Kampung Boy

I am not going to lie when I picked up this book I couldn't believe my prof had us by a comic book as a textbook, and a $20 comic book at that. Then I read it, in less than an hour and I LOVED it. It is such a light hearted, but very real seeming account of a boy growing up in Malaysia. The celebrations, customs and education. I noted their rituals for births and circumcision. They are very community orientated people. Every ceremony involves the whole town. I noted how important and ritualistic bathing in the river is to their culture. Almost every ceremony involves bathing. The birth they sing while the baby is cleaned and then rocked to sleep. The circumcision includes the whole town and then bathing before the procedure. All very different from American culture. We do not celebrate circumcision and it usually happens at birth, not at age 10. The whole circumcision honestly even made me cringe and I am not even a boy! I also noted that he was not allowed to leave the house until he was three, that would be terrible! In America most kids still get to play outside a bit. I guess there are a lot more dangers in Kampung than there are in US. I also noted how everyone took payment in so many forms. His teacher could be paid in rice, chickens, firewood, etc. there was no one way someone could be paid. If I tried to pay my tuition in rice or chickens the university would just laugh. Clearly very different cultures. It was also interesting to note that just like school in America you can see different strengths in children, how some are good at art like him and bad at math or vice versa. They have similar subjects and everyone is different. When it got to the end and her had to leave for school, I felt so sad for him! To leave his town and his culture for the city. I wanted the book to continue to see where it lead him.