history in the making

I realise that having grown up in KL I've lost a lot of perspective on the place - my consultant in A&E told me she was going for a visit and asked me for recommendations - and I was so cynical. I said Batu Caves is the touristy kind of thing, locals don't really do it. I sold it as a super industrialised capitalist pseudo-metropolis, with only shopping malls and food stalls and no authentic cultural identity - but i've been watching youtube videos of foreigners talking about what it's like to live in Malaysia, and discovering the country through their eyes - it helps me discover what Malaysia actually does have to offer. One particular youtuber was absolutely charmed by bangsar - the fact that retail outlets coexisted / abutted a quaint little residential area. At the time I held that the juxtaposition and incongruity was a sign of fraudulence. But the Ang Mohs see it as a charming idiosyncrasy. A metaphor or synecdoche for the city whose facets of personality are legion.

I feel like I have a prejudice against the new - the hipster - the things that don't pay homage to the past. Fusion restaurants, franchise coffee joints. Even though they're homegrown and not imported. Maybe these things aren't a false veneer - covering up for a lack of identity - as I initially thought. Maybe this is what Malaysia is. Maybe the Malaysia that foreigners are in love with and gush over is the real Malaysia. Maybe it's really grown into itself, and I simply can't recognise it because all I remember is who it used to be.