Changing home, unchanging family

It might look like a scene from a sci-fi movie, but this is a view of Jalan Bukit Bintang in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

IT is said that for most Malaysians, the terraced house, whether single- or double-storey, is the dream home. It’s like the house with white picket fences for Americans of a certain generation. But how times have changed. Population growth, cost and new styles of housing mean that more Malaysians live in multi-storey housing today, especially in urban areas.

Home, for me, used to be the upper floor of a shophouse near what is now the busy intersection of Jalan Bukit Bintang-Jalan Sultan Ismail in downtown Kuala Lumpur. This was in the 1960s. In its place today stands the iconic McDonald’s Bukit Bintang outlet, the hangout of tourists and teenagers.