ABSTRACT

Despite its lack of history, Kuala Lumpur has a vibrant culture. This is a city in which the train station looks like a Moorish/Malay palace. This is a city fi lled with cultural performances of all kinds. This is a city where even the most modern buildings, even skyscrapers, make use of Islamic and Malay motifs. This is a city where Chinatown is as good as Chinatown in San Francisco and Little India is a smaller, cleaner version of bright, towering, artistic mosques, eye-catching Chinese temples, colourful Hindu temples and cathedrals that come straight out of Europe. If you’ve never been a people watcher, and I’ve never really been, Kuala Lumpur will change that. If there’s one thing Malays seem to love it’s colour. You can see it in their brightly painted houses, colourful dances, treasured kites, famous weaving and most of all, clothing. Most Malay women wear bright colours wherever they go, often with elaborate decorations. In fact, Malays are famous for a type of woven cloth that actually uses gold thread. Not gold-coloured thread, but thread made from gold. I’m not kidding. Fewer Malay men wear traditional cloths, but those who do are just as colourful. Kuala Lumpur’s many Indians also wear colourful sarongs. Only the Chinese prefer western clothing, which seems drab in comparison. All this makes any crowded street seem like a kaleidoscope of people.