Birds' Nests, Heritage Trails and Shopping Malls: Nostalgia and Contested Heritage in Malacca

Abstract

Based in ethnographic research in Melaka (West Malaysia), this paper explores linkages between nostalgia and alternative notions of heritage. I explore local residents’ meanings ascribed to “heritage” (translatable as ‘warisan’, in bahasa melayu). Building upon Rosaldo’s (1989) notion of ‘imperialist nostalgia’ and Hertzfeld’s (2005) concept of ‘structural nostalgia’, I end by discussing the production and consumption of colonial nostalgia in contemporary times.