International Conference of Pacific and Asian Communication

Association
(PACA 2009)
10-12 January 2009

Negotiating Foreignness: Malay Women's Television Consumption

and the Formation of Alternative Modernities

*Azizah Hamzah
**Md Azalanshah Md Syed

This paper is concerned with how Malay women negotiate and imagine ‘the foreign modernities’
through foreign soaps consumption. As a postcolonial nation, Malaysia has been negotiating with
different kinds of ‘foreign’ modernity in order to establish their ‘homemade’ version. One of the
platforms to articulate and imagine national modernity project is through the establishment of
television in the early 1960s. Due to the constant multi-flows of transnational cultural text through
satellite television at home, Malay women have endured conflicts within their active consumption of
foreign soap operas. It cannot be denied that foreign soap opera has become one of the important
sites for the negotiation pleasure of modern transnational cultural zone. Of special interest, this paper
will provide a clearer understanding of the negotiation and reinvention processes of foreign
modernities and how it is dispersed in the local cultural setting within the context of Adat and Islam.

Keywords
Foreignness ● Soap opera ● Modernity ● Malay women ● Audience reception

*Dr Azizah Hamzah is a professor in media studies in the Department of Media Studies, Faculty of
Arts & Social Sciences, University of Malaya. Her research interests are media and cultural studies,
media marketplace, media regulations & policies.

**Md Azalanshah Md Syed is also a staff member of the Department of Media Studies and is
currently researching transnational culture and soap operas in Malaysia for a PhD in the School of
Applied Communication, RMIT University.

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Introduction

“The Ministry felt that the broadcast of serial dramas from neighbouring
countries can provide balances to the western dramas as the content of the
regional productions are closer to the culture and way of life of Malaysians”

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,

Malaysian Deputy Information Minister
(March 27th, 2007, Bernama)

“We now see too many Indonesian and Filipino programmes like the drama
‘Bawang Putih Bawang Merah’ on television. There's nothing positive to be gain
from these programmes, only negative.”

Wanita UMNO
th
(November 17 , 2006, Bernama)

In Malaysia, watching foreign soap operas on television is part of everyday culture for Malay
women. Soaps significantly create a new phenomenon as it is one of the must watch programme in
the afternoon. The popularity of foreign soaps amongst Malay women has caught the attention of the
media planners and policy makers and has been discussed and politically reviewed in relation to its
perceived ability to undermine Malay cultural values. It has become a national anxiety and has
created a plethora of sites for contestation over the meaning of modern women images. To some
extent, most of the foreign soaps accommodate modern elements that may potentially pose some
form of threat to the image of Muslim Malay women.

This study is concerned with how Malay women negotiate and imagine ‘foreign modernities’ through
consumption of foreign soap operas. Soap operas are associated with the well-known concept of long
continuing fictional narrative and never-ending story. Soap operas as a particular genre of television
programme are universal in the sense of format, narrative, characters and everyday lives experience.
Even though there were constant conflicts regarding its gendered viewerships, soap operas have
popularly been accepted as a universal women genre. This study does not indicate any interest
towards viewing effect of foreign soap operas but getting to the process that led to the effect of its
viewing popularity. One of the processes of viewing foreign soap opera is the negotiation of
foreignness in its activity.

In the context of non-Western setting, ‘foreignness’ is the central pleasure of watching experience of
foreign television programmes such as soap operas . This activity will help us to understand
specifically how Malay women locate the traditional part of their lives in the modern world. It also
illustrates the process of the formation of alternative modernity through the flow of transnational
cultural text in Malaysia. With the focus on Malay women, the construction of modernity through
foreign soap opera will go some way to filling the gap of this study, significantly of reception studies
towards non-Western, but still foreign popular culture in the predominantly Islamic- Asian cultural
setting.

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The consumption of foreign soaps: a political-national discourse

The continuing popularity of foreign soap operas among Malay women has not been without its
tensions, and some authorities have expressed anxiety over what they consider to be the negative
influences of foreign soaps. Some have argued that foreign soaps – the transnational cultural texts,
might undermine the standards of Malay womanhood and compromise cultural and national
boundaries. In the UMNO (ruling government Malay party) General Assembly 2006, a few women
state representatives suggested to all Malay women to stay away from foreign television soaps
particularly Sinetron (Indonesian drama), if they want to maintain a first class mind set. At the same
time, the government was asked to stop airing that programme in the local television channel as it is
believed that such programmes do not contribute towards the enrichment of the viewers’ intellect and
imagination .

In March 2007, the Information Ministry Parliamentary Secretary told Members of Parliament that
RTM (Radio & Television Malaysia) did not resort to airing such Indonesian Sinetron soap operas as
it has a social responsibility of developing the people’s mind set and nurturing good values. In the
same year, the Deputy Information Minister told the Members of Parliament that the Ministry, on
behalf of RTM, felt that the broadcast of soaps and serial drama from neighbouring countries in
RTM, can provide a ‘balance’ to the western dramas as the content of the regional productions are
closer to the culture and way of life of Malaysians . Interestingly, the Head of Puteri UMNO
(women’s wing of UMNO), Datuk Noraini Ahmad in the previous year argued that the government
should control ‘…the addiction to soap operas which deviated from the Islamic faith or propagated
new ideas to do wrong, practice free sex or damage society’s norms and social fabric’ .

The distinct statement about the ‘balance’ of discourse between western and regional soap operas has
raised a spectacular issue that need to be re-evaluated in this study. It shows how soaps are popularly
welcomed and accepted by the Malay women but it also accommodates conflicting values of
modernity and tradition. It is clear that Malay women derive a significant amount of pleasure from
viewing foreign soaps. Soaps, in short, may help to create a negotiation of circulating transnational
discourse of modernity, and may provide cultural resources for imagining the modern. In the case of
Malay women, these cultural resources must be understood in the context of the moral ideology of
localised traditional forms of Islam and by negotiation through these contexts, as well as the Malay
customary laws or very well-known as ‘Adat’. Both of these elements appear to combine together to
form the local communication code.

Soaps, in short, may help to create a negotiation of circulating transnational discourse of modernity,
and may provide cultural resources for imagining the modern. However, the role of Adat and Islam as
important Malay social discourse had clearly signified that cultural text that flows from outside the
Malay cultural boundaries must be initially monitorised and negotiated. The engagement of Malay
women with foreign cultural text such as foreign soap opera might involve the structure of
identifying and distancing with particular elements such as ‘foreign-ness’ images and identity of
favourite characters, consumer culture, questioning expressions of sexuality, and so on.

Significantly, one needs to know how soap opera has been celebrated by Malay women as an
important genre for negotiating foreign modernity? Why soap opera and not any other television
genre? To answer such questions, it is important for us to examine the flow of foreign soap opera
since the introduction of television broadcast in Malaysia. This can help us to understand why soap
opera has been favoured by the Malay women and why this genre is persistently selected as one of
their domestic activity.

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The flow of foreign soaps: The rest against the West

The establishment of television in the 1960s as a tool to imagine modernity has become a ‘social
practice’ for the Malaysians. The first television broadcast began in 1963 through Radio Malaysia .
The plan to begin television broadcast was first initiated by the special committee headed by the late
Syed Jaafar Albar, then Assistant Minister of Information and Broadcasting, who specifically decided
to select the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as the model for this project. The initial
purpose for beginning television broadcast in the country is to unite the multiracial society in
Malaysia and to continue to educate the public and to disseminate knowledge and messages from the
government. In other words, television become a platform and channel for creating an imagination of
‘…the right ambience for development’ .

The first channel of Television Malaysia, RTM 1 was launched in 1965 followed by the second
network, RTM2 in 1969. Like the other developing countries in the world, the government retained
political control of the national television station, therefore RTM is very supportive of government
policies . Due to the privatisation period in the 1980s, the third channel, TV3 was launched in 1983
as a private television station in Malaysia. The establishment of TV3 has altered the media and
cultural landscape in Malaysia as it is actively competitive in terms of programme slots and
advertisement .

Today, more than 5.5 million households in Malaysia own television sets , and there are six Free-To-
Air television stations. Two of the TV stations are state-owned (RTM1 and RTM2) and the other four
stations (TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9) are owned by Media Prima Bhd. Group, one of the biggest
media conglomerates in Malaysia. It has a total of 11.2 million television viewers everyday . In
addition to that, the satellite television company Astro All Asia Networks (Astro), broadcasts to 1.4
million households and have a viewership of more than six million everyday . It is fair to say that the
penetration of radio and television is more than 95% and access to satellite and free-to-air television
channels are available mostly throughout Malaysian households .

One of the popular television genres that has fascinated and are celebrated by the local audience is
foreign soap operas. The flood of foreign cultural text in the country began with the American
popular cultural products such as foreign soap operas. The popularity of Dallas and Dynasty in the
early 1980s is a trend that remains till today. In the late 1980s, however, the popularity of American
popular culture began to be replaced with non-American content that originate mainly from Asia and
Latin America. The new transnational flow of foreign popular cultural product from Latin America
and Asia, largely from Japan through the Japanese Wave or ha-ri-zu and South Korean wave, hallyu
, had attracted the local audience due to its proximity to Asian culture and values. At the same time,
popular foreign soaps from the closer neighbourhood such as Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand
also began to draw attention from local viewers.

The passion of local Malay women towards foreign soaps is really significant and this phenomenon
is rather hard to explain. Dallas for example, had created a new trend of viewership although it is
believed to have impacted upon some traditional norms and values amongst the Malays. Dallas
has the typical concept of the cliff-hanger in its episodes and carries the narrative and universal
themes such as love and romance and it was screened during the prime time slot. Nowadays,
American cultural text continuously flows in the form of television programmes. Some of the latest
American soaps such as Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Lost, One Tree Hill, Prison Break,
Ghost Whisperer and Betty the Ugly have become popular among the local viewers . More recently,
Media Prima Berhad through associate television stations have announced the screening plan of ‘the
latest and returning award-winning live action series, current and library features, TV movies, Disney
animated titles and Jetix branded animation’ .
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In 2006, Media Prima also allocated RM200 million to acquire most of the popular American soaps
for their television networks comprising TV3, 8TV, NTV7, and Channel 9. ASTRO began to acquire
more channels and foreign television programmes largely from America for the local audience . The
Star channel for example also offers a large variety of latest American soaps such as Grey’s Anatomy,
The Desperate Housewives, Smallville, and Ugly Betty .

The recent changes in the pattern of cultural text flow through television have indicated a weakening
in the Western mainly Anglo-American position as the key exporter of global culture and images.
Anglo-American cultural products were always seen as the most popular cultural texts as most of the
products have spread to all parts of this world including Malaysia. American content were always
regarded as manufacturers of modern images and text by the non-Western countries . In the mid-
1980s, the influx of foreign television drama particularly soap operas from Asian and Latin American
regions have started to captivate the local audience. For example, in 1983 Malaysian television
stations began to broadcast Isaura, a Brazilian soap opera series .

In the late 1980s, the Japanese television soaps started to invade most of the television airtime. One
of the famous Japanese costume soaps was Oshin, a story about a young peasant girl who had to face
all the difficulties and challenges in life . Another Japanese costume soap that captured the hearts of
the audience in the same period was Rin Hanne Konma. As well as Oshin, this soap was dubbed into
the Malay language and was screened in 1988. It was ranked ninth among the nation’s ten most
popular TV programmes . After that, most of the Asian and non-Western soaps were no longer
dubbed into Malay but it still carried the Malay subtitles. The active fluxes of non-western mainly
Japanese soaps were so obvious in the middle of 1990s until early 2000s. Media Prima Bhd. Group
through its station, TV3 started to slot the Japanese television drama hour such as Pearl Drama due
to the strong local demand.

Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM) also began to air the Japanese soaps allocated between 1pm to
2pm on Wednesday until Saturday . The appeal of Japanese soaps has turned the viewership trend
from Western to Asian and non-Western television programmes. The Japanese soaps in this period is
known as ‘trendy drama’ and some of the popular ones include Beautiful Life, Concerto, and
Power Office Girl . Beginning from early 2000 the Southeast Asian television soaps particularly from
Thailand and Philippines began to feature prominently as well. The famous Filipino melodrama
soaps Pangako Sa’yo (My Promise to you) and Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas (I wish it would never end)
were a smash and were eagerly discussed by the local Malay audience as the themes of the soap
were more touching compared to the locally produced soaps .

The lead actor and actress of Pangako Sa’yo, Jericho Rosales and Kristine Hermosa became subjects
featured in the local newspaper . Another popular Southeast Asian soap is Lakorn from Thailand
which enjoyed high viewership rating in the TV3 afternoon television slot. The Heaven meets Earth
is another one of the famous romance Lakorn soaps stories that attracted a big number of audiences
during this period. Using a foreign background as a major production setting, this soap offers a
beautiful view of Christchurch and some other magnificent remote areas in New Zealand for the
audience. Other popular Thai soap opera that was aired in the TV3 afternoon slot Asia Potpourri
include Phoenix Blood, Maid from Chicago, and Soda & Ice .

The emergence of ‘Korean wave’ or Hallyu in early 2000 in Malaysia initiated the local television
stations to broadcast popular South Korean soap opera. For example, the romantic Korean
melodrama Winter Sonata had turned the local environment into the wintry mood as its famous
theme song was dubbed and recorded by local singer in Malay. It attracted 1.3 millions followers per
episode when it was broadcasted through TV3 in the afternoon slot . More than 40 thousand copies
of the Winter Sonata VCDs were sold and the number is still increasing. Winter Sonata clicked so
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well with the local viewers and had created a phenomenon. More and more Malaysians are becoming
familiar with Korean culture and South Korea became a popular tourist destination.

In 2002, 82,700 Malaysians had visited South Korea compared with 55,848 in 2001. These figures
had drastically increased as only 36,459 Malaysians visited South Korea in 1995 . Most of the
Malaysian tourists visited Nami Island and Chuncheon, the locations for Winter Sonata. Some other
South Korean soap operas also had recorded an excellent rating in terms of viewerships. In the
middle of 2000, Latin American soap operas began to be shown in the local television screens,
viewed by millions of women everyday. As well as Japanese soaps, Latin American soap had already
created a phenomenon beginning from early 1980s through Isaura, one of the well known Brazilians
soap operas. At the end of 2001, NTV7, one of the Media Prima Bhd television networks, began to
air the Venezuelan soap, Maria Mercedes from Monday to Friday, which had attracted more than
600, 000 viewers per episode.
Table 1

TOP 10 WOMEN@TV3
POTENTIAL AUDIENCE FEMALE 15+ : 6,749,711
No Programme Day Date Time Viewership (‘000)
WEEK 0716 (15 April 2007 - 21 April 2007)
1 *Sinetron - Bukan Cinderella Tue 17/4/2007 1430-1525 823
2 *Sinetron - Bukan Cinderella Thu 19/4/2007 1431-1529 787
3 *Sinetron - Bukan Cinderella Wed 18/4/2007 1430-1528 756
4 *Sinetron - Bukan Cinderella Mon 16/4/2007 1430-1527 662
5 #Dramasuria - Masih Ada Cinta Wed 18/4/2007 1401-1429 657
6 #Dramasuria - Masih Ada Cinta Tue 17/4/2007 1401-1430 586
7 ¤Nona Sun 15/4/2007 1401-1459 532
8 #Dramasuria - Gila-Gila Pengantin Thu 19/4/2007 1401-1430 508
9 #Pesona 3 - Lurah Dendam Sun 15/4/2007 1602-1658 493
10 #Pesona 3 -Lurah Dendam Sun 15/4/2007 1500-1600 490

Source : AGB Nielsen Media Research, 2007 (Research TV Networks)

* Foreign soap operas (Indonesia)
# Local Drama
¤ Local Women Television Magazine

Retrieved from www.tv3.com.my, May 5th 2007

The success of Maria Mercedes has encouraged NTV7 to broadcast other Latin American soaps such
as Mis Tres Hermanes (My Three Sisters) and La Usurpadora (The Pretender), Yo Soy Betty La Fea
(I Am Betty the Ugly One) and Juana La Virgen (Juana's Miracle). NTV7 attracted 400,000 to 900,
000 viewers for each episode . The climax of Latin American fascination in Malaysia was marked in
2002 when TV3 aired the Mexican family drama, Rosalinda and it recorded over 2.6 million viewers
per episode. The appearance of the popular Mexican singer, Thalia as a lead actress in this soap had
lured most of the local fan with the hit theme song, Ay-Amor, Rosalinda.

Since 2006, the Indonesian soap operas or Sinetron has overtaken the lead from the local
programmes and these productions were broadcasted in most of the local television channels. For
example, the TV3 afternoon slot had screened the famous Indonesian soaps Bawang Putih Bawang
Merah that began its run early in the year 2006. This series had the highest average percentage rate of
four millions viewers in Malaysia per episode . This figure is believed to be the highest rating for a
programme of this genre. One of the reasons why it had such a large number of Malay audiences is
‘because they thrive on the supernatural’ , something that has been banned in Malaysian television
for many years as it is regarded as going against Islamic teachings.
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The popularity of ‘magical’ Indonesian soaps had encouraged most of the local television stations to
broadcast them. For example, Media Prima through its associate station; TV3 is constantly screening
popular Indonesian soaps such as Bukan Cinderella and Liontin. The various flows of foreign soap
opera through local television in Malaysia is an indication of how the genre was celebrated by the
women audience and how it has been used as an important genre for negotiating foreign modernity.
Table 1 clearly shows that foreign soap operas typically products from Indonesia are well received by
the local, mainly Malay audience.

Although the statistic does not indicate any specific ethnic viewerships, it can be assumed that the
Malays form the major audience of this genre. For example, the theme song of Korean soaps such as
Winter Sonata and Full House was translated and recorded by local Malay singers and became very
popular after the screening of this soap . This illustrates that Korean soaps have a large Malay
audience. Interestingly, the latest trend of foreign soaps consumption from the non-Western setting
has expelled the idea that Western (mostly Anglo-American setting) is the centre of transnational
cultural flow. But, it is interesting to know the process of negotiating the sense of foreignness among
the locals. If the foreignness is central to the viewing pleasure of foreign modernity, then which
elements become the cultural resources in the negotiation process?

The negotiation of foreignness: The formation process of alternative modernity

According to Chua , most of the previous audience reception research did not pay attention to how
the elements of foreignness has induced the audience to watch some particular programmes.
Significantly, this element is not problematised very often in the Western audience research because
of ‘…the generic sign of the West or the idea of English as the global, universal language.’ To some
extent, the research setting issues might show how the element of foreignness is hardly discussed in
the Western audience reception research. One of the issues that appeared from the discussion of
‘foreign’ is the idea that the West (mostly Anglo-American setting) is the centre and everything else
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is different. Some writings, such as Schiller used to associate foreign with the western world but in
recent days, non-western world can be considered as foreign as well. Clearly, the West, mainly
United States of America is no longer a key centre of images portraying the world system due to the
complex transnational cultural flows throughout the region .

Iwabuchi assert that the transnational cultural flows in Asian setting has provided broad dimensions
of the Asian modernities constitution, through the interaction and negotiation cultural process
between local Asian and the western culture. For example, the result of this cultural process has
assisted the local to produce non-Western modernities; that largely differ from the American version
of modernity. Significantly, this process need the local to adapt to some of the foreign cultural
elements from the West, and strategically hybridised them with the local sense and taste. As
Iwabuchi claims, this shall get through with some form of negotiation process such as
‘appropriation, domestication and indigenisation’ in order to construct a new and fresh version of
local modernity without changing any local cultural core.

In the sense of popular culture consumption such as soap operas, this can be articulated through the
creation of non-Western modern imaginary cultural text and contemporaneous global Asian
entertainment. To some extent, the Asian scapes of modern imaginary that constantly appear on the
Japanese and Korean soap opera is something that the West is not able to achieve . Nowadays, the
concept of foreign is no longer from the association of the West but the rest of the world as well. To
be more specific, the concept of foreign modernity has been extended to the non-Western setting. For
example, the emerging traffic of transnational popular culture flow in Asia has created a potential
platform of new version of foreign Asian modernity imaginary between the Asian countries.
However, as Chua thoroughly argues, the geographical position of the audience has a large influence
in the sense of explaining the pleasurable viewing of foreignness as transnational popular cultural
text.

This is because, the location of cultural space conceptually generate the eagerness of watching the
foreignness of cultural text, something that is certainly different to the local in the context of
everyday life. Still, the appreciation of foreignness is not able to stand alone as a major feature
attraction of any transnational popular culture text such as soap operas, without any level of cultural
proximity. According to Chua , there are three kinds of audience geographical position of popular
culture text. Firstly, local audience who consumed local popular culture text and this make them very
familiar in terms of ‘accuracy, truth and critical reflections’ from the inside of cultural boundaries.
The second category is the diasporic audience who has been listening to any cultural text that is
associated with the original homeland through any foreign or homeland production. The last category
of audience position is the one who consume transnational cultural text such as foreign or imported
television programmes. In the sense of cultural context, as he claims, this kind of audience is ‘…not
embedded in the culture of the production location’ .

In other words, geographically, this audience has no physical access in terms of this foreign culture
background. Most of the knowledge about the cultural text is derived only through imaginary
experience and they use their own cultural background context to produce a structure of meaning. In
fact, the familiarities of some particular elements such as everyday life practice have allowed them to
negotiate transnational or foreign popular culture text, in the sense of their local context. For
example, some of this life practice includes the appreciation of foreignness in everyday cultural
practice and life style. Although Chua to some extent claims that there is a possibility of universal
transnational identity creation through the consumption of popular culture, for the Malay this not
only depends on the degree of cultural proximity but also the suitability of the negotiation process.

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For example, the negotiation of transnational or foreign cultural text must be systematised and
perceived through the local communication cultural code such as Adat and Islam.

To the Malay audience, the transnational cultural text through foreign soap opera is visually
considered as foreign and the foreignness of this genre is identified by language and cultural
background. In Malaysia, most of foreign soap operas are not dubbed and the television station
retains the original language of the programmes with subtitles. This certainly makes any particular
foreign soap operas in Malaysia more foreign including the Indonesian soaps, the one that are being
claimed as relatively closer to the local Malay culture . Chua had categorised the elements of
foreignness in the foreign soaps largely from East Asian setting to background music and outdoor
scenery. Taking Singapore as the best example of the major consumption location in the Southeast
Asia, he excellently demonstrated how the foreignness elements such as background music and
outdoor scenery was appreciated visually as these are certainly impossible to be enjoyed in
Singapore.

For example, most of the background music is left untouched in order to retain the sense of
foreignness of the foreign soaps. In addition to that, as Singapore is geographically situated in the hot
and humid tropical country, the outdoor scenery of the foreign soaps has become another obvious
element of foreignness, particularly the ones from South Korea. Practically, this type of appreciation
for foreignness can also be applied to the local viewers in Malaysia. Winter Sonata is the best
example of South Korean soap with expansive snowy and wintry mode location that allow the local
to enjoy the excitement of ‘visual tourism.’ The local hot tropical climate has also led the local
audience particularly women to enjoy the fashionable variety of winter outfits.

The rapid growth of urban metropolitan city centres in Southeast Asia like Bangkok, Jakarta, and
Manila and the rise of the middle classes in such countries, all share the common similarities in the
sense of geographical contour and hot tropical climate. Thus, the gaps of Chua’s conceptualisation
of foreignness in the sense of audience positions need to be extended, not only into the outdoor
scenery and musical themes but to cultural landscape as well. As he claims, the localities of the
audience in the particular region may or may not share such elements of foreignness because some
of them ‘…have its own set of specific characteristics grounded and derived from their respective
everyday life’ . This is certainly true as Ko explains that sense of modernity which emerged from the
consumption of popular culture such as soap opera create an ‘…ambivalence of “anxiety and
desire”.’

This is because most of the foreign soap operas from the non-Western setting are more realistic in the
sense of life representation. Precisely, this reason reflects the accusation of the local authorities such
as Wanita and Puteri UMNO as they negatively highlighted the consumption of foreign soaps shall
damage the social fabrication of the Malay society. As claimed by Ko, the realistic representation
through Japanese soaps for example, provoke the extension of realism toward the formation of
modernity. Some of the common realistic instances that are available in the non-Western setting
soap opera include the cultural landscape of everyday life such as urban space, relationships
and romance, family issues, and so on.

Ko’s discursive paradoxes towards the consumption of Japanese popular culture in Taiwan probably
shed some light on how foreignness spectacularity assists the local audience to create a cultural space
and structure the reality out of the foreign soap operas. The uncertainties of foreign soaps
consumption mainly from the non-Western setting also needs to be compared with the Western ones
that sometimes seriously strained the local society, especially when dealing with the issues of
morality. There must be some particular reason why the foreignness elements from the non-Western
setting soap opera has been appreciated and negotiated by the local Malay women. If the local Malay

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women are comfortable with Indonesian soaps as their domestic consumption due to the degree of
proximity, they are not supposed to be taken to task by the authority.

It is also necessary to reconsider why the elements of foreignness in the non-Western soaps are more
tolerable and closer to the Malay women’s eyes rather than those produced locally? And if the
foreignness is the only spectacular reason for the fascination of non-Western soaps, why do they not
choose other foreign soaps with the highest degree of foreignness, such as Western soaps ? If Ko
argues that the mode of representation in the non-Western soaps generate the realistic images of
modernity, it also can be argued here that the realistic representations of foreignness produce
realistic visual experience to the local audience for example, the cultural landscape such as
family relations, romance, local identity and so on which provide the sense of melodramatic
appeal.

Ko asserts that ‘melodramatic representation can be exemplified as a modern form of narration…

considered an anti value, low art form.’ The context of melodramatic appeal and the sense of
modernity in the foreign soaps can be articulated through the narrative plot, poetic scenery shot, and
cliffhanger that guide the audience to imagine the ‘tragic structure of feelings’ . Of special interest, in
what ways of the foreignness elements provide a platform to imagine transnational modernity
through foreign soap operas? Ang claims that ‘life is characterized by an endless fluctuation between
happiness and unhappiness, that life is a question of falling down and getting up again.’ The
fluctuation between happiness and unhappiness to some extent represent the symbolic reality of the
society.

As Ko claims, the characterisation of melodramatic theme and sentimental songs of Japanese urban-
trendy soaps in Taiwan, was well-received by the audience in the urban area. In Malaysia, however,
the characterisations attached in any non-Western soap operas have been copied not only by the
audience who live in the metropolitan setting but the remote areas as well. The foreign melodramatic
cultural text through foreign soap opera in the non-Western setting, emotionally appealed to them and
this promotes the concept of ‘tragic structure of feeling’ by Ang . In fact, some of the local
newspapers reported that more than a hundred thousand audience hold their breath everyday, for the
tearful heart rending foreign soaps . According to Ko the spectacularity of melodramatic elements
manipulate the audience’s emotion and form ‘the success of melodramatic entertainment.’

The emotional theme in the Asian melodrama cultural text mainly through soap operas is
significantly different in the sense of how it has been formulated and articulated. Dissanayake argues
that Asian melodrama should be distinguished with the Western version style because of the ‘…
intimately linked to myth, ritual, religious practices, and ceremonies.’ It also can be said here that
these factors vary from one setting to another in Asia. For example, Indonesian melodrama cultural
text might be different with the one in Philippines, South Korea and to some extent in the non-
Western/Asian as well such as Latin American. Through these differences, melodrama cultural text
shall become foreign to the audience from one particular country to another. The consumption of
various melodramatic elements in the foreign soap opera, particularly in the sense of modern
imagination, can be analysed through audience perspective. This is because the melodramatic has a
large emotional appeal and it only can be explained by the audience reception, as ‘…it does not take
place in the narratives…’ .

Research design: Towards ethnographic audience studies

The research of television and popular culture consumption such as soap operas has been actively
shifted toward the combination of ethnographic methods and audience reception research. Some of
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media and culture scholars such as Morley , Moores , Seiter and Bakardjieva had applied ‘audience
ethnography’ or ‘reception ethnographic’ model as a strategy to gain ideas and formulate applicable
research design to study how audience read, decode and make sense of media cultural texts.
Generally, this research is not using the ethnographic method as a total approach. Still, it will borrow
a few techniques of ethnography mainly in-depth interview to employ audience reception research.
For example, Gray asserts that the factor of ‘scale and breadth’ and ‘depth and duration’ has always
been issues in any cultural studies research implementation such as audience research.

According to her, in the context of cultural studies, most of the ethnographic audience reception
researchers were not focussed on the scale and duration as the only requirement to testify the
reliability and validity factors. The issue that need to be attended is the conceptualisation toward the
research subject, social world and culture that accurately fit with sociological and anthropological
approach. Besides, Alasuutari asserts that it is advantageous for those who conduct audience
reception research to have a very wide knowledge and experience of the subject personally.
Accordingly, research about culture is not necessarily to be implemented over a long period of time
just for the purpose of wanting to claim that it is an ‘ethnographical’ audience reception research.
This is because, Alasuutari claims that ‘‘fieldwork’ has actually started years before we know
anything about a particular site that we are going to study. Similarly, the duration of…any active part
of data gathering depends on the particular study in mind.’

The reception audience research to some extent, can be considered as actual practice of ethnography
although we just had been around in the fieldwork setting for short period of time. What is the most
important to be considered by the audience reception researcher is the construction of rapport with
the subject in the fieldwork. Through the rapport, the trust and sincerity of subject shall be gained
and this allows us to gain a clearer structure of meaning that emerges through the interview. In
contemporary media consumption, the structure of meaning is really important as ‘there is as much
interest in the thoughts and feelings of audience members as in their behaviour’ .

To approach Malay women as our informants, Anderson & Jack assert that ‘women often mute their
own thoughts and feelings when they try to describe their lives in the familiar and publicly
acceptable terms of prevailing concepts and conventions.’ For example, the dominant role of
particular members of the focus group might control the talk and coincidently become a ‘thinker’ to
the rest of the group members . In addition to that, some of the group members might respond to the
question just because they do not want to be seen as inexperienced or naïve toward some particular
issues. Alasuutari asserts:

‘…when accounting for watching serials they wanted to assure the interviewer that
they are not naïve in their attitudes towards fictional programmes. Through their
explanations and justifications people wanted to dissociate themselves from the
specific kind of attitude towards television which regarded as injurious or shameful.’

The concept of ‘injurious or shameful’ here clearly can be understood mainly in the context of Malay
women who practically live under the dominant influences of local social conventions such as Adat
and Islam. Not to be seen as naïve, the Malay women might exploit their local social convention as
one of the reasons why they need not answer particular questions during the interview. Perhaps, to be
more risky, they also might manipulate their social convention purposely to avoid any question of
television text consumption that might make them appear to be seen as naïve.

Although focus group and in-depth interviews may not be assumed as representing the whole
population of Malay women in Malaysia, in a certain sense according to Wilson it offers ‘…diversity
of experience….’ Therefore, our study focuses on the diversity of text interpretation process, mainly
how the Malay women conceptualise the structure of meaning of transnational television text in the
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sense of their socio-historical setting. This involves interviewing a number of habitual foreign soap
viewers in the urban area of Klang Valley and the remote area of southern Malaysian peninsula, in
Kota Tinggi, Johore. We had successfully conducted two focus groups and three in-depth personal
interviews in each of the selected setting. All respondents are female Malays within the range of
between 40 – 50 years old.

One of the important requirements in terms of respondent selection is to consider the concept of
‘purposeful selection’ . This concept allows us to give a higher priority to any respondent who is very
unique in the sense of providing information and has a very wide knowledge about particular topic
area. However, the concept of ‘purposeful selection’ is not only to be applied on selection of
respondents but settings and time that suit most for the research to be implemented. Maxwell asserts
that ‘selecting those times, settings and individuals that can provide you with the information that
you need to answer your research questions is the most important consideration in qualitative
selection decisions.’ To affirm the unique status of selected respondent in this study, they have to be
identified and selected through ‘snowballing’ technique.

This technique emphasises the ability of selected respondents to introduce us to another informant
who also has the same potential in the sense of information of the particular topic area . The
snowballing technique is not only effective to assist us to select the accurate informant in order to
make it fit with the concept of purposeful selection but will let the researcher to build a rapport with
the subject of the research. The rapport in this context might allow the informant to build a trust with
us mainly during the interview. The selection of Klang valley as urban setting to conduct this
research is due to some significant reason such as the first researcher has been working and living
there more than twenty years. Thus, we have an advantage in the sense of familiarity perspective in
that setting.

Approaching the respondents amongst the Malay community in the urban area was rather simple.
The location of Klang valley in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur allows this study to be
conducted effectively. Most of the respondents had been predicted to be exposed with the continuing
transnational imaginary not only through consumption of foreign television text but also other
foreign commodity such as mobile phone, computer, branded apparel and everyday personal care
utilities.

In the meantime, we have chosen the remote organised Malay village area of Felda Simpang Waha,
in the southern Malaysia peninsula, also based on the advantages of familiarity. The settlements of
most Felda schemes in Malaysia are situated far from the city centre. Most of the settlers were
previously homeless rural people and this give a lot of advantages to the researcher in the sense of
framing Felda Simpang Waha as the accurate selected setting for the purpose of this research. In
addition of that, the second researcher had been living there for more than 17 years. This situation
has built a sense of proximity between us not only to the setting but also the informants, time, and the
local communication code such as Adat and Islam. Specifically, the location of Felda Simpang Waha
has given a lot of advantages such as the clear reception of Singapore and Indonesian television
channels that alternatively become other options for the villagers apart from watching Malaysian free
to air and the local satellite television channel.

Due to familiarity and the sense of proximity between the researchers and the urban and rural Malay
society, Malay women undoubtedly are chosen rather than any other ethnic group in Malaysia, as a
subject in this study. To some extent, we also can be considered as an outsider or stranger to the
selected informants. Bakardjieva claims that the outsider in the sense of ethnographic audience
reception research can be assumed as ‘welcoming visitor’. Still, does it mean the informants will hide
any domestic information of their natural setting? To some extent, this kind of question is too
‘rhetorical’ because the researcher who deals with the ethnographic audience reception has also to be
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prepared to deal with the contemporary trend, in this case not only audience but the media itself. Due
to this matter, our ability to build a rapport and convincibility with the respondents can be seen as an
innovative craft of this study. Both of these elements can assist us to find out how Malay women
imagine, negotiate and conceptualise the meaning of the structure of ‘modern’ within their local
communication code and social discourse.

The formation of alternative modernities: the deterritorialization of Malay women

Our first meeting with all respondents through a few visits to their natural setting such as home and
neighbourhood space in urban Klang Valley and remote areas of Johore had revealed that foreign
soaps are more popular than locally produced ones. Most of our informants thought that the
narratives, the romances, and the plots in foreign soaps were more compelling than in the local ones.
The local soap operas are less interesting because they reiterate the same themes, such as people
crying out of jealousy, and they recycle the same heroes .

Through the series of focus group and in-depth interview, we have classified the representation
of cultural landscape into a few categories such as a representation of family, magic and
supernatural, romance, and identity. As claimed by Dissanayake the appeal of melodrama shall
allow the audience to understand about the modernisation process in other Asian setting. Therefore, it
might be possible for the Malay women to negotiate foreign modernity through foreign soap opera
consumption mainly from the non-Western setting. However, the foreignness of television genre such
as soap opera has to be mapped by a certain degree of context and cultural proximity. In the sense of
modernity, the foreign elements and the imagery between cityscape of Seoul and Jakarta shall be
consumed differently and this might depend on two type of foreignness.

The first category is the real foreignness, something that is impossible to be located physically and is
quite a distance away from the context of everyday life in the local Malay setting. For example,
snowy day in Chuncheon and the latest winter outfit for women in Tokyo, Japan. The second type of
foreignness is something that is still familiar in our life but is still foreign. In this context, the
elements of foreignness are not actually new to the local audience. For example, the Indonesian
supernatural practice, the landscape of the modern city in Seoul and the representation of family in
the Brazilian society. As reported in the local newspaper, although some of the actors or actresses are
blonde-haired and blue-eyed, the theme of family, love and romance, envy and jealousy are pretty
common to the local audience . And yet, this kind of familiarity is still foreign to the Malay women
because of cultural, identity, and setting boundary.

• Family

In Malay culture, family is an important institution. This can be articulated through the moral project
called ‘Family Values’ and campaign slogans such as ‘My Home My Heaven’ early 2000 . As part
of this project, women play an important role for the construction of family as home shall be a
domestic platform of harmonious family. One of our respondents from the remote area of Felda
Simpang Waha in Kota Tinggi, Johor emotionally claims that Indonesian soaps remind her of the
importance of staying united as a family. She said:
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 ‘I like family stories in the Indonesian soaps. For example, a story about the orphan
who was adopted but has been abused by her adopted family. (Sighs) How could
somebody abuse a little child like that? They are supposed to love them! I really feel
sad if someone abuse my kids like what happened in the stories. Oh God!’

The presence of the family unit in most of non-Western soap operas particularly the ones from Latin
America, Indonesia, Philippines and South Korea really became proximity moments for the local
Malay women. In the late 1990s, the discourse of Asian values were actively discussed by the two
prominent states in the Southeast Asia, Malaysia and Singapore. Central to the Confucian way of
thinking, Lee for example concludes the importance of being loyal and supportive to the family.
However, the action has to be done personally without involving any public interest . In the sense of
Asian family values, perhaps it should be learnt differently from what has been represented in the
Western cultural text.

This situation has created a universal sense of spectacular appreciation. For example, our remote
informant continues to claim that she likes the family part in the Indonesian soaps because it is good
to live in a peaceful and friendly atmosphere. In fact, the presence of family has been represented as
an important element of symbolic modernity in Asia. For example, most of Korean urban soaps still
retain the family presence as the key in the Confucianism appeal to the audience . Not only that, the
presence of family has strongly centralised the narrative of any modern urban theme of Southeast
Asian soaps as well.

• Romance

One of the common universal conventions of soap opera is romance and love stories. Women favour
these themes which will generate soaps with the same narrative consistency and consumption. Ang
claims that the ‘search for a happy ending’ forms the ‘motor of the soaps narrative.’ To Malay
women, however, romance is treated as part of ‘personal and private sphere’ due to the role of Adat
and the Islamic restriction. Romance in the sense of western world is largely free from the sense of
local convention such as Adat and Islam that has the power to systematise Malay women’s social
construction from time to time. The classic example of romance consumption is provided by
Radway who claims that romance reading will ‘constitute a temporary “declaration of
independence” from the social roles of wife and mother.’ The act of romance reading signifies a
constitution of boundaries or space, where they can claim liberation and move away temporarily
from the static domestic duties .

Although she asserts this based on her research of how women read and consumed romance novel, it
can be seen as the same thing that might happened in the foreign soap operas watching reception. The
act of consuming shows that women are actually creating boundaries to feel the sense of
emancipation and escape to ‘another world’. Soaps as well as other cultural forms are very fictional
although it was based on the representation of reality. Our kampung informant shared their thought
about the reflection of foreign soap opera and the reality of the contemporary Malay society. They
claimed that the romantic issues such as sincerity and disloyalty in relationships are actual events
everywhere. Korean drama had been specified by the kampung informants as the best example for
the best ethical love ever. Some of them in the focus group assert that Korean love story is too
everlasting and this is comparatively different from the one in their society.

Most of their expression about the issues of love and romance is largely dependent on the women’s
right to be fairly treated by man in the relationships. However, their intention to dishonour the local
version of romance is not because they have been weakened by the negative influences of foreign
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cultural text but it was a part of imagining against the convention. This can be articulated through a
constitution of temporary or another world of imagination through foreign soaps consumption. When
they enter this ‘another world’ their imagination will shift to the fictional reality of the world. The
process of negotiation of foreign romance text offers Malay women a mission to create happiness in
‘another world’, something that they are not able to achieve in reality.

• Magic and the supernatural

As we argued earlier, the concept of foreign is not able to stand alone without any degree of cultural
proximity. The practice of magic and the supernatural in the Malay setting was widely reported in the
old Malay grand narratives such as Sejarah Melayu and Hikayat Pelayaran Abdullah. The
communication code of the Malays such as Adat and Islam has been consistently articulated in both
documentations. To the Malay, Adat and Islam at certain points apparently formulate to what has
been claimed by Anderson as imagined communities in the context of cultural roots. In other words,
the formation of the Malay society has consistently been imagined through the Adat and Islam as a
code of life articulation and a religious practice as well.

For example, some aspects of Adat could not be changed as it shall create turmoil in the grassroots. It
is also believed that the consistency in the practice of particular Adat is because of the magical and
the supernatural power that can affect the members of society who tried to change it . The Malay
association with supernatural and magic through the practice of Adat clearly form the cultural
proximity with foreign cultural text such as Indonesian soap opera. Apparently, most of our remote
informants are very comfortable with the magical and supernatural theme in the Indonesian soaps.
Some of them claimed that ‘the most exciting part is when the fairy god mother appear and helped
the good people to fight against evil characters.’ The magic and supernatural theme had clearly
appeared in the famous folklore adapted Indonesian soaps ‘Bawang Putih Bawang Merah’.

Although this folklore is very familiar to the Malay society, the judgment of foreignness lay on the
role of the light princess or ‘Puteri Cahaya’ as it has a similarity with ‘Tinker Bell’ in the famous
Western children fairy tale, ‘Peter Pan’. Interestingly, there is no little fairy in the Malay version of
Bawang Putih Bawang Merah. Besides, the story was adapted in the modern life style of
contemporary Indonesian society. This has allowed the Malay women not only to negotiate and
celebrate the foreignness in the sense of pleasure of watching magic and supernatural but the
representation of foreign modernity, or Indonesian modernity. The reception of magic and
supernatural also signify the distancing of foreign cultural text particularly among our urban
informants. One of them told us that she hates to watch Indonesian soaps because of too many
magical elements and irrationality in the sense of local cultural settings.

This pattern of negotiation process perhaps has been caused by the geographical audience setting .
For the remote informants, who are mostly of Malay-Javanese heritage settler in the selected remote
area of Johore, they have seen the magical and supernatural elements of Indonesian soaps as
something that is very familiar and easy to identify. However, the urban informant who lives in the
modern city landscape has been exposed and deterritorialized with the modern life style. For
example, the consumption of modern transnational cultural text through television and magazine has
exposed them to the wide rationality of knowledge and education. The structure of identifying and
distancing of supernatural and magical elements of Indonesian soap operas has revealed the process
of negotiation and appreciation of Malay women towards the foreign cultural text such as soap
operas from the non-Western setting.

• Identity
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As the anxieties towards Western cultural values have slowly declined, the shift towards
multidirectional cultural text has created ambivalence in certain peripheral states such as Malaysia.
The dependency of the local on the multidirectional system of images in the construction of he
imaginary modernity has drawn ‘alternative fear’ of being indigenised by another type of foreign
culture. For example, the local authorities have expressed fear towards the flood of transnational
televisual text from the other peripheral states such as South Korea and Indonesia. The concern of
Puteri UMNO towards the exposure of uncertainties in the transnational modern cultural text among
the local Malay women can be seriously considered as the potential of government to be no longer
the producer of local identity of the state .

Consequently, they have to compete with the local’s mind which are already saturated with foreign
text as it might be seen to be a new kind of resource for imagination. One of our remote informants
claims that there are many similarities between Indonesian and Malay culture. According to her:

‘I follow and practice any good exemple of Sinetron (Indonesian soaps). For example,
there was one story about Ustaz (Islamic religious teacher) and I love to listen to what
he says. Well, I am not perfect and sometimes need a guide to be a good Muslim.’
The same informant added that she can engage and relate the story in the Indonesian soaps to her
everyday life because ‘they are Javanese and so am I.’ The identical foreignness of cultural text
through Indonesian soaps offers the realistic representation appeal of everyday cultural practice. In
addition to that, the new modern way of teaching Islamic knowledge through soap opera has
sensationally created spectacular pleasure for imagining foreign or transnational modernity.
For example, she claims that ‘The Ustaz from the Sinetron that I watched quoted from the holy
Koran and he taught me how to be a good Muslim. This is good for our own sake, isn’t it?’ Although
this informant claimed that her Javanese blood help to signify her ability to consume Indonesian
cultural text, this did not illustrate that she has been indigenised by the foreign culture. This is
because she identifies the similarity of Malay and Indonesian cultures only in the sense of universal
Islamic identity that heavily appeals her to consume this genre everyday. A number of our urban
informants told us that the foreign identity of the actors and actresses assist them to signify
modernity.
One of them claimed that some of the famous Filipino soaps characters are very modern due to the
mixed-blood heritage, someone that they perceive to be ‘Asian but not-quite Asian’ . They also have
the intention to be like their favourite Filipino soaps star in the sense of make-up style and their soft-
spoken characters. Although they think the actress’s fashionable outfit also play some role to
represent the level of modernity, they still regard this as not practical in the Malay cultural context.
This foreign element justifies the position of the Malay women in the negotiation of modern cultural
text. As claimed by Schein , the local people will have to ‘position’ and ‘reposition’ themselves under
the social order. In the Malay case, social order will refer to the communication code such as Adat
and Islam.

Conclusion

Gaonkar asserts that modernity should be understood in the ‘alternative’ ways of thinking rather than
singularly static from the Western point of view. Therefore, the interpretation of transnational or
foreign modernity is ‘…not one but many.’ It has to be problematised and idealised through the
landscape of audience reception in ‘other’ place than Western setting. In the context of Malay
women, the spectacularity of foreignness as one of the important resource of melodramatic appeal,
were more compelling to the audience. This is certainly true as has been argued by Hannerz that the
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meaning of text is very uncertain and it must depend in the eyes of the beholder, and what he or she
thinks and understand is very complicated to explain. The foreign cultural landscape elements such
as representation of family, magic and the supernatural, romance and identity had assisted the Malay
women to negotiate and signify the local version of modernity.

Although the process of gaining ideas from the ‘foreignness’ may create a discourse of ‘cultural
imperialism’, the capacity of the local to read, interpret and imagine within their local context need to
be highlighted. Kling for example claim that modern life consumption through modern mass media
especially the electronic media has constructed a new pattern of behaviour in the sense of family life.
In other words, as claimed by Appadurai , ‘the landscape of group identity …insofar as groups are no
longer tightly territorialized, spatially bounded, historically unselfconscious, or culturally
homogenous.’ This is because the emergence of mediascape such as television and new media
persistently screen and provide what is called as a large world images repertoire.

Significantly, the media audience experience the confused and complicated landscape of reality and
fiction. In soap opera, the representation of reality has been fictionalised by the producer and to
some extent; the line between reality and fiction is slightly blurred . And because of this reason, it
can be said here that Malay women might construct their imagination with the process that ‘…
increasingly operate in ways that transcend specific territorial boundaries and identities’ . The
appreciation and consumption of foreignness elements through foreign soap opera may let the Malay
women to be exposed to the process of deterritorialization . To adjoin Chua’s foreignness elements
such as background musical themes and outdoor scenery, cultural landscape that obviously appeared
through non-Western soap opera significantly illustrates how transnational cultural text has a large
potential to deterritorialize the Malay women’s imagination.

Gaonkar for example states, that modernity still can be seen as an external threat of the traditional
cultural value of particular society. Yet, according to him ‘…there is another reaction…’ from the
particular group who creatively adapt and negotiate the Western idea of modernity and mixing them
with the traditional cultural resource. This situation perhaps can be idealised to the Malay women
who actively negotiate and adapt the non-Western idea of modernity and adjust it with the local
context to produce their own version of modernity. Clearly, the process of deterritorialization of
Malay women was and shall continue be located in the form of reception through negotiation of
media cultural text such as foreign soap operas. The significance of foreign cultural text such as soap
opera to mediate the sense of modernity has created a new space for the Malay women to produce
alternative modernities. However, they have to ‘position’ and ‘reposition’ the invention process of
their own modernity version with the local communication code such as Adat and Islam.

Bibliography

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