Melayu

Chapter 8 Malayness as Mindset: When Television Producers Imagine Audiences as Malay

Malayness as Mindset 195 Chapter 8 Malayness as Mindset: When Television Producers Imagine Audiences as Malay1 Ivan Kwek Whle meda have long been studed as a ste for the representaton and contestaton of ethncty, however understood, much of the work done has been through the detaled analyses of meda texts or by studyng how audences respond to or nterpret them n relaton to a number of modes of dentficaton.2 By comparson, there has been far less work done on how ethncty features wthn the processes of meda producton. Dffcultes n ganng sustaned access to producton stes have been cted as a major mpedment; whle the domnant theorzaton of meda producton n terms of ts poltcal economy may have led to rather dfferent sets of concerns. There are, however, notable exceptons whch offer a glmpse of how contestatons over ethncty are sometmes nscrbed nto the myrad practces whch consttute meda producton. For example, Arlene Davla studed how Hspanc advertsng professonals n the Unted States, who despte ther commtment and efforts toward challengng stereotypes and educatng ther clents about the pluralty of Hspanc languages and cultures, found themselves resortng to “marketable tropes and mages” to produce the “generc Latn look” — not-too-dark and not-too-lght, preferably wth straght har, and who speaks Spansh wthout an accent.3 In constructng a Hspanc market, Davla concluded, the advertsng ndustry helps to erase the hstorcal roots of Latnos n the Unted States and nvaldate ther poltcal clams to be an ntrnsc segment of the populaton rather than mmgrants. Also notable s Tejaswn Gant’s essay on how Hnd filmmakers evaluate and adapt Hollywood moves 195 196 Ivan Kwek for ther “Indan audence.”4 The filmmakers understand thers to be a prvleged poston — modern, sophstcated, and comfortable wth the West and Western cultural productons — and that ths dfferentates them from the Indan audence for whom they produce. The latter s seen as “tradtonal, conservatve, and prudsh” and unable to accept Hollywood films because of “ther alen themes and alen moralty.” Workng wthn such a framework, the filmmakers, actng as cultural medators and an nterpretve communty, strve to “Indanze” Hollywood films n a bd to make them approprate and understandable for the Indan audence. Whether t s a thematc emphass on knshp tes, the mlkng of emotons, or the abundant use of song-and-dance sequences, the producton process s a ste for consttutng, not just the dfference between the Indan audence and the filmmakers, but also an undfferentated “Indanness” aganst ts other, the West as represented by Hollywood. Usng “thck descrptons” of the producton processes, the two studes cted here offer nuanced accounts of how ethncty features n meda producton, takng serously the nterplay between the poltcs of dfference and the agency of ts practtoners — n ther cases, the Hnd filmmakers and Hspanc advertsng professonals — as they partcpate n definng, deployng, transformng, and ndeed consttutng ther “ethnctes” n ther producton practces. Ths chapter hopes to contrbute to ths lne of dscusson by consderng the case of how “Malayness” has been dscursvely produced through the producton practces at a Malay-language televson channel n Sngapore. More specfically, the focus wll fall on how partcular not...