Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

KEN YOUNG 71
happening in these places besides buying and selling. The cool vastness of the
malls also offers relief from a hot and polluted environment. Most importantly, as
John Clammer (1992:195) claims: ‘shopping is not merely the acquisition of things;
it is the buying of identity’. Significantly, one does not have to buy to engage in
practices of identity formation in these spaces. And while they are public places,
they are sufficiently diverse internally to provide for, and even to constitute, social
differentiation among the public (Shields 1992:14, 108). Shields (1992:14)
observes: ‘The desegregated market of “life styles” and “consumption classes”
(Saunders 1978) reflects both the cross-hatching of socio-economic stratification
with cultural groupings and the absence of any truly “mass” culture.’ Religious
leaders in Bangkok raise the lament that the malls are the new temples of modern
Bangkok. Nobel Prize nominee Sulak Sivaraksa muses (The Nation 1994:95):
At present Buddhism is manipulated by the state and when the state
becomes weak, consumerism fills the vacuum and manipulates religion…
Monks who used to splash holy water on marine frigates nowadays perform
the ritual in front of an automatic telling machine. They perform for
American Express, for Coca Cola. Do they realise what a sinful mistake they
are committing?
So, malls are variously described as public parks, as the new temples of the great
new cities of Asia. I would submit a further metaphor to characterise their multiple
social functions–they are open-access academies of middle-class consumerism. In
the most opulent malls of central Jakarta (such as Plaza Indonesia, Plaza Menteng,
Sarinah Store), or in prestige locations like Pondok Indah, Pasaraya Blok M or
Citraland Mall, one can spend hours walking past a seemingly endless array of
specialist boutique shops, large national and international department stores,
supermarkets, banks, franchised food outlets and the like. In these prestige
locations, buyers are relatively few compared with window-shoppers, although in
many cases these stores create environments that discreetly discourage casual
browsers (Chua 1992:119). International tenants outnumber local retailers, partly
because of the exorbitant rents that are charged (Seek 1996), and the mix of
people is towards the more affluent in society, with a good leavening of foreigners.
Yet, even here, there is an admixture of teenagers in school uniform, sightseers,
couples on dates in the restaurants and fast-food outlets. The merchandise is
carefully viewed, though few are buying at the luxury end. What is being studied
most assiduously are the elements of middle-class style.
In stores and markets close to the main complexes, in the malls adjacent to the
residential estates, or in suburban and less uniformly opulent settings away from
the city centre, the shoppers are far more varied and interesting. More are buying,
and the stores are more likely to be leased by local firms selling goods that middleclass
people can afford. It is much more bustling, noisy and vibrant. Yet the display
of style is still important. It is still a long way in social distance from the crowded
urban pasars (markets) where household servants and working-class people shop