Revised Cultural information of Malaysia

Revised Cultural information of Malaysia
LU WANG
ENG191 SEC21 Fall 2009
Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia and its capital is Kuala Lumpur. “Malaysia consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of 329,845 square kilometers. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants. The country is separated into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo, by the South China Sea. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei. The country is located near the equator and experiences a tropical climate.”1
There three ethnical groups of people live in Malaysia: Native Malaysian, Chinese Malaysian and Indian.
Malaysian is the official language in Malaysia. Chinese Malaysian also speaks Mandarin, other Chinese dialects and English in Malaysia, too. “Malaysia as a unified state did not exist until 1963. Previously, the United Kingdom had established influence in colonies in the territory from the late 18th century, so English is widely understood in service industries and is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary school due to the history of the British colony.”2 A lot of Chinese immigrated to Malaysia 100 years ago during the war time and became the first generation of Chinese Malaysian, therefore, Chinese Malaysian inherit almost the same culture and custom as Chinese culture.
Malaysia is also a multi-religions country. Almost native Malaysian believes Islam and therefore Islam is the official religion in Malaysia. Chinese Malaysian believes Buddhism a Daoism. Indian believes Hinduism. There are just a small amount of people are Christian in Malaysia.
Malaysia has many holidays for different ethnic festivals since it is a multi-ethnic country. Native Malay culture, traditional Chinese culture and traditional Indian culture are three dominant cultures in Malaysia.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Malaysia