Wang Ruobing The Quest for a Regional Culture: The Artistic Adventure of Two Trips, 1952 and 2001

Left to right: Liu Kang, , Luo Ming, Ni Pollok, Adrien-Jean La Mayeur, Chong Swee, , 1952. Courtesy of Liu Kang Family.

iu Kang (1911–2004), Chen Wen Hsi (1906–1991), Cheong Soo Pieng (1917–83), and (1910–1986) are four Limportant early artists of . They were born in and emigrated to what was then called Malaya before the founding of the People’s Republic of China.1 In 1952, these four members of the Chinese diaspora went to Bali for a painting trip. Struck by the vibrant scenery and exoticism of Balinese culture, on their return they produced from their sketches a significant amount of artwork that portrayed the primitive and pastoral Bali in a modernist style, and a group exhibition entitled Pictures from Bali was held a year later at the British Council on Stamford Road in Singapore. This visit has been regarded as a watershed event in Singapore’s art history,2 signifying the birth of the style through their processing of Balinese characteristics into a unique “local colour”—an aesthetic referring to a localized culture and identity within the Southeast Asian context. Their Bali experience had great significance, not only for their subsequent artistic development, both as individuals and as a group, but also for the stylistic development of Singaporean artists who succeeded them.3

Vol. 12 No. 5 77 Exhibition of Pictures from Bali, British Council, Singapore, 1953. Courtesy of Cheong Leng Guat.

The search for “local colour” in Bali in 1952 had another ripple effect. In 2001, forty-nine years after this iconic event, four Singaporean Chinese artists, Agnes Yit (b. 1974), Kai Lam (b. 1975), Jeremy Hiah (b. 1972), and Wei Woon Tien (b. 1974), who, at the time, were still in their twenties, paid a visit to Bali with the objective of retracing the pioneers’ paths. Driven by the idea that if a Bali trip in 1952 made those artists important in Singapore, they were curious to see if they too could achieve such success with their own visit.4 At the time, in 2001, Jeremy Hiah and Kai Lam were students at the LASALLE College of the Arts, in Singapore. Agnes Yit had just graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), in Singapore, and Wei Woon Tien had just returned from studying at Goldsmiths College, University of London, in the United Kingdom. Though young in the contemporary art scene, they were not impulsive in their approach to this project; rather, it was planned in a serious way, substantially researched beforehand, and they managed to secure funding for travel from the National Arts Council of Singapore. They also interviewed Liu Kang, by then the sole survivor of the four pioneer artists, to obtain first-hand information on their Bali experience.5 They also consulted Singapore’s most influential art historian T. K. Sabapathy, who had made one of the very first attempts to define Nanyang art.6 They sought advice from him on the significance of the 1952 trip in historical, cultural, and social contexts. Equipped with substantial information about their predecessors and without any preconceptions about what to create, they allowed their experiences in Bali to generate their creative approach. As a result, a body of work was produced by these young artists that included a series of photographs and documentation of the interviews.

These two visits to Bali, Bali, 1952. Courtesy of Cheong Leng Guat. conducted nearly half a century apart, reflect the attempts of two generations to probe the meaning of a regional culture and to define and cultivate their very own regional characteristics. The

78 Vol. 12 No. 5 Cheong Soo Pieng and Balinese women weaving, 1952. Courtesy of Cheong Leng Guat.

derivation of a “local colour” from the customs of the others is, however, problematic. Bali is not an ordinary place but, as Liu Kang described it, “a paradise filled with wonders.”7 We all love wonders, but appreciation of a culture is quite different from appropriation and transference from that culture to one’s own. So what drew the artists to set foot on Bali?

Left: Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy Hiah, Wei Woon, Artist and Model, 2001, photograph, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the artists. Right: Liu Kang, Artist and Model, 1954, oil on canvas, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesyof National Heritage Board, Singapore.

After War World II, anti-colonial sentiments in Singapore intensified when the British deliberately left Singapore out of their negotiation for a Malayan confederation. Throughout the region, the idea of forging a new identity was growing deeper and seen as a reflection of people warming up to the idea of independence. The invention of a Nanyang regionalism, which specifically refers to the context of Malaya,8 has been regarded as a successful example. Nanyang literally means “the South Seas” and embraces the geographical area encompassing the regions to the south of greater China. It is regarded as “historically a China-centric term referring to the Chinese diaspora in with its pan-Chinese nationalism, and it has become anachronistic as the community settled in as citizens in postcolonial nation-states.”9 Nanyang first emerged as a local subject in the late 1920s as a kind of literary activity among Chinese immigrants and initially had very little aesthetic bearing in the visual arts.10 The rise of the term reflects the patriotic feelings of the Chinese diaspora, who at first felt nostalgic for China and unsettled in a foreign land.11 After a while, a sense of belonging gradually developed among them. The patriotic aspect of Nanyang was increasingly losing importance, while its regional flavour was growing stronger. Artists who failed to notice the local colour of the South Seas were criticized; for example Chen Lianqing, the editor of the journal Coconut Grove, commented that “if our artists say that the of the South Seas is too coarse, too lacking in artistic value and thus unworthy of

Vol. 12 No. 5 79 their attention, that is really a statement about their own perception and not necessarily a true picture. They have not perceived the atmosphere here with any understanding.”12

In 1938, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) was established. At the time, Nanyang was a popular prefix, frequently adopted for names such as the Nanyang University and the Nanyang Siang Bau (the Nanyang News). The academy has become one of the most reputable and influential art academies in the region of Malaysia and now in Singapore. World War II and the Japanese occupation temporarily paused the search for regional identity,13 and NAFA was forced to close from 1941 to 1945, but it quickly resumed thereafter. When the People’s Republic of China was founded, Singapore experienced another wave of emigration from China. Those who had settled here earlier faced the dilemma of whether to stay or to return. When Chinese nationalism and Southeast Asian regionalism were seen to be growing apart, for those who decided to stay (Liu Kang and Chen Chong Swee), and those who had just migrated here (Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng), the urgency of foraging a new regional identity became even more so. In responding to the call, the NAFA’s founding Principal, (1893–1963), who saw Singapore as a central locality of Nanyang because of its role as a trading port linking the East and West of the region,14 appealed for “an art form archetypal of the tropical region.”15

Liu Kang, Bathers, 1988, oil on canvas, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of National Heritage Board, Singapore.

Seeking inspiration from tropical Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy Hiah, Wei Woon, Bathers, scenery could be done locally, so 2001, photograph, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the artists. why travel to distant Bali? With no budget airlines or efficient transportation network available, planning a sketching trip to Bali was a significant undertaking in the 1950s and certainly not the result of an impulsive act. They would have been clearly aware of the difficulty and significance of such a trip, which led Chen Wen Hsi to proudly claim, “No one had done something like that before. We started it.”16 Liu Kang considers their exhibition Pictures from Bali, which was held after their trip, to have been “quite an event at that time.”17

80 Vol. 12 No. 5 Liu Kang, Two By the Waterfall, 1996, oil on canvas, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the Liu Kang Family.

Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy Besides the social and political Hiah, Wei Woon, Two By the Waterfall, 2001, photograph, forces searching for a local colour, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the artists. the artists’ search beyond the isthmus of Malaya was also the result of the art education that they had received, a blend of techniques from the East and West. The Xinhua Academy of Fine Art in , where the Western Art Department had been established since the 1930s,18 was their alma mater. After the Xinhua Academy, Liu Kang had furthered his practice in , and Chen Wen Hsi was able to study French art publications during his sojourn in Vietnam prior to settling in Singapore.19 They were very familiar with Western styles such as Impressionism, Post- impressionism, and Symbolist aesthetics, and with prominent Western artists such as Paul Gauguin, who had spent time in Tahiti in the late nineteenth century. According to Liu Kang, for them the most desirable places to seek inspiration were, in fact, Beijing and Tahiti at the time, but the sociopolitical conditions of that period prevented them from doing so.20 Another reason to visit Bali could have been the presence of the Bali resident Belgian artist Adrien-Jean le Mayeur (1880–1958), who held a number of exhibitions between 1933 and 1941 in Singapore. The Singapore Free Press, Straits Times, and Malaya Tribune reviewed his exhibition in 1933 favourably.21 In addition, according to Chen Chong Swee, Mayeur’s Balinese wife, Ni Pollok, was seen topless during the openings of her husband’s exhibitions. This inspired the artists to imagine Bali being an alternative place to explore Tahitian tropical scenery closer to home.22 They did not only visit Mayeur during their trip but also had Pollok model for them. Their blended Eastern and Western education explains fully why the Nanyang aesthetic is imbued with a mixture of the style and techniques of Chinese pictorial traditions with the School of Paris.

Vol. 12 No. 5 81 Liu Kang, Portrait of Ni Pollok, 1952, pastel on paper, 60 x 47 cm. Courtesy of National Heritage Board, Singapore.

Art historian John Clark has argued that much of Asian art in the twentieth century is influenced by contact with Western Europe. The “foreign” ideas frequently led to Asian artists blending them with their own more local traditions in their art.23 The Nanyang aesthetic spearheaded by the 1952 Bali trip was a particularly well-known example of Chinese emigrants entwining “foreign” ideas and local traditions to create a unique identity— a pragmatic attempt to promote the development of the cultural landscape of Southeast Asia. But is much more complex than a simple blend, as it involved appropriating “traditions” not only from China and Western Europe, but also from the neighbours of their newly settled state—a kind of decorativisim that represented a Southeast Asian aesthetic tradition. Can these traditions find a common ground among the younger generations? Half-naked Balinese women and the melodic beauty of dancers had been favoured subjects repeatedly painted by the pioneers. In the introduction to the catalogue of Pictures from Bali in 1953, Liu Kang even celebrated that Balinese women were gentle and obedient to their men to a degree surpassing even that of the women of Japan.24 Favouring such primitive taste, it is not surprising that, in Liu Kang’s view, Bali is “the last paradise.”25 Today, in this “last paradise,” you certainly won’t see topless women anymore, and you will have to pay to enjoy Balinese dances that are choreographed specifically to satisfy the curiosity of the growing number of tourists.

82 Vol. 12 No. 5 Liu Kang, Masks (Bali), 1955, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 cm. Courtesy of Liu Kang Family.

Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy In the context of the available discussions on Hiah, Wei Woon, Masks (Bali), 2001, photograph, 72 x 60 cm. postcolonial, transcultural, and feminist issues Courtesy of the artists. today, the pioneers’ privileged gaze would have led to furious criticism. This was not an issue for them at all, but it certainly troubled the current generation who grew up in an age when the interchange of world views, ideas, and cultures is supported at an unprecedented rate by advanced transportation and telecom- munications. The young artists who recreated this journey in 2001 targeted the pioneers’ privilege and masculine gaze explicitly by including a female artist, Agnes Yit, to balance the all-male membership of the pioneers.26 In the series of photographs that were the result of this more recent visit, the artists also offered their own male bodies as objects for study instead of those of the local Balinese. Initially, they tried to invite tourists to pose for them but were rebuked for their seemingly inappropri- ate invitation. This rejection was not at all a bad thing, as they realized later that their own bodies were a more exacting agent in animating a compara- tive discussion between the earlier artists’ work and their own.27

Besides counter proposals to the pioneers’ privileged gaze, there were many other puzzles to which the young artists were hoping to find answers during their trip. Among them, a sense of belonging was critical. The first and

Vol. 12 No. 5 83 Liu Kang, Balinese Woman— Blue Chair/Red Sarong (Siesta), 1952, pastel on paper, 61 x 47 cm.

Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy Hiah, Wei Woon, Siesta in Bali, 2001, photograph, 61 x 47 cm. Courtesy of the artists.

84 Vol. 12 No. 5 foremost question they pondered throughout the trip was “Why is it that, after the Bali trip, they all became the pioneer artists in Singapore? Can we [achieve that after our Bali trip]?”28 In other words, why did the Balinese subject matter become an important part of Singapore’s art history? During the interview with Liu Kang, they asked why a Post-impressionist style was the only method intensely practised by them, whereas Western art trends such as Fauvism, or even Dadaism, seemed to have been intentionally ignored, even though they were popularly practised in the West while Liu Kang was in Paris. Because the British Council at that time had been a powerful supporter, organizing and hosting the Pictures from Bali Exhibition, these young artists questioned if the rise of the Nanyang aesthetic style in fact had a political intention.29

Left: Chen Wen Hsi, The Ferry, 1952, oil on canvas, 112.6 x 85.2 cm. Courtesy of National Heritage Board, Singapore. Right: Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy Hiah, Wei Woon, The Ferry, 2001, photograph, 112.6 x 85.2 cm. Courtesy of the artists.

Promoting the ritualistic and decorative Nanyang aesthetic certainly was a less sensitive and controversial intellectual practice in comparison with the socialist realist style depicting the harsh conditions in the 1950s and 60s Singapore when the population had been struggling to combat hunger and poverty. Inspired by the socialist realist style of Lu Xun in China and the realist painting of the Soviet Union, there were some young artists who graduated from NAFA who embraced socialist realist expression, responding to the plight of the masses, especially the poorer classes, in promoting nation-building. This can be seen in the practices of the Equator Art Society founded in 1956.30 Besides painting, many of these social realist works were produced in the form of wood-block prints and cartoons that could be widely circulated among the masses.

With their “return” to Bali, these younger artists examined the subject matter of the Nanyang aesthetic site specifically. Unlike the artists who visited in 1952, however, the ritualistic and decorative aspects of Bali clearly did not inspire them much. After spending a week in Bali they travelled to another part of Indonesia to visit their artist friends such as Heri Dono in Jogjakarta. For them, this was much more exciting and real.31 After two weeks in Jogjakarta, they returned to Bali and spent another week completing a series of photographs. By imitating the compositions of the earlier artists, they appropriated the traditions of Bali using the same subject manner in order to investigate the

Vol. 12 No. 5 85 convergence of traditions of the other in the context of Singapore art, and therefore attempted to make sense of their own cultural roots.

On the other hand, the way the younger generation perceives China is very different from that of the pioneers. Just as the earlier emigrates were faced with the decision to help make a new state or to return to China after the Communist Party victory over the Nationalists, they had mixed feelings about the prevalence of contemporary Chinese art that followed China’s swift rise to become one of the world’s most powerful economic and political players. Patriotic sensation resonated little with them; rather, a sense of admiration and jealousy grew. Kai Lam and Jeremy Hiah have visited China to participate in its contemporary art scene regularly in the last few years. Recently, when I tried to get in touch with Jeremy Hiah, he was about to spend two weeks in Xi’an, China, where he was to research contemporary art and have exchanges with a local artist-run residency. Kai Lam shared with me his experience of living in China, which has made him envious of his mainland Chinese friends who are nurtured by a rich cultural tradition. The lack of it in Singapore has made him feel that he is “missing out on a lot.”32 The impact of such a feeling is intriguing. The revisiting of the Nanyang style is in some ways a creative enquiry in the hope of articulating what is missing for such a young nation, the existence of a gap that they may not have been fully aware of at the time.

These two Bali trips illustrate two kinds of adjustment and recreation that arise from the convergence of different cultures at two points in history. For the earlier migrated Chinese, the appropriation of the culture of others intertwined with their Chinese and European art educations was to establish their own identity and secure their presence in a newly settled state. The Nanyang style they catalyzed is a hybrid aesthetic based on multiple identities. For the later local-born Singaporean-Chinese artists, to revisit Bali, an important component in the evolution of the Nanyang style, was to exercise a creative criticality and deconstruction of their own identities.

The rich Balinese culture has now been borrowed Lee Wen, Journey of a Yellow Man No. 15: Touching China, twice by the Singaporean artists, but nonetheless 2001, performance. Courtesy of the artist. still belongs to the Balinese people. In his inaugural address to the NAFA Symposium in 2008 which coincided with NAFA’s 70th Anniversary, Professor Michael Sullivan said, “[W]hat I find most fascinating about Singapore . . . is the contrast, the conflict even, between its consciousness of being at the very centre of a ring of great civilizations which affect it richly, and its constant desire to forge its own identity.” But “out of what?” he asked.33 Forging an identity for a nation like Singapore built mainly on immigrants lacking a shared origin can be a complex, challenging, and enduring task. It is an important and precious source of inspiration for their artists. The Journey of a Yellow Man series by Singapore performance artist Lee Wen is a prominent example of such a pursuit. The series has been performed in

86 Vol. 12 No. 5 many parts of the world but Journey of a Yellow Man No. 15: Touching China which was performed in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, in 2001, is particularly thought-provoking as it goes beyond examination of the identity of a Chinese man born in Singapore, prompting critical engagement in relating Singaporean Chinese to the larger discourse about the Chinese diaspora. One thing we are certainly very sure of is that the question Sullivan asked has been, and will be, continuously explored by these creative minds, who have never failed to demonstrate vigorous energy in understanding their own identity, with their roots in the past and their eyes on the future.

Notes 1 Singapore was part of Malaya before it separated from Malaysia. Liu Kang emigrated to Singapore in 1942, Chen Wen His in 1948, Cheong Soo Pieng in 1946, and Chen Chong Swee in 1932. 2 Yvonne Low, “Remembering Nanyang Feng’Ge,” Asia 5 (November 2010), http:// modernartasia.com/low-nanyang-style-5/. 3 For example, the artists such as Tew Nai Tong, Khoo Sui Hoe, Tay Chee Toh, and Lin Hsin Hsin were influenced by the four earlier artists. 4 Jeremy Hiah, conversation with the author, May 23, 2013. 5 Ibid. 6 Jeremy Hiah explained that the exhibition catalogue Reminiscence of Singapore’s Pioneer Art Masters (Singapore: The Singapore Mint, 1994), was brought along on their trip as an important reference. The catalogue includes an essay, “Bali, Almost Re-visited,” by T. K. Sabapathy . 7 Liu Kang, “Introduction,” in Bali Bali lvxing huace () Art Catalogue of Bali Trip, (Singapore: British Council, 1953), 1. 8 Singapore and Malaysia, collectively termed Malaya at that time, were considered the heart of Nanyang. 9 Huang Jianli and Hong Lysa, “History and the Imaginaries of ‘Big Singapore’: Positioning the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall,“ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 35, no. 1 (February 2004), 65–66. 10 Kwok Kian Chow, Channels and Confluences: A History of Singapore Art (Singapore: , 1996), 9. 11 Zhong Yu, “Nanyang Art Series One: The Birth of Nanyang Art before The War,” Nanyang Yishu 125 (2007), 38. 12 Chen Lianqing, “Literature and Local Color,” Coconut Grove, September 23, 1929. 13 Zhong Yu, “Nanyang Art Series One: The Birth of Nanyang Art before The War,” 40. 14 Lim Hak Tai, “Remembrance the Process in Founding of the School,” in Nanyang meishu, special issue, Reopening of Nanyang Fine Arts College, 1946. 15 Quoted in Kwok Kian Chow, “History of Art in Singapore—An Introduction,” Window on Singapore Art (Singapore: National Arts Council and National Heritage Board, 1994), 11. 16 Quoted in Yvonne Low, “Remembering Nanyang Feng’Ge,” Modern Art Asia 5 (November 2010), http://modernartasia.com/low-nanyang-style-5/ . 17 Quoted in T. K. Sabapathy’s interview with the artist, on December 13, 1993, Singapore (unpublished), translated by Lai Chee Kien. 18 Kwok, “History of Art in Singapore,” 12. 19 Kwok Kian Chow, “A Dialogue with Tradition: Chen Wen Hsi’s Art of the ‘80s,” in A Dialogue with Tradition: Chen Wen Hsi’s Art of the ‘80s (Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, 1992), 7. 20 Liu Kang, interview with Rawanchaikul Toshiko , trans. Horikawa Lisa, in Nanyang 1950–65: Passage to Singapore Art (Fukuoka: Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, 2002), 36. 21 Jop Ubbens and Cathinka Huiging, Adrien Jean le Mayeur de Mer—Painter Traveller 1880s–1958 (The Netherlands: Pictures Publishers, 1995), 102–105. 22 Chen Chong Swee, quoted in A Heroic Decade: Singapore Art 1955–1965 (Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, 2005), 3. 23 John Clark, Asian Modern Art (Sydney: Craftsman House, 1998), 51, 71. 24 Liu Kang, “Introduction,” 2. 25 Ibid. 26 Kai Lam, conversation with the author, November 19, 2012. 27 Jeremy Hiah, conversation with the author, May 23, 2013. 28 Jeremy Hiah, conversation with the author, May 23, 2013. 29 Kai Lam, conversation with the author, November 19, 2012. The exhibition Pictures from Bali was held at the British Council at Stamford Road in 1953. 30 The Equator Art Society was an artist’s group that promoted the social realist art style in Singapore. It was also a nationalist and anti-colonialist society, most active during the 1960s, when the country was going through several political changes. 31 Jeremy Hiah, conversation with the author, May 23, 2013. 32 Kai Lam, conversation with the author, November 19, 2012. 33 Michael Sullivan, “Keynote Paper,” in New Asian Imaginations (Singapore: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 2008), 6.

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