The Malaysian Wayang Kulit, the Malay Language, and their Anthropological shifts

Abstract

This paper seeks to discuss and expose the correlations between a shifting Wayang Kulit puppet performance in Malaysia and the shifting Malay language over the past half century, that is, from the late 1960s until the present time. The Wayang exhibited a patent shift in its poetics, in its use and type of symbolisms, in its social, cultural and spiritual purpose, and in its representation of community. The paper determines ways in which the Malay language experienced change by observing government mandate to 'rehabilitate' the Malay people, and to employ discourses of rehabilitation so to alter the cultural industry in Malaysia, yet to the detriment of language, social cohesion, and cultural performance in Malaysia. For this the data consists of a multi year ethnography of the Wayang both inside and outside of Kuala Lumpur, cases studies of Wayang Kulit dalangs (puppeteers), observing and conducting Wayang Kulit performances, and documenting language diachronic change. Ultimately, the paper finds that owing to language planning and policy in Malaysia, both cultural performance and language, that is, the written, the standardized, and vernacular have seen significant shift over the past half century, and that these shifts have correlated with altered ideologies in Malaysia that align with intentions to commercialize the country and to increase the mercantile efficiency of the Malay and the Malaysian people.