Malay women as discerning viewers: Asian soap operas, consumer culture and negotiating modernity

Abstract

This article examines how Malay women in remote Malaysian villages engage with images of transnational modernity shown in popular soap operas imported from other Asian countries. While the government promoted these Asian soap operas at first as appropriate vehicles for the cultural project of modernising the mindsets and attitudes of the masses, authorities have now expressed some discomfort and ambivalence about the excessive representation of consumer culture in these soaps, which they fear will compromise the cultural values of Malay women. However, I argue that Malay women are discerning viewers who are able to critically negotiate the images of consumer culture in these soaps without necessarily ignoring their cultural values or social responsibilities. This debate about whether these soaps broaden the mindsets of Malay women viewers or teach them degenerate values of consumerist culture is part of an ongoing contestation over the cultural ramifications of modernity in Malaysia. This television genre of Asian soaps can be conceptualised as a site for negotiating modernity, where Malay women derive pleasure from the consumerist modernity depicted in the Asian soap operas while remaining mindful of the strictures posed by local culture.