Cultural Ecology of Local Towns in a Multiethnic Nation : A Case Study of Malaysia.

马来西亚是一个多民族国家，由马来人、华人、印度人和印尼人等各种民族组成。自殖民时代以来，这些民族通过独立后的国家建设进程，发展了许多城镇，成为地方行政和经济文化活动的节点。本研究非常重视当地城镇在马来西亚社会发展过程中的作用，并基于对一些选定地区的密集田野研究，从文化生态学的角度考察了当地城镇的性质。马来西亚城市中心的演变过程分为三个阶段：(1)殖民初期的萌芽阶段；(2)殖民经济下的快速发展阶段；(3)独立后，特别是20世纪70年代新经济政策实施后的发展和转型阶段。在殖民地早期，我们可以看到，不仅是华裔移民，还有富裕的马来家庭参与了皇室城镇等地方的城市中心的形成。然而，在不断扩张的殖民经济下，马来社区从未成为马来西亚各地城市中心发展的重要参与者。独立后，情况发生了变化，特别是自20世纪70年代以来。在马来人主导的政府发展政策下，城市中产阶级马来人不断壮大，开始积极参与城市发展。在殖民统治时期，大多数城市人口是中国人。现在，重要的是要了解不同种族群体，特别是马来人和非马来人在特定的城市环境中共存的机制。

Malaysia is a multiethnic nation which is composed of various kinds of ethnic groups such as Malays, Chinese, Indians, and Indonesians. These ethnic groups have developed many towns as a nodal place of local administration and economic and cultural activities since the colonial era through the process of nation building after independence. This study attached great importance to the role of local towns in the development process of Malaysian society and investigated the nature of local towns from cultural ecological viewpoints based on the intensive field syudies in some selected area.The evolutional process of urban centers in Malaysia is divided into three stages : (1) its infancy in the early colonial period, (2) the rapid growth under the colonial economy, (3) the development and transformation after independence, especially after the 1970s when the New Economic Policy was implemented. In the early colonial period we can see the involvement of not only Chinese immigrants but also wealthy Malay families in the formation of urban centers in such places as royal towns. However, under the expanding colonial economy the Malay communities never became important actors in the development of urban centers all over Malaysia. The situation has changed after independence, especially since the 1970s. Under the development policy of the government in which the Malays take the leadship, urban middle-class Malays have grown in number and begun to involve in the urban development actively. Under the colonial regine most of the urban population is Chinese. Now it is important to understand the mechanism of coexistence of various ethic groups, especially Malays and non-Malays, in the specific urban settings.