Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Starter: Into a World Heritage City
- 1 A Cityscape below the Winds
- 2 Heritage Affairs: Mouse-Deer, White Elephants, and Watchdogs
- 3 UNESCO and the City
- 4 Melakan Row Houses from the Ground Up
- 5 Divide and Brand: Public Space, Politics, and Tourism
- 6 A Melakan Ancestral Village Beyond World Heritage
- 7 Epilogue of a Blessing and a Curse
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Divide and Brand: Public Space, Politics, and Tourism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 July 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Starter: Into a World Heritage City
- 1 A Cityscape below the Winds
- 2 Heritage Affairs: Mouse-Deer, White Elephants, and Watchdogs
- 3 UNESCO and the City
- 4 Melakan Row Houses from the Ground Up
- 5 Divide and Brand: Public Space, Politics, and Tourism
- 6 A Melakan Ancestral Village Beyond World Heritage
- 7 Epilogue of a Blessing and a Curse
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Chapter 5 turns to the transformation of historic spaces into ‘cultural shopping streets’, divided along the official macro-categories of Malays, Chinese, and Indians. After introducing the making of Little India and the Malay Bazar Ramadan, the chapter focuses on the Chinatown-like Jonker Walk as the first and most successful of these projects. This case study shows how these tourism packages resist a wide range of critics: from UNESCO-related actors and local heritage bureaus that condemn the commercialization of these historic streets, to the residents and heritage aficionados that identify them as symbols of multicultural coexistence. This chapter reveals competing views of Melaka's multi-ethnic townscape: from the cosmopolitan character of the World Heritage inscription to a racialized and politicized demarcation of space.
Keywords: tourism, branded streets, public space, racialization, cultural diversity, Jonker Walk
On weekend evenings, after a chat at Mr. Chwee's house, I used to stroll westwards if I wanted to avoid the crowd of tourists gathering at the night market in Jonker Street. The opposite side would never be the right option for an escape, because hordes of tourists converge there to take a trishaw, to reach the Hard Rock Café, or to watch kung fu Master Ho (a Guinness World Record holder) pierce a coconut with his finger. I then used to turn right before the Tamil Methodist Church, into what is today best known as Harmony Street, where I often parked my motorbike. The real names of the three portions of Harmony Street are Jalan Tukang Besi (‘Blacksmith Street’), Jalan Tukang Emas (‘Goldsmith Street’), and Jalan Tokong (‘Temple Street’). Here, three among the oldest functioning places of worship in Malaysia stand together: Kampung Kling Mosque, Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, and Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple. For this reason, guidebooks began presenting these three streets as ‘Harmony Street’ back in the 1980s (e.g., Tan 1984; Hoyt 1993). By referring to it as ‘Three Temples Street’, the World Heritage nomination dossier displayed this proximity as an example of the ‘harmony of multi-racial groups’ (Malaysia 2008: 25).
In Chapter 3 I described the influence international actors had in shaping a pluralistic narrative, in line with interests in cultural diversity and multiculturalism inspired by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
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- Information
- World Heritage and Urban Politics in Melaka, MalaysiaA Cityscape below the Winds, pp. 193 - 224Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021