Refashioning Race by Alka Vaid Menon

Author:Alka Vaid Menon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520386709
Publisher: University of California Press

Embodying the Brand

There was some irony in the fact that Malaysian cosmetic surgeons were offering prospective patients racial sensitivity rooted in their experience navigating a multicultural milieu. Malaysian multiculturalism is emblazoned in tourism campaigns and proudly proclaimed on the global stage as part of the national myth of the country, analogous in status to the idea of the U.S. as a melting pot of different immigrant cultures. Yet tension between Malaysian racial groups was also a frequent subject of newspaper articles, social media, and clinic break room conversations.30 The ability to claim familiarity with patients of Indian and Chinese heritage as well as those professing the Muslim faith furnished Malaysian cosmetic surgeons with a distinct market niche for cosmetic surgery tourism.

Recall that plastic surgeons in Malaysia were generalists. They were also more likely than U.S. surgeons to be members of racial minorities, hailing from Chinese and Indian heritage. This was the result of the British colonial administration’s recruitment of physicians from these groups. In the five decades since gaining independence, the Malaysian government has implemented formal affirmative action programs to increase the number of Malay physicians. These policies can be credited with bringing the proportion of Malay physicians up to the proportion of Malays in the general population.31 However, plastic surgeons were more likely to be Malaysian Chinese (40%, relative to 23% of the population) or Malaysian Indian (14%, relative to 7% of the population) than Malay (46%, relative to 69% of the population). The current racial mix of the profession, compared with the more rapidly changing racial demographics of Malaysian society, provided added incentive for Malaysian Indian and Chinese surgeons to showcase their racial and cultural sensitivity to meet the needs of any Malaysian patient.

Compared with U.S. surgeons, Malaysian cosmetic surgeons were more comfortable foregrounding aspects of their own racial identities as part of their brands. To make connections and establish rapport with patients from across Asia, Malaysian surgeons emphasized their ethnic heritage, language skills, and cultural values. Most of the formal and technical discussions about cosmetic surgery procedures occurred in English. However, in consultations with patients in the clinic, I found that Malaysian surgeons would slip into Bahasa Melayu with Malay patients or Cantonese or Mandarin with Malaysian Chinese patients. This kind of code-switching put patients visibly at ease in the clinic. Surgeons who were unable to code-switch felt comparatively disadvantaged. For instance, Dr. Rajan, who was Malaysian Indian, characterized Malaysian Chinese surgeons as better situated to serve Malaysian Chinese patients: “He has a base, the Chinese doctor, because he knows the language.” Surgeons believed that sharing a language brought people together, and they benefited from a presumption that shared language suggested other similarities in values, beliefs, or upbringing.

In a cultural context in which racial identities and backgrounds were often inferred from surnames, the racial identity of Malaysian surgeons could be a salient brand identity that appealed more strongly to some patients and helped establish their cultural sensitivity. Dr. Hsu (Malaysian Chinese) observed, “Sometimes the patient wants to

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