Every festive season, Malaysian shopping malls roll out their decorations, but not every celebration gets the same treatment. Content creator Blake Yap has been grading how malls mark Deepavali through his Deco Mall Review series, and his scorecard has put the spotlight on questions of effort and representation. In the first part of this episode, we speak to Blake and kolam artist Rupa Subramaniam about what they have noticed in public spaces, which malls are getting it right, and what they hope to see from malls and brands going forward. Then, we get into it with our listeners and ask: Do festive decorations in malls matter to you? Why?

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