1933: Wembley Park

All roads led to Wembley amusement Park and Wembley became a new home for Boria in the 1930s. At the same time, it also marked a paradigmatic shift that Boria would undergo. If Boria was principally a form of street theatre, the Wembley ushered the Boria onto a proscenium stage. 

The amusement park began mushrooming across the Malay Peninsula from the late 1920s onwards. The first of these amusement parks opened in 1923. The Straits Chinese owners christened their park, 'The New World'. It offers cabaret boxing contests, wrestling matches, variety shows and operas. The success was followed by Great World, which was later bought over by the film entrepreneurs the Shaw Brothers. Alongside radio and cinema, the 'Worlds' emerged as a new feature of popular culture.

In Kuala Lumpur, there was Hollywood Park, Great Eastern Park, Fairyland and Bukit Bintang. In Penang there was Fun and Frolic and Wembley Park, as well as its own New World and Great World (Straits Times 13 April 1933). Many different types of entertainment could be found here, such as theatrical/music performances, movies, gmbling stalls, ronggeng parties and joyride cars (Straits Echo 16 Feb 1933), . More importantly they were affordable and brought together town residents from across all walks and stations in life. This space of levelling that the 'World' Park gradually produced an important public sphere for a shared imagination sustained through the growth of a popular culture.