Malaysian Culture: Thank goodness for "balik kampung"
It has been a long while since I last posted anything here, I've been delaying a lot of post ideas to later because I'm still in a very relaxed mood of just mingling around doing nothing (besides packing up and unpacking) for my break now.
Recently watched a Taiwan tv show talking about some "characteristics" of Taipei people compared to other places in Taiwan. I've known that there are quite distinct cultural differences betweeen urban and rural areas in Malaysia, especially Klang Valley area compared to other places. But I never actually thought much on how other countries might have this situation too until now. So here I am, updating my blog with something quite different from what I used to write about.
One of the many reasons of why I feel like writing this is because I grew up in Subang Jaya and I've moved back to a small town in Perak called Ayer Tawar, and there are some stuff that I've noticed and think should be clarified plus some things that are quite funny to me.
#1. Subang Jaya≠Subang, Selangor≠KL
Neither do Klang Valley equals to KL. They are all referring to different places.
Subang Jaya and Subang are both in Selangor (which we all know is a state in Malaysia), but Subang is Subang, and Subang Jaya is Subang Jaya, but a lot of people would refer Subang Jaya people as "Subang people", which I am not sure if it's right or wrong but it feels off to me.
Kuala Lumpur (KL) is one of the federal territories in Malaysia, strategically located in the middle of the Selangor state, originally part of Selangor before becoming the federal territory, but Selangor people are not KL people, as most would refer to as.
Klang Valley, however, refers to a region that includes KL and some places in Selangor, click here.
(Kindly refer to Malaysia map for geographical location. *wink*)
#2. Vehicles and On the Road Experience
- Motorcycle>Car, Car>Motorcycle: There's more motorcycles than car in rural area and more cars than motorcycle in urban area. It is common to see anyone - girl, boy, uncle, aunty, grandpa, grandma... in rural area to be riding a motorcycle, but hardly seen of a woman or young kids to ride one in urban area. But it is definitely no longer true that driving in rural area is safer than in urban area. It might not be as jammed as urban area but it is quite as much dangerous (of course also depending on which area).
- The Public Transport Chaos: The difference between public transport services in urban and rural is still very huge, the most obvious being rural area having little to none light-rail-transits or commuters. The amount of buses and routes in rural area also are lesser than urban area by a lot.
- Calculating Distance by Travelling Time: Because urban area are usually suffering from traffic jams, the people are used to calculating (or more like predicting) the travelling time instead of the real distance because it is far more useful.
#3. Dialects
And here I would only talk about Chinese dialects as I am not quite familiar with other language's.
Most people in urban areas in Malaysia speaks Cantonese, even the foreign workers. Just like if you go to a mamak you would see everyone calling each other "boss", if you go to a chinese restaurant in urban area then do expect the workers to speak cantonese. But they may not know how to speak their own dialects, or even mandarin especially for the younger generations. It is more likely to see people speaking in their own dialect in rural area than urban area (hooray to the continuation of tradition!).
#4. the constant FOOD BATTLE.
There is no rest to the battle between which state has the best food, and I am not talking about those overrated cafe or burger shops or concept foreign restaurants that are popping out in Malaysia like mushrooms after rain.
There might be people who say the best laksa is in Penang, the best bakkutteh is in Klang, the best beansprout chicken rice is in Ipoh, ... ... but honestly these food have become so common that you can find them almost in all districts in Malaysia. One thing that you really need to take note of no matter which district or country you go is to go to the right shop or stall (you cannot expect every chef to have the same level of cooking skills).
Practically, all Malaysians are proud of what food their place has to offer, and therefore no matter where you go Malaysian food is awesome, so if you want to find some good food in Subang Jaya you can ask me for suggestions *self slapping for over-self-praising* (but I am not joking).
#5. Rural area is not primitive aged place
Okay, maybe not that serious level of misunderstanding. But undeniably, some people still have some kind of blurry concept of what a rural area is like. Most rural areas have the basic things that you can find in urban area. "Kampung" is no longer that "kampung"-ish, as it can refer to a small town with rows and rows of shoplots and a few malls. And rural area is definitely not as peaceful as it was anymore, crimes do happen here as well.
And a small little fact: the 2 numbers after your birth date (the 7th and 8th digit) on your IC refers to your birthplace and so not everyone will have the same number.
But thank goodness to the still-on-going "balik kampung" culture and the power of social network and internet, the unknown areas of all regional cultural differences have been decreasing.
To be honest, every state, every district, every town has their own culture that differs a little bit from another, and what have been talked above is just some of my opinion on the general differences. Thank you for reading, I hope I've not wasted your time.
Do point out if there's any points you find contradicting with yours or any other opinions! :)
Recently watched a Taiwan tv show talking about some "characteristics" of Taipei people compared to other places in Taiwan. I've known that there are quite distinct cultural differences betweeen urban and rural areas in Malaysia, especially Klang Valley area compared to other places. But I never actually thought much on how other countries might have this situation too until now. So here I am, updating my blog with something quite different from what I used to write about.
One of the many reasons of why I feel like writing this is because I grew up in Subang Jaya and I've moved back to a small town in Perak called Ayer Tawar, and there are some stuff that I've noticed and think should be clarified plus some things that are quite funny to me.
#1. Subang Jaya≠Subang, Selangor≠KL
Neither do Klang Valley equals to KL. They are all referring to different places.
Subang Jaya and Subang are both in Selangor (which we all know is a state in Malaysia), but Subang is Subang, and Subang Jaya is Subang Jaya, but a lot of people would refer Subang Jaya people as "Subang people", which I am not sure if it's right or wrong but it feels off to me.
Kuala Lumpur (KL) is one of the federal territories in Malaysia, strategically located in the middle of the Selangor state, originally part of Selangor before becoming the federal territory, but Selangor people are not KL people, as most would refer to as.
Klang Valley, however, refers to a region that includes KL and some places in Selangor, click here.
(Kindly refer to Malaysia map for geographical location. *wink*)
#2. Vehicles and On the Road Experience
- Motorcycle>Car, Car>Motorcycle: There's more motorcycles than car in rural area and more cars than motorcycle in urban area. It is common to see anyone - girl, boy, uncle, aunty, grandpa, grandma... in rural area to be riding a motorcycle, but hardly seen of a woman or young kids to ride one in urban area. But it is definitely no longer true that driving in rural area is safer than in urban area. It might not be as jammed as urban area but it is quite as much dangerous (of course also depending on which area).
- The Public Transport Chaos: The difference between public transport services in urban and rural is still very huge, the most obvious being rural area having little to none light-rail-transits or commuters. The amount of buses and routes in rural area also are lesser than urban area by a lot.
- Calculating Distance by Travelling Time: Because urban area are usually suffering from traffic jams, the people are used to calculating (or more like predicting) the travelling time instead of the real distance because it is far more useful.
#3. Dialects
And here I would only talk about Chinese dialects as I am not quite familiar with other language's.
Most people in urban areas in Malaysia speaks Cantonese, even the foreign workers. Just like if you go to a mamak you would see everyone calling each other "boss", if you go to a chinese restaurant in urban area then do expect the workers to speak cantonese. But they may not know how to speak their own dialects, or even mandarin especially for the younger generations. It is more likely to see people speaking in their own dialect in rural area than urban area (hooray to the continuation of tradition!).
#4. the constant FOOD BATTLE.
There is no rest to the battle between which state has the best food, and I am not talking about those overrated cafe or burger shops or concept foreign restaurants that are popping out in Malaysia like mushrooms after rain.
There might be people who say the best laksa is in Penang, the best bakkutteh is in Klang, the best beansprout chicken rice is in Ipoh, ... ... but honestly these food have become so common that you can find them almost in all districts in Malaysia. One thing that you really need to take note of no matter which district or country you go is to go to the right shop or stall (you cannot expect every chef to have the same level of cooking skills).
Practically, all Malaysians are proud of what food their place has to offer, and therefore no matter where you go Malaysian food is awesome, so if you want to find some good food in Subang Jaya you can ask me for suggestions *self slapping for over-self-praising* (but I am not joking).
#5. Rural area is not primitive aged place
Okay, maybe not that serious level of misunderstanding. But undeniably, some people still have some kind of blurry concept of what a rural area is like. Most rural areas have the basic things that you can find in urban area. "Kampung" is no longer that "kampung"-ish, as it can refer to a small town with rows and rows of shoplots and a few malls. And rural area is definitely not as peaceful as it was anymore, crimes do happen here as well.
And a small little fact: the 2 numbers after your birth date (the 7th and 8th digit) on your IC refers to your birthplace and so not everyone will have the same number.
But thank goodness to the still-on-going "balik kampung" culture and the power of social network and internet, the unknown areas of all regional cultural differences have been decreasing.
To be honest, every state, every district, every town has their own culture that differs a little bit from another, and what have been talked above is just some of my opinion on the general differences. Thank you for reading, I hope I've not wasted your time.
Do point out if there's any points you find contradicting with yours or any other opinions! :)
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