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Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia
Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia

Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia

ABU TALIB AHMAD is professor of Southeast Asian History at the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia.

NUS Press (First Published, 2014)
344 pages including Bibliography and Index

RM85.00

Out of stock

ISBN: 9789971698195 Product ID: 2698 Subjects: , Sub-subjects: , , ,
In Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia, Abu Talib Ahmad examines museum displays throughout the country, and uses textual analysis of museum publications along with interviews with serving and retired museum officers to evaluate changing approaches to exhibits and the tensions that they express, or sometimes create. In addition to the National Museum, he considers museums and memorials in Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Sabah, Kelantan and Terengganu, as well as memorials dedicated to national heroes (such as former Prime Ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, and film and recording artist P. Ramlee). The book offers rich and fascinating insights into differing versions of the country’s character and historical experience, and efforts to reconcile these sometimes-disparate accounts.

During the half century following Malaysian independence in 1957, the country’s National Museum underwent a transformation that involved a shift from serving as a repository for displays of mounted butterflies and stuffed animals and accounts of the colonial experience to an overarching national narrative focused on culture and history. These topics are sensitive and highly disputed in Malaysia, and many of the country’s museums contest the narrative that underlies displays in the National Museum, offering alternative treatments of subjects such as Malaysia’s pre-Islamic past, the history and heritage of the Melaka sultanate, memories of the Japanese Occupation, national cultural policy, and cultural differences between the Federation’s constituent states.

List of Tables
List of Maps
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments

Introduction
The National Museum, 1963-2007
The National Museum after 2007
Museums in Malaysia
The Study

1. PRE-MELAKA PERIOD: CONTESTED HISTORY, CONTESTED HERITAGE
The Animistic Past: Lenggong Valley Archaeology Gallery
Kota Kayang Museum and Prehistoric Cave Dwellers
Lembah Bujang Archaeology Museum and Hindu-Buddhist Heritage
The Archaeology Gallery
Other Pre-Melaka Entities: Neglected and Marginalized
Museums and Islamization: Penang Islamic Museum
Kelantan Islamic Museum: Creating an Islamic Tradition
Islamization: The Inconclusive Debates
Persistence of Non-Islamic Elements in Malay Society
Conclusion

2. MELAKA HISTORY AND HERITAGE IN MUSEUMS
Perzim, the Melaka Museum Corpoation
Feudal Values and Malay Culture in the Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum
Melaka History and Ethnography Museum and Multicultural Melaka
Melaka Islamic Museum: The Entrenchment of Islam on the Malay Peninsula
The Maritime Museum: Malays as Traders
Museums and the Underside of Melaka History
Malay Dominance and Melaka Museums
Conclusion

3. MUSEUMS AND THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION
Japan in National Museums: From Villainous to Respectable
Museumizing the Occupation: The Bank Kerapu Second World War Museum
Commercial Museumizing: The Penang War Museum
Museums and the Political Impact of the Occupation
Japanese Brutality and Social Life during 1941-45
Commemorating Heroism within and outside Museums
Museums, Race Relations and Japanese Policy on Islam
Conclusion

4. MEMORIALS AND TOWERING PERSONALITIES IN MALAYSIAN HISTORY
Memorials for National Leaders
Tunku Abdul Rahman: “Father of Independence” and “Father of Malaysia”
Tun Abdul Razak: “Father of Development”
P. Ramlee: Icon of the Post-war Film and Music Industry
Conclusion

5. PROVINCIAL MUSEUMS AND CULTURE
National Culture Policy and Museums’ Representation of Culture
Kedah and Kelantan Museums: Cultural Malayness in the Malay Heartland
Marriage Ceremonies
Weapons
Popular Pastimes, Entertainment and Music
Tepak Sireh
Competing Museums and Competing Heritage
Royal Museums and Galleries and Nation Building
Conclusion

Conclusion
Glossary of Malay and Other Terms
Bibliography
Index

Weight0.510 kg
Dimensions22.8 × 15.2 × 1.8 cm
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