ABSTRACT
Arts and culture in Malaysia are marked by tensions that are both a result of and indicative of currents arising out of the nation's political, economic and social dynamics. Modern Malaysia's arts and culture are rooted in practices indigenous to the Malay archipelago and the region's absorption of external cultural and religious influences. Traditional art forms such as wayang kulit and mak yong reveal lasting vestiges of the Hindu and Buddhist empires that dominated Southeast Asia in ancient times. The art forms and cultural practices relegated to the margins by National Cultural Policy were disadvantaged by a policy delegitimising their stake in the national, and limiting access to public resources. While the cultural policy framework has played an enduring role, a range of stakeholders, some of whom act in accordance with the desires of the state, and others whose contours are formed in resistance to it.
