Since the turn of the 21st century, popular TV fiction in Malaysia has been thriving, popular, and critically-acclaimed due to their extensive local, national reach. Drawing more than one million viewers including staggering online reruns, this sheer popularity of some popular TV fiction has led to the questioning of issues that viewers can relate to. In this paper, we contextualize popular TV fiction within a space of cultural identities, focusing on audience-response analysis. Specifically, we argue that these popular TV fiction permit audience to communicate with images of social imaginary as seen in Julia, Adam & Hawa, and On Dhia, articulating issues related to controversies and taboo such as alcoholism and cohabitation. Through diverse audience voices captured from interviews and personal narratives, we will show how their reactions reveal the intricacies of dealing with Malay subjectivities. By telling their stories, we also show how these audience responses may reflect cracks and fractures, between what is supposed to be shown and the reality in which these expectations are translated in popular TV fiction.

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.

The National Higher Education Strategic Plan of Malaysia focuses on graduates who are innovative and knowledgeable to meet the standards and challenges of 21st century. This paper, then, explores how an innovation practice has taken place in a course entitled “Gender Identities: Malaysian Perspectives” where students scrutinize gender across Facebook “texts,” as opposed to using literary texts. By using Facebook as baseline data to analyze online gender construction, students have learned the ways in which cyberspace deconstructs certain parameters of identity construction. Following this premise, this article discloses how students analyze gender identities. They analyze Facebook accounts of a male educator in United States, a female Malaysian college instructor residing in United States, and a law/politics Malaysian undergraduate. Firstly, the students revealed that identity in Facebook spaces is shown through genuine names and profile pictures; rightfully so for job, networking, and relationship purposes. Secondly, by selecting specific audiences, negotiating identities of a friend, co-worker, lover and most importantly future employee in Facebook is a difficult task. Conflicts usually occur while “masking” certain information on Facebook as they go about connecting with friends, students, parents, and prospective partners. Thirdly, societal constraints limit opposite gender’s approval of friend requests. Lastly, identity construction reveals that having voices and emotions on Facebook have both positive and negative implications. Pedagogical recommendations are also presented as a result of this inclusion of Facebook in literature classrooms.

The synthesis of literature and popular culture helps literary scholars form inferences about the challenges preoccupying society's collective psyche. It is therefore no stretch to assert that popular fiction, particularly popular fiction that has garnered sufficient traction to be adapted into a popular telenovela with a sizable following, is reflective of the general public's perceptions on any given issue. Having garnered sufficient attention, it is then capable of influencing, to some extent, those same public perceptions. The malleability of public opinion in reaction to what is broadcast or written is a valuable instrument for comprehending cultural paradigms. It is important, then, to analyse telenovelas and the novels upon which they are based in order to put a metaphorical finger on Malaysian attitudes toward disability. This article will focus on two Malay books that have been converted into telenovelas with the same names due to their popularity. These novel-based perceptions will then be compared to real-world experiences of caregivers and family members of children with autism in order to demonstrate that, while autism may appear to be a life sentence, children with autism are also perceived as God’s gift. Additionally, while it is necessary to acknowledge how disability shapes our perceptions of what it means to be mocked for our insignificance and disability, the concepts of forgiveness and repentance appear the Malay worldview, with the implication that forgiving others' faults exemplifies a human virtue.

Malay cultural identity in Malaysia has historically been wrought by the contradictions inherent in its colonial discourses, and among the Malays themselves -a transition that was made possible by virtue of religion, language, and customs. Now, television fiction (TV fiction) has transpired debates to account for its interconnectedness and Malay identity, moving away from the established works found in most short stories, novels, poems memoirs, and (auto) biographies. Instead, this paper reveals the fragmentations of Malay cultural identity which are not simply about embracing Islam, speaking the Malay language, or believing in the Malay customs, but engage with the figurative crossings of Malayness and un-Malayness in Malaysian popular TV fiction- Julia and On Dhia. Through conversation analysis of transcribed episodes, the ubiquitous alternative Malay identity issues are revealed. Specifically, this research shows that they are inextricably connected to the wider spheres of Malayness through the appropriation of media. While the issues in these TV fiction texts all strive for a degree of negotiated inclusion in their alternative Malay lives, the balance between negotiation of their subjectivities depends on the extent to which they are positioned in a wider socio-political experiences. This study lends a support to the claim that there is a dire need to position these alternative Malay realities across TV fiction in the field of postcolonial literature.

This paper traverses readings on Malay cultural identities. While previous research on Malay cultural identities has presented a broad overview, this paper attempts to frame this discussion based on elite constructions and socio-cultural worldviews of the Malay world. It proposes to be a start to exploring what is distinctive and worthwhile about Malay cultural identities.

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.

Research by Jiang & Leung (2012) has shown that television fiction (TV fiction) has often been identified as a platform where realities are portrayed. These realities include, but are not limited to, the lifestyles and everyday narrative appeals. In Malaysia, a majority of Malay TV fiction emphasize Malay identities and everyday lifestyles. Such emphases are most clearly expressed in the scripted talk that the characters act out. Despite the importance of the talk, however, a comprehensive and precise understanding of what the talk entails remains scarce in Malaysia. Based on Conversation Analysis (CA) (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 2008) of 20 relevant scripted talks, we attempt to show that Malay TV fiction constitutes struggles for power and position. For example, we show that power over arguments involves Malays competing for the position of the “dominant knower.” “A dominant knower” wins conversation by employing reasons related to religion, society, and culture over logical bases to settle their disagreements. This study contributes to our awareness on the nature of power and position in the popular culture scene

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.

Since the turn of the 21st century, popular Malay TV fiction has been thriving, popular, and critically-acclaimed due to their extensive local, national reach. Drawing more than 11 million viewers, including staggering online reruns, this sheer popularity of Malay TV fiction has led to the questioning of issues viewers can relate to. In this paper, we contextualize popular Malay TV fiction within a space of cultural identities, focusing on the analysis of the 2012-2013 TV fiction hits, Adam & Hawa. We highlight the potential sites of unconscious Malay psyche in TV fiction, a psyche formed through preservation of and contestation to Malay cultural identities, intersecting modernity, adat (customs), and religion. Specifically, we theorize that although Malay subjects deviate from the designated adat, for instance, through internalizing alcohol dependence and cohabitation, this theory posits that they eventually stream themselves, seemingly coordinating with the notions of adat-Islamic values such as forgiveness and repentance. By reading TV fiction’s narrative exchanges, unconscious Malay psyche implies the existence of how some Malay subjects participate in and become involved with the social and modern spheres, eventually gesturing or indexing conformation to tradition and religious labels. Using the triple lenses of hybridity, alternative modernities, and social imaginary, we also wish to highlight that unconscious Malay psyche may continue to reshape and perhaps de-familiarize ourselves about Malay cultural identities. Findings are discussed within the convergence fields of Malay cultural identities, unconscious Malay psyche, and ASEAN studies.

The fluid realities of youth in postcolonial nation-states can reflect changing and challenging landscapes. Their engagements with environment, for example, are not only elaborated in social, political, and economical contexts, but also generated through values, beliefs, and identities. This article adds to contemporary debates by positing that discussions on postcolonial civic identities have to be accompanied by youth narratives and their considerations on nature, time, and digital world(s) by taking Malaysian youths as examples. Specifically, it attempts to theorize youth civic identity within postcolonial context(s) by scrutinizing personal narratives that are symbiotically yoked with discourses on ecology and technology. Through administering personal narratives at a suburban district in West Peninsular Malaysia, this paper opens ‘windows’ into what it means for youths to participate in civic projects. Reading these narratives from the lens of growth into citizenship, their wide-ranging experiences in civic affairs can be understood in four ways, namely, recognition, responsibilities, reconciliation, and reciprocity. Two of these emerging themes, recognition and responsibilities, will be discussed in this article. Our attempt at depicting postcolonial civic identity, therefore, is part of a large-scale investigation on civic mindedness that will compel us to reflect on unofficial, continuous accounts of youth reflecting on a sense of belongingness and what the future might bring.

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.