Lat’s Graphic Novels, Kampung Boy and Town Boy: A Personal, Narrative, and Visual Approach to Malaysian Architecture

Putra, Yvette ORCID: 0000-0001-8219-1872 (2024) Lat’s Graphic Novels, Kampung Boy and Town Boy: A Personal, Narrative, and Visual Approach to Malaysian Architecture. In: Graphic Brighton: Comics and Architecture, 13th-14th December 2024, University of Brighton.

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Abstract

Lat (b. 1951) is Malaysia’s most celebrated cartoonist. Since the 1970s, his works have been published mainly as graphic novels, and as collections of cartoons that have appeared in local newspapers. Here, I analyse two of his graphic novels, Kampung Boy (1979) and Town Boy (1981), which are autobiographical accounts of growing up in mid-twentieth-century Malaysia. I am interested in how the stories in these graphic novels are backgrounded by and interwoven with the architecture. These graphic novels, despite – or perhaps, due to – not having originated in the architectural profession, capture distinctly anthropocentric and atmospheric qualities of architecture, which are valuable architectural knowledge but often missing from everyday architectural practice. Thus, although it is not their intended purpose, these graphic novels constitute uniquely authentic and experiential records of Malaysian architecture. Kampung Boy describes the protagonist’s upbringing in a kampung – a close-knit Malay village – during the colonial era. Many stories in Kampung Boy take place in a kampung house, a type of traditional Malay domestic architecture. Other stories are set in the structures that form the kampung and its surroundings, including the mosque and school. Meanwhile, the companion graphic novel, Town Boy, is prompted by the protagonist’s move to the state capital, Ipoh, via a housing scheme in the newly independent country. Ipoh is a prosperous town that expanded under colonial rule, and its ethnically diverse population shows in its architecture and street life. I regard these graphic novels as starting points for discussing historical architecture in Malaysia, which has, in recent decades, been forced to adapt, been commodified by tourism, or disappeared altogether. In addition, these graphic novels provoke discussions around the complexities of the country’s architectural heritage vis-à-vis its colonial past.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Related URLs:	https://graphicbrighton.wordpress.com/
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NA Architecture
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Depositing User:	Yvette Putra
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2024 14:09
Last Modified:	19 Dec 2024 14:09
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/14646

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