THE 'MALAY VILLAGE' : IS THIS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE 'REAL' OR 'UNREAL'?

Abstract

The Malay Village in Singapore, is a cultural landscape which, was constructed to preserve the cultural heritage of the Singapore's Malay Community. In enhancing its cultural significance to the Malays, the village is also developed into a retail area for the Malays and also as a tourist attraction featuring the Malay culture. The Village is an illustration of the conservation ideology that is readily embraced by Singaporeans. This thesis sets out to outline the development of the Village from a 'dominant space' to the attempt made to developed it into a 'local space' - a landscape for the local Malays. This thesis is based upon an examination of the perceptions of the different agents (namely the government, the management, the Malay organization, the local Malays, the retailers of MV and the foreign tourists) with regards to the development and their visions for the Village. Data was collected through physical observation, questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. It is argued in this thesis that the constructed landscape which is specifically to serve as a preservation of the Malay cultural heritage, is a place for the Malays. However, this claim was nothing more than just a rhetorical statement made by the government and the management, masking the political and economic interests invested in the Village. LeFebvre's concepts on spatial processes and spatial categories are adopted in the theoretical framework, to conceptualize the different means through which the landscapes of the Village have been manipulated and appropriated. The findings show that the Malays still see the Village as 'unreal' where their culture is not effectively represented. In essence, the landscape fails to create the sentiment that it is a place for the Malays. In LeFebvrian terms, the Village is nothing more than just an 'abstract space' which fails to create 'representational spaces' for the Malays.