Global Habitus: Multilingual Identity Differences Expressed through Cultural Capital

Abstract

The area of literature discussed in this paper is the use of cultural capital as an explanatory framework in comparing identity. The case study highlighted here is intra-ethnic diversity among the Malaysian Chinese. Two sub-groups of Malaysian Chinese are identified based on their experienced educational medium of instruction, which are the Chinese-medium and English-medium education systems. Identity differences between the two groups can be compared through the three forms of cultural capital which are the objectified, institutionalised, and embodied. This paper locates the study within the bulk of studies using the cultural capital framework, as well as the existing corpus of scholarship on Malaysian Chinese identity.