Incongruous Moment: Frosty in Malaysia?

For a year, from July ’86 to June ’87, we lived in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state in Malaysia. The town is about 25 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur, which is only a few degrees north of the equator.

Malaysia is officially Muslim, although the native Malays, who are by definition Muslim, constitute only a bare majority of the population. About a third of the population is ethnic Chinese, who practice a great variety of religions, including Christianity. About 10% are Indians, mostly Tamils from South India who are Hindus. About one percent are expatriates, mostly Americans and Western Europeans.

This makes for a varied and interesting country, since each of these groups has its own language, dress, cuisine, religion and holidays. This variety was noticeable in the small supermarket in Shah Alam where we did most of our shopping. There were Malay women covered up in their traditional dress, Indian women in saris, Chinese women in tight slacks or miniskirts and a few expatriate women in conservative dresses.

At Christmastime, we regretted being away from home and family, but we felt the compensation would be the absence of the seasonal hype and commercialism which accompanies the holidays in the US. Our Incongruous Moment took place as Christmas approached and the supermarket loudspeaker started playing songs such as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Let It Snow.” When we asked locals if they had ever seen snow, they would say, “Oh, yes. On television.”

IRVING E. DAYTON

Corvallis, OR