This thesis investigates the concept of Bangsa Malaysia in terms of cultural aspects and the development of Malaysia’s national identity. This journey began with my exploration of the socio-political contexts of the lion dance throughout its historical development, leading to the ban of lion dance under the historical context within which the 1971 New Culture Policy formed in Malaysia. The idea of tiger dance emerged from this historical background and prompted me to use Tiger as the subject in exploring diaspora identities, mythology and cultural belongings in Malaysia.
This research derives from retrospection of my cultural background (Malaysian Chinese) and my particular interest in the dynamic nature of culture as a system of ever-evolving symbols. The outcome of this research is a mixed-media installation, Menjadi Rimau (To Become Tiger). Through this installation, I propose a socio-political and cultural imagination where the Tiger is presented as a supra-ethnic national identity. In this imagined space, the tiger ‘unified’ the people of the nation across their differences and their ‘lost origins’ caused by the history of enforced diasporas.
By re-examining a collective historical and mythological narrative, Menjadi Rimau serves as an open dialogue on diaspora identities in Malaysia, prompting a reflection on our cultural belonging to Bangsa Malaysia. Between fiction and fact, the work hopes to dissect cultural pluralism as part of a colonial heritage, and to offer a critical and poetic exploration of post-colonial discourses, mythology and diasporas.