Being Malaysian in Switzerland
About Farah Kemal
Looking for Farah Kemal is quite simple. All you have to do is find a house on Seesstrasse in Kilchberg with lights on both top floors, three cars in the parking lot, and a long outstretched hedge. The scent of mouth-watering and flavourful food wafts and floats around Kilchberg, the cars pushing it along with the wind. All you have to do is follow the scent, and you’ll find a Malaysian woman, her second year in Switzerland, keeping close to home and constantly homesick.
Could you please start by telling me a bit about your life leading up to this moment?
“I was born in Kuala Lumpur, and a few years later, my family moved to Australia, where we lived for a couple of years. We then went back to Malaysia, where I went to school and I did many sports. Through sports I went to Europe for competitions, and did a lot of gymnastics for about 10 years, and even though I lived in Malaysia and my base was in Malaysia, I still traveled a lot… Fast forward a few years, I went and worked in London, then New York, Singapore, and now I am here in Switzerland.”
Even though you have traveled and studied around the globe, do you still keep close to Malaysian culture?
“Yes, I keep very close to the culture, it is very hard to shake it off, because I grew up with it, and I think that I keep very close to the food side of it. I don’t know if it is because I am a foodie, or because I keep close to it because I grew up with it, because we celebrate everything around food. The big thing about Malaysian culture is if you are celebrating a big thing, such as Eid (the Malaysian Christmas), it is always about food. I think that it comes from there, and it keeps me close to Malaysian culture, and it reminds me of home.”
How has being Malaysian changed/affected the way you live?
“It has affected me in the way that I am always homesick [as Malaysia is on the other side of the globe] and I have had to grow accustomed to it…I think that it has really given me and enabled me to have another mindset, as the eastern culture is very different from the western culture, as where we live, is much more open, and much more widespread, and free, and there is a toggle between the two cultures, within myself even, and when I interact with people in Malaysia, and when I interact with people here, there is an evident difference.”
“I like to think of myself as a citizen of the world, not from just one place or country.”
- Farah Kemal
“There is a toggle between the Eastern and Western cultures, in myself even.”
- Farah Kemal
How much of a role in your identity, does being Malaysian play?
“I think that being Malaysian gave me a very good starting point in my life, and I took it with me wherever I went. Every Time I had to move, I had to keep adapting, and I think that even though I really remember where I come from, and I celebrate it, and I fold onto the principles that really shape me, I don’t feel stuck, as living in many countries has really changed my view on the world, and given me new opportunities and views, and so therefore, I don’t feel like I belong in the one place, or one country, and I feel like I am an individual in limbo, and sometimes, I feel like I am a citizen of the world, as I could possibly/ probably move anywhere, and make new friends, and learn new things that make me happy, and feel very much fulfilled.”
We have seen how diversity is one of the main topics in today’s world, Do you feel you are more free to be who you are in Switzerland than in other nations?
“I think that in Switzerland, it is a place that is really evolving, and that for the past two years that I have been here, and is opening up more, compared to when I moved. I also think that it is quite different to other countries, like the US and England, where I have seen more of a variety of people and more nationalities, where it is sort of a melting pot where everything comes together, and it is more natural, and the norm, where people across the globe bring their identities and meet, and I think that within Switzerland, it has started to become more open overall.”
