Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Malaysian writers aren't distinctly Malaysian in their own right. See: Tash Aw, Abdullah Hassim and Tan Twan Eng.
Notice the similarities?
First: All three books are highly acclaimed english fictionals penned by Malaysian writers.
Second: All have won prizes and awards both locally and overseas.
Third: They all revolve around the pre/post colonial British rule (give or take a decade).
Emphasis on the third.
So I get that our culture is rich and diverse due to how the Brits essentially tricked a lot of people into thinking that Malaysia was a cool place to chill. But is that all there is to Malaysian culture? Imagine if publishers in the States told all their fiction writers that they'd only do well in the international market if their stories revolved around the Civil wars. That'd tank.
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| Jerk |
But worse, what does this say to (or about) the younger [namely my] generation in Malaysia?
Personal experience dictates that the opposite will happen. Back in high school and college, I hung out with a lot of other people like me - people who liked to read and write on an unhealthy level (I'm looking at you, Abby).
The problem was that most - or nearly all - of the stuff we read (and could relate to) was penned overseas. In other words - by white people and following that line of logic, we mirror the things we grew up with. At least in writing.
I wrote 400 pages of a girl falling in love with a Dragon (she ended up being The Chosen One) before throwing the draft away in disgust. Four other friends wrote the dashing tale of being enlisted as a marine. My bestie had reams and reams of Victorian inspired literature before I pointed out that in nearly all of them, the heroine was described as being "Frail and wispy with large, beseeching eyes but an underlying strength that shone when enraged". (This conversation might have taken place in my head I don't know, I'm pretty passive.)
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| What? Rip off? Me? Pftttt no. I totally came up with the idea first. |
Our particular generation of Malaysian writers is facing an identity crisis. We have been so poorly represented in fictional media that we don't even know where to begin. The options are to either romanticise Malaysian culture (writing for an international audience) or to completely forgo Malaysian culture (writing as the international audience)
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| And you, dear reader, end up with this pile of |
In terms of local fiction, there's really not much in-between to work with. What happens when someone wants to publish a science fiction? Do the aliens eat nasi lemak? Do the police try to accept bribes from them? Or does the NSA come in because that's what they're suppose to do according to American television?
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