The Dialectics of Capitalist Reclamation: Traditional Malay Music at Fin de siècle Singapore

One of the initiatives used by the Singapore government to fortify its own position has been to promote Malay culture. This has been done by strengthening the Malays’ attachment to their indigenous culture and also by introducing the customs and practices of the racial minority to non- Malays. This article traces the genealogy of cultural engineering by the state from the 1960s to the present, and argues that the persistence of late capitalism has retained the material dialectic between the political and the popular. Focusing on the local practices of the gamelan and angklung-kulintang, the article explores paradoxes in the way these musical genres are being promoted today by a new generation of non-Malay descendants, who have also become the cultural sculptors of Malay identity for international spectacles.