Old New Villages by Gan Aaron

Driving up North from where I live in the state of Selangor, Malaysia, I start to ponder if my scheduled road trip across 12 new villages over 9 days is a smart move. Considering myself a beginner in urban sketching, am I feeling over-confident in this attempt with a single accordion sketchbook for each village and just 2 fountain pens. Putting excitement and doubts aside, this opportunity by Urban Sketchers had me recall adventurous endeavours I used to feel alive in my younger days.

The word ‘new’ in the term ‘new village’ (Malay: kampung baru / Chinese: 新村), does not represent a sentiment of being ‘recent’. The term was introduced by the British colonials of Malaya peninsula in the 1950s, to isolate rural civilian villagers from contact with communist guerillas who fought for control after the Japanese Occupation during World War II. The British military created 450 new settlements, with the term ‘new village’ added to each settlement’s name where it is located. Today, a total of 77 former new villages remain scattered across the state of Selangor in Malaysia, growing into ordinary residential towns followed by rapid developments since the country’s independence in 1957.

With most new villages transformed into tourist destinations by support of local initiatives, I yearn to search and look through the facade into local daily life and routine, stories that might soon fail to stand the test of time yet too important to ignore as part of its identity. Through my journey I am lucky to meet friendly strangers from all walks of life in happenstance during my sketch and stay. Some extended their goodwill with conversations, some showing me around with stories, some with the most delicious food.

The monsoon season in Malaysia with its unpredictable weather made urban sketching challenging, yet provided me an exhilarating experience to be resourceful and flexible in accomplishing sketches of that day by myself without a sketch buddy. From rushing to sketch a panoramic view of a morning market not realising they are about to call it a day, to being shrugged and chased away when asking for permission to sketch the inside of a nostalgic barber shop, these events were compensated by the many authentic scenes in each village. I will never forget the feeling of sketching by the street with the sun slowly rising on ‘Breakfast Street’ in Bagan Sungai Yu, locals arriving at the row of coffee shops while on their daily errands on motorbikes, pedlars selling vegetables and dry foods, stall owners beside me asking if I had my breakfast then quickly offering me some under the hot sun. A perfect scene.

Whenever I loiter around the villages after sunset with my sketches in hand, reminiscing all that happened throughout the day, I accepted that the intricate way of life in all new villages would soon change or be gone one day. I used to perceive this as unnecessary developments that require interventions to preserve it as is. Yet after seeing with my own eyes, I now believe it as a natural change that is necessary over the change of time. As urban sketchers, we would record while time still permits, preserving what we think is essential in our own language with pen on paper, in analogue or digital.