Liminal spaces — Malaysia
So @fightingfish and I came up with this discussion about liminal spaces in Malaysia, like. And we kind of realized a few things:
- Unlike in the US, hypermarkets like Tesco and Giant aren’t exactly liminal spaces, because the employees stamp their own identity and personality in these spaces. Maybe in some poorly-visited areas of the hypermarket? But not at the cash areas, the produce areas, or that serve foods.
- That being said, probably some hardware large hardware stores, some art supplies stores used for wedding supplies.
- University Malaya Medical Centre, specifically some corridors.
- Not mosques, especially some mosques like Masjid Bulat Seksyen 14 have given me the opposite of liminality. But suraus, the Muslim equivalent of chapels, yes. Unless that surau is made a community center, where there’s daycare, or teaching.
- Large parts of schools during school holidays, except the places where they do extracurricular activities.
- Large parts of Kuala Lumpur during Chinese New Year, and to be fair, Hari Raya 😂 (less of this these days, though, because we’re seeing people who’ve lived and consider Kuala Lumpur their home for generations).
- Oil palm plantations, some service roads, or, basically places where you’d go if you were a horny couple and didn’t have a place to have sex.
- Highway stops and R&Rs, almost with no exception. Yeah, even the large ones like the Restoran Jejantas.
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Overhead pedestrian crossings, especially across train tracks.
- Most of Publika outside of the heavily trafficked areas and the art installations.
- Some public parks (an example would have been parks like Taman Aman. Interestingly enough, Taman Jaya during the time Pokémon Go actually had its liminality banished due to the large numbers of people trooping through the park to get a Pikachu, but… I don’t know? It certainly felt surreal gaming there).
- Old rural train stations (a famous example would have been depicted in Lat’s Mat Som, i.e. Stesen Keretapi Tanjung Malim).
Actually, that last example is instructive, in which that scene, the punks who were with Mat Som called the train stop itself “tempat jin bertandang” (i.e. the place where spirits dwell / hang out).
Anyway. That’s some of what I’ve got. Let’s talk more about these places, @keiyoshi, @horusporus, @grrraknil, @maybethings, @anneemay, @radio-charlie, @mindscalpel, @were-cow, @melissaeliias, @jhameia, @pekorosu, other Malaysians?
