Cultural Agility in Heritage and Volunteering: Learning to See Malaysia Through the Museum

Our next feature in the Cultural Agility Story Series is from our very own Marie Tseng. You may know her as an intercultural leadership expert, but did you know she is also a passionate student of textiles? In 2011, she curated the exhibition Sacred Ikat: From Heirloom to Trade at the National Textile Museum. She also co-authored the book Sacred Ikat: From Heirloom to Trade, published by Jabatan Museum Malaysia in conjunction with the exhibition.

In this story, Marie reflects on a journey that began long before she ever used the words “cultural agility”, from her time in Indonesia to helping start Museum Volunteers Malaysia (JMM) after returning to Kuala Lumpur. She shares why culture cannot be reduced to “dos and don’ts” and why real understanding is often built through lived experience, stories, and genuine curiosity.

We hope you enjoy our second installation of the Cultural Agility Story Series.

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What I didn’t realise 20 years ago when we started Museum Volunteers Malaysia JMM

Twenty years ago, I wasn’t thinking about “cultural agility.”

I had just come back to Malaysia after two years in Indonesia, where I had been heading the Indonesian Heritage Society, a group supporting museums and encouraging both Indonesians and foreigners to engage more deeply with the country’s many cultures.

Volunteering at the museum helped me grow as an individual and learn to work effectively as part of a team of volunteers. At the time, most importantly, it helped me appreciate Indonesian culture and people. This is also where William’s (husband and co-founder of Cultural Impact) interest in ceramics started! 

When we moved back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia didn’t have anything like that. Through a series of conversations (and a bit of luck), I met Janet Tee, then Deputy Director of the National Museum of Malaysia under Jabatan Muzium Malaysia. And that’s how it started. A small group of curious, enthusiastic people trying to build something that didn’t quite exist yet.

At the time, I thought we were simply creating a volunteer group. Looking back, it was something else entirely.

It became a space where people learnt how to tell the story of a country, connecting the dots between facts, artefacts, and people. Over the years, that small group has grown into a community of more than 100 volunteers. MV JMM ( https://museumvolunteersjmm.com/ ) now offers guided tours at the National Museum of Malaysia in multiple languages (English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and sometimes more).  People come and go, as volunteers do. But the spirit of the group has remained.

This experience helped me rethink volunteering. We often think of volunteering as giving: giving time, support, and so on, but for me, volunteering has been much more about receiving.

It helped me understand the country I now call home in a way no book or briefing ever could.

It also brought me into conversations with people I would never have met otherwise. It contributed to shaping how I think about culture today, how I think about connecting across cultures , and it challenged many assumptions I may have held.

In my current work, I’m often asked about cultural agility, global mindset, or what it means to work effectively across cultures. There is a tendency to approach this at a very abstract level.

Frameworks. Models. Competencies. Dos and don’ts. But I’ve always struggled with that approach to culture.

Culture, as I use the term in my work, is a set of rules that help us function effectively in a particular context, be it communities, countries, or teams in multinational and cross-border environments. Cultural agility, then, is about navigating between these different contexts and building bridges between people. It requires a deep knowledge of one’s own culture, as well as a genuine curiosity about others.

I sometimes use the image of roots. Not as something fixed or restrictive, but as something that anchors you. Some trees have very deep, local roots. Others spread widely, across large areas. Both provide grounding. That grounding and stability is what helps us engage meaningfully and with confidence with others.

In my work with expatriates coming to Malaysia, I often observe many who arrive with the intention to perform, to deliver, and to integrate quickly. But as my friend Asma Abdullah would say, being efficient doesn’t mean being effective. When sincere connection and genuine curiosity are missing, it is hard to “perform” in a new environment. Taking the time to understand how people here make sense of the world — what matters, what shapes behaviour, what sits beneath what we see in meetings and decision-making — is not just a “nice to have”, it is crucial to performance. And history plays a much bigger role than we often acknowledge.

I am currently reading The WEIRDest People in the World, which explores how deeply our psychology is shaped by historical and cultural developments. Culture is not something we leave at the door when we go to work; It travels with us into conversations, decisions, and relationships, which brings me back to the museum.

Recently, I’ve had the chance to reconnect more actively with the group. It is humbling to see how the community has grown and to meet the many dedicated people who lead and sustain it. The museum is currently recruiting a new intake of volunteer guides for September. Becoming a guide is not just about learning history. It’s about learning how to see and how to help others see.

If you are living and working in Malaysia, this might be one of the most practical ways to deepen your understanding of the environment around you. Not through theory, but through stories, conversations, and the lived experience of people who have shaped this country. And perhaps the question is not whether you have time to volunteer, but what kind of understanding you might be missing without it!

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Read more on Marie's work with Textile here: https://theedgemalaysia.com/article/collecting-traditional-textiles Or drop an email to marietseng@culturalimpact.org to continue the conversation!