Paper Cultural Difference : Postcolonial
Postcolonial studies contests and deconstructs colonial discourses and social hierarchies based on race, gender and class. In his pioneering book, Orientalism, Edward Said has stressed that the effects of colonialism are long lasting and continue to shape language, education, religion, culture, tastes and the psyche of the colonized long after independence. Nevertheless, colonial power has not succeeded in silencing the colonized. The creative arts and literature a
re sites for resistance strategies employed by colonized subjects. Taking a historical approach, this paper addresses different ways in which artists in Malaysia have reworked musical genres, elements, texts, languages, costumes, performance spaces, characters, historical contexts, and other conventions of traditional theatre, to deconstruct and challenge colonial discourses.
In their search for cultural relevance and modernity, Malay opera or bangsawan performers of the colonial era had subverted European hegemony by creating local syncretic music which combined Malay, Chinese, Indian, European, and other musical instruments and elements.
This hybrid music was also performed in the joget dance halls throughout the country. Malay film performers such as P. Ramlee of the 1940s and 1950s drew heavily on syncretic dance and music. At the turn of the millennium, Malaysian pop musicians such as Siti Nurhaliza, Zainal Abidin, Ah Gu and others have been able to indigenize and infuse global pop (monopolized by transnational corporations) with local meaning
Source : The International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities 2008 (ICoSSH’08)
