The escalation of Malay television fiction (TV fiction, hereafter) series in recent years can be partly explained by TV producers tailoring their products to match the patterns of audience’s pleasure. Themes of love dominate the plots, and almost always the good is pitted against evil, rich against poor, where ultimately the good always wins. The formula may be clichéd, but in a world where news of war, terrorism, diseases, and conflicts often make the headlines, respite from harsh realities of life can often be found in TV fiction. This paper focuses on three TV series, Julia, On Dhia, and Adam & Hawa which draw over 11 million viewers in 2013 to study how these series highlight the return to the imaginary ‘good old days’ that reiterates Malay cultural identities. Specifically, despite their constant engagement with Western imposed modernization, the TV fiction set against the backdrop of globalization can encourage TV viewers to regress, re-routing their ways to rediscover their ‘local’ that is often dismissed, neglected, or forgotten. Premised on this postcolonial perspective, selected TV fiction’s narrative exchanges are analyzed using conversation analysis (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 2008). Drawing from theory of cultural hybridity, it is highlighted that these series show reversion to Malay adat (customs) in Julia, On Dhia, and Adam & Hawa, useful for understanding of the (re)making of Malayness. This regress to Malay adat through precepts of forgiveness and repentance governs the Malay Muslim worldviews; although the TV fiction set in modern settings can potentially disrupt and risk local sensitivities and norms, re-localization of Malayness holds that Malay subjects will remain allegiant to the receptacle of recognizable, local Malay tradition.

This paper discusses readings on Malay cultural identities in the Malaysian context. While previous research on Malay cultural identity has presented a broad understanding, this paper attempts to frame this discussion based on three perspectives- elite constructions, socio-cultural worldviews, and resistance to the Malay world. By placing Malay cultural identities in relation to the Malaysian context, it explores the dynamics concerning what is distinctive and worthwhile about Malay cultural identities. In addition, this study forms some of the bases for a renewed understanding and interests on Malay cultural identities in light of the burgeoning industries of popular TV fiction.

In Malaysia, a number of issues have transpired concerning the proliferation of TV fiction. Many of these complications include, but are not limited to concerns regarding feminism, patriarchy, economic imbalance, equity, power, social inequity, and religion. In this paper, we aim to locate TV fiction and Malay cultural identities across mediascape. Two primary objectives are central; firstly, this review embodies contextualization of TV fiction through examining some trajectories in which many popular TV fiction have been established. Secondly, this paper places Malay cultural identities in relation to the development and progress of mediascape. By examining these two central questions, we explore some of the many possibilities in which Malay cultural identities are explored, preserved, contested, and blurred in times of changing and challenging realities of Malaysian mediascape.

Research by Smith (2010) has shown that one of the implications of culture is the expansion of power. This paper explores how power is legitimized through the idealizing of Malay adat (customs) by the “dominant knowers” in Malaysia’s popular TV fiction. Based on Conversation Analysis of selected narrative exchanges in Julia and On Dhia, dominant knowers prevail in conflicts using adat-related reasons in instituting the roles of women and men in everyday discourses. While Malay women attempt to establish themselves as the dominant knowers by using logic, their logic is turned down whereas in scenes where women are hardly given any chance of a voice, they are made invisible through mere sighs as if they have been pushed to a position where they lack personal choices. By focusing on TV fiction’s narrative exchanges, we ultimately unveil that although TV fiction is broadcast in times of modernity, Malay adat is still legitimate for expanding power and authority in everyday unconscious experience.