Straits Eclectic

Straits eclectic: an architectural style which
combines diverse elements – fusing Chinese forms
with Western ornament; incorporating climate
adaptations from the Indian sub-continent
and Malay archipelago; reflecting the ‘rojak’
nature of Malaysia.

Whenever the idealistic among us speak about a better Malaysia, we tend to focus on the thing that unite us: the food, the festivals, the cultural experiences that bind us together in a shared national fabric, ignoring the yawning gaps that weaken the weave and keep us from achieving lofty visions of development and progress.

Straits Eclectric is a collection of essays by young Malaysians who stare straight into  the void and attempt to understand the divides that exist between us, whatever East and West Malaysian and the rest of the world, between East and West Malaysians, between Malays and Chinese and lndians and Dan Lain Lain, between religion and culture, between past and present, between the person you were when you left and the person you had become by the time you returned.

Too often we dismiss the voices of those who have ‘tasted less salt’, mistaking age for wisdom. Straits Eclectric proves that our young Malaysians – proud and pertinent and eloquent and passionate – can dish out as much salt as they take. For once, listen to what they have to say.

Hanna Alkaf, 

author of Gila : A Journey through Moods and Madness