Migrant Subjectivities and Narratives of the Kampung in Malaysia

Abstract

The kampung (village) figures prominently in a structure of feeling that contrasts rural & urban in Malaysia. While rural-to-urban migration & urbanization have proceeded apace in Malaysia, the kampung continues to play an important role in the lives of the country's Malay community & in Malaysia's national cultural geography. This article examines the place of the kampung in that cultural geography, as it is related in the narratives of return migrants to the kampung of Sungai Siputeh in northern peninsular Malaysia. The article argues that return migrants are existentially engaged in fashioning their own lives in relationship to this discourse as they move between rural & urban spaces. Moreover, within rural Malaysia, their narratives shape the cultural geography of rural subjects.