Cultural heritage, Emotion, Acculturation, Ethnic minority, Valence.

Abstract

It is believed that the historical background of the Chinese community in Malaysia has significant impact on their emotional dimension towards the Malay cultural heritage, which is the heritage of the major ethnic group in Malaysia. This study aimed to examine the emotional expression of the Chinese ethnic towards Malay cultural heritage images in comparison to the Malay ethnic. Three different type of Malay cultural heritage images (Malay traditional food - ketupat, Malay traditional dresses – baju melayu/baju kurung and Malay traditional game – wau bulan) were presented to the Chinese (N=80) and the Malay (N=116) participants, recruited from the undergraduate population of a local institution. Participants self-rated their emotional feedback using a non-verbal pictorial measure (Self-Assessment Manikin) which measured the range of emotional response (valence domain), ranging from one (low valence) to nine (high valence). The Chinese indicated similar level of emotion expression as the Malays in response towards the images of Malay cultural heritage. Both Chinese and Malay showed higher self-rated emotional expression for traditional food image (i.e. ketupat) than non-food images (i.e. Malay dresses and wau bulan). Implication of this study points to the effect of acculturation on the emotional development of the ethnic minority and the emotional property of the food image in constructing the emotion.