ed.) Diversity resistance in organisations: Manifestations and solutions, 1–22. Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Van Mensel, L., Marten, H. F. and Gorter, D. (2012) Minority languages through the lens of the linguistic landscape. In D. Gorter, H. F. Marten, and L. Van Mensel (eds) Minority languages in the linguistic landscape, 319–323. Basingstroke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Walker, B. B. and Schuurman, N. (2015) The pen or the sword: A situated spatial analysis of graffiti and violent injury in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Professional Geographer 67(4): 608–619.
Yusof, N. M. and Zeiny, E. J. (2017) Reconstructing multiculturalism in Malaysia through visual culture. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 8(4): 99–105. Doi: https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2017.v8n4s1p99.
