SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

BACHELOR (HONS) OF SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE

REPRESENTING PLACE

ADAPTATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

GROUP 2 - PROJECT 1(A) & 1 (B)

MR. HAFIZ AMIRROL

NAMES STUDENT ID

CHONG YI QI 0304898

KONG XHIANG LYNN 0317730

JAMES TAY JIA CHUEN 0322210

JANICE LEE JUEN YUNG 0318695

LEONG YU SHI 0322586

MUATASIMAH BILLAH BINTI SALEH MOHAMAD 0316071

NG KE NING 0323015

Title : CULTURE AND HERITAGE

Site : Petaling Street

Course : Architecture

Measuring Adaptation of Cultural Heritage

1. Language adaptation

- Amount of people able to speak their own language per square meter

- Amount of people able to understand their own language per square meter

- Amount of people able to write their own language per square meter

2. Influence of food from different cultures

- Number of people from the same race who acknowledges the existence of their own

cultural food per square meter

- Number of people from different races who acknowledges the existence of other

races’ cultural food per square meter

- Number of people who eat different races’ cultural food per square meter

3. Culture and Tradition Practice

- Amount of people celebrates their own cultural festival per square meter

- Amount of people celebrates their own and other races’ cultural festival per square

meter

- Amount of people still wearing their traditional clothing during cultural festival and

daily routines per square meter

- Amount of people who practices their cultural superstition per square meter

TITLE : CULTURE AND HERITAGE

Research Background

Cities evolve and changing with development. Petaling Street is the center of Kuala Lumpur's

original Chinatown. Petaling Street is known as one of Kuala Lumpur’s best attraction place and

has been a shopping area since the late 19th century. Over the decades the street has transformed

into a huge market selling many types of merchandise and is a food paradise.

From its original incarnation as an outdoor food market, the market has been redeveloped into a

pedestrian-only zone and is easily access by pedestrians and MRT. However, going by vehicle and

bus are not advisable as it will cause traffic congestion.

Petaling Street is also famous due to its local heritage values and unique façade elements. Despite

that, the heritage shophouses there are not well conserved and are left abandon. This can be seen

through the number of pre-war shophouses reducing, the sign of deterioration by lacking of

maintenance and replacement by new tall buildings at the area. Moreover, the cleanliness and poor

maintenance issue of the street has become an issue that are hampering the plans to develop this

tourist destination further.

However, it can be said that Petaling Street has the potential to be developed into a cultural and

historic district in Kuala Lumpur.

Questionnaires

1. What is your race? (Malay / Chinese / Indian / Lain-lain)

2. What is your ethnic? _____________________________

3. Are you able to understand your ethnic language? Yes / No

4. Are you able to read your ethnic language? Yes / No

5. Are you able to write your ethnic language? Yes / No

6. Do you celebrate your respective ethnic’s festivals? Yes / No

7. What festivals do you celebrate?

Deepavali, Thaipusam, Hari Raya, Awal Muharam, Mid Autumn Festival, Chinese New

Year

8. What other festivals do you celebrate?

Deepavali, Thaipusam, Hari Raya, Awal Muharam, Mid Autumn Festival, Chinese New

Year

9. How often do you wear your ethnic traditional clothes? Yearly / Monthly / Weekly /

Daily

10. Do you wear other races’ traditional clothing? Yes / No

11. Do you practice your cultural superstitious? Yes / No

12. How well do you know your ethnic’s food? 1 2 3 4 5

13. Do you know how to make your own ethnic’s food? Yes / No

14. Which ethnic food is your favourite? __ Chinese __ Malay __ Indian

15. Would you introduce your ethnic’s food to foreigners? Yes / No

16. Are you willing to continue practicing your culture? Yes / No

Objectives

1. To study the depth of understanding of their own culture in younger generation.

2. To study the depth of cultural intermingling in various ethnics.

3. To understand how the changes in cultural routine has affected their cultural practice.

Significance

Malaysia is a nation with different ethics, sharing various culture. We aim to study the depth of

understanding of younger generations towards their own culture. As the culture and traditions are

fading, we would like to know how Malaysians adapt to the changes. Besides that, we would like

to study the spirit of Malaysians when they celebrate different ethnics’ festivals together as well

as enjoy different races’ food. We would like to understand how Malaysians daily routine has

affected their cultural practices as well as determine whether they still hold onto their

superstitious beliefs.

Method

1. Petaling Street, also known as the Chinatown which is located in Kuala Lumpur, is

chosen as the site of our research on the daily practices of cultural heritage among the

locals.

2. Different races such as Chinese, Indian and Malays of different age group are targeted for

the research.

3. Questionnaires are used as our main instrument in carrying out this research.

4. The answered questionnaires will then be recorded and analyzed.

5. Multiple graphs will then be produced based on the information gathered from the

questionnaires.

Expected outcome

Based on the primary understanding of the site and the questionnaires produced, the expected

outcomes from the people of Petaling Street are listed as below:

1. Most of the people from Petaling Street are still passing on their cultural heritage to their

children.

2. Many realize the importance of their culture and why it should be passed onto the future

generations.

3. Most of the people still eat, wear, celebrate and practices their own culture’s superstition,

festival, costumes, and food.

4. Due to the multicultural society, many respect and understand the culture of other races.

5. One’s cultural heritage is passed on regardless of the sex, age and race of an individual.

6. Many embrace and even practice other race’s culture such as food, clothing and festival.