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Cynthia Joseph's Growing up Female in Multi-Ethnic Malaysia is a
significant contribution academically and politically. Unlike the
majority of scholarship on Malaysia, which fractures the national label
into ethnic groups, and typically focuses on one of those groups,
Joseph's study proposes the existence of a transcultural Malaysian
subject. She does not suggest a homogenous 'Malaysian,' but offers the
possibility of a multicultural way of being 'Malaysian' as one identity
strategy (among many) used by young Malaysians (p. 191).
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Joseph's findings aside, her research design to address Malays, Chinese
and Indians simultaneously is refreshing because it literally erases the
Colonial legacy of ethnic divisions. Her inclusion of scholarship by
Southeast Asian researchers such as A.R. Embong, L.H. Wong, N.P. Tey, M.
Maznah, P.K. Heng, and scholarship published in homegrown journals such
as the Jurnal Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan alongside Michel
Foucault and Aihwa Ong is more than a scholar's natural reference to the
necessary literature. It is also a political act, a statement that
Southeast Asian institutions produce scholars and publish scholarship
equal to that produced in the 'West.'
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But Joseph's political statement is not merely historical and academic.
She boldly critiques the Malaysian state for its ethnic biases and its
failure to address ethnic prejudices in the public education system (p.
193). For a Malaysian to do so is a risky endeavour. Malaysian nationals
have been arrested and detained for criticising the Malaysian
government; as such, Joseph's choice of public education as a research
topic and the honest content and clarity of her analyses warrant
applause. Joseph's position as an Indian-Malaysian woman is an important
factor, one which she addresses head on in the book. While the book is
grounded in Joseph's research, its intent and audience must be gauged by
her hopes for it; it does possess a strong—and desirable—activist
flavour.
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The book documents Joseph's seven-year-long sociological study of the
identity strategies of young Malay-, Chinese- and Indian- Malaysian
women. She locates the development and practice of these strategies in
secondary school, and follows her subjects' trajectories post-secondary
school to examine the long-term success or failure of these strategies.
Joseph's primary assertion is that young Malaysian women are developing
identities and using various ethnicised identity strategies to subvert
the ethnic identities prescribed to them by their state and by their
ethnic collectives; in doing so, they are creating new ways of being
both Malaysian and feminine (pp. 119, 139–40).
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The strategies they subscribe to do not follow the legal ethnic
boundaries, making them 'transcultural' subjects. For example, a common
Chinese strategy to subvert the affirmative action policies unfavourable
to them is to be kiasu, that is, to strive to be better than
everyone else (pp. 97–103). In the academic setting this means to aim
for and achieve the highest marks and thereby obtain access to public
universities and scholarships. Joseph finds that some young Malay and
Indian Malaysian women also use this strategy; however, other young
Malay and Indian women of poor academic ability choose to adopt other
strategies.
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While some ethnic policies and traditions serve to privilege individuals
in some domains, they act as constraints for others. Less academically
driven young women use traditional gender prescriptions to resist
demands on them to become worldly workers. Young women from all three
major ethnic groups subscribe to various aspects of being 'western'.
However, identity strategies also do not always produce the same
results: for instance, the exhibition of 'western' dress and language by
girls of good academic standing positions these young women as
successful globally savvy go-getters, but when girls of poor academic
performance behave in a 'western' manner they are denigrated by school
officials and their peers as rebellious and morally lacking (p. 127).
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Joseph finds these young women are constantly code-switching between
several and often conflicting strategies. They subscribe to various
identity markers, sometimes using them in predictable ways and at other
times perverting them in order to resist, subvert or comply with
expectations and identities prescribed for them by the Malaysian state,
by their ethnic traditions, and by their families. These young women's
identities are constantly fluctuating, constructed by subjective
internal means and external, consensual understandings of ethnic
collective identity, stereotypes regarding academic ability and their
families' financial resources. Strategies which are successful in
localised settings change once implemented on a national and global
level as these young women leave secondary school and begin their adult
journeys in Malaysia or overseas, as tertiary or post-graduate students
or professional working women.
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Joseph begins with the premise that life for all Malaysians is
constrained by historical colonial legacies, contemporary ethnic
politics, and ethnic gender roles. Affirmative action policies which
favour Bumiputera Malay citizens above Chinese, Indian and
'Other' citizens affect almost all aspects of life, but are particularly
influential through the ethnicised public and private education system.
Chapters one and two explicate these historical and political contexts.
These chapters are well written, delivering excellent introductions to
Malaysian history and political culture for the less initiated, while
being nuanced enough to fulfill other readers' needs for specificity.
They outline the myriad of factors—for example, a near global use of
English as lingua franca, a Colonial legacy of labour
categorisation of ethnic groups, reactions to the 1997 Asian financial
crisis—which intersect to form the identity strategies available to
Joseph's subjects.
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While Joseph acknowledges and addresses this variety of intersecting
factors, she focuses primarily on gender and ethnicity. Joseph makes it
clear these are not the only factors influencing identity or the
strategies these young women use, but the legalisation of ethnicity, and
the specific cultural gendered mores of these ethnic groups make them
the two most influential. Chapter three addresses ways which the
Malaysian state, through subscribing to global capitalist notions of
labour, position women in opposition to certain traditional ways of
being a 'good' woman. Malaysian women manipulate traditional and
non-traditional roles to resist identities imposed on them by the state,
and by their ethnic traditions. These young women are developing new
femininities, new ways of being female in contemporary Malaysia (pp.
78–79).
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The ways young women of these three ethnic groups navigate the
constraints or privileges discussed in these first chapters, how they
see themselves and how they project their desired identities upon others
are the focus of Joseph's study. Chapters four, five and six describe
the study itself, its methodologies, parameters and findings. Chapters
seven, eight and nine focus on the young women after they left secondary
school, during their time as tertiary students, then as workers and
wives.
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Joseph finishes with a short conclusion. This reader was slightly
disappointed, left with a desire for a longer discussion regarding the
'transculturalism' practiced by Malaysians, specifically how 'mixed
race' Malaysians would feature in her argument, and how they would
function within the public school system. Although Malaysians are
legally bound to select (or have selected for them) one ethnic category,
how individuals are culturally raised, or how they socially identify
may not mirror their identity cards, particularly those from interracial
families. However, this is a minor complaint; overall Joseph's book
amply satisfies.
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Joseph's delivery is straightforward, her style and language accessible.
The concise but detailed descriptions of her methods, research design,
and the historical and contextual explanations of the Malaysian public
education system, ethnic politics and Colonial legacies make this book
useful to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and individuals
in the early stages of exploring scholarship on Malaysia. However,
Joseph's Foucauldian discussion of discourse, her use of Southeast Asian
sources, her political assertions, and her overarching argument for a
'transcultural' Malaysian aim for other more academically advanced
audiences: her professional peers from the 'West' and those from
Southeast Asia. Amongst the latter, it seems she aims for those who
occupy positions of power and possess the ability to evoke changes
toward ethnic equality in the Malaysian educational system.
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The book is aimed at and written for a wide readership. It should be a
required reading for anyone interested in Malaysian studies, ethnic
politics, women's education, or gender and modernity.
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