Ah Beng Subculture and The Anti-Capital of Social Exclusion

Author: Rachel Chan Suet Kay
Publisher: UKM Press 
ISBN: 9789672515708
Weight: 
Pages: 128
Year: 2021
Price: RM25

This book explains the existence of the Ah Beng subculture in Malaysia. Viewed from the lens of subcultural theory, the Ah Beng subculture differentiates itself from the rest of Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian society through the ways in which its members presented their selves. Through attributes such as self-adornment, taste in material objects, and general disposition, members of the Ah Beng subculture in Malaysia are distinct as a separate identity. However, there is also a marginalizing element in the general description of the Ah Beng subculture. This gives rise to more questions. Is subculture thus inherently linked to the working class? Is it such that the position of being socially excluded necessitates the formation of a countercultural identity, or could this identity have been fashioned reciprocally by the in-group and out-group members? This book utilizes the concept of cultural capital to explain these questions, advocating for the notion of ' anti-capital or a lack of mainstream cultural capital, which simultaneously serves to fashion a type of subcultural capital that defines its identity.