The Aesthetics of Identities and the Difficulties of Histories: the Contemporary Chinese Southeast Asian Art

asdada aasd December 29, 2015 The Aesthetics of Identities and the Difficulties of Histories: The Contemporary Chinese Southeast Asian Art Written by Nobuo Takamori Ethnic Chinese: Definitional problems Among the difficulties encountered in discussing Chinese Southeast Asians is the lack of a workable definition which, inevitably, involves the dimensions of sanguinity and culture. Both dimensions are embedded in different social structures of Southeast Asian countries, and their connotations vary accordingly. Moreover, there may be a world of difference as to how other ethnic groups define the Chinese communities and how different Chinese communities define one another. As a result, we should not regard the subjects discussed in this article - Chinese Southeast Asians – as a single, unified ethnic group. Since the fifteenth century, Southeast Asian countries have attracted a large number of Chinese immigrants, including different dialect groups speaking in Hokkien (Southern Min Language), Hakka, Cantonese, and Hainanese, among others (it was not until the post-war era that the Mandarin Chinese flourished under Kuomintang’s continuing influence). Possessing their Phoca PDF asdada aasdown cultural attributes and social structures though, these heterogeneous immigrant groups have assimilated thoroughly into the local cultures in the centuries-long history of immigration. For example, the Peranakan Chinese who live on the Malay Peninsula have mixed the Malay language with Hokkien vocabularies as a lingua franca despite the traditional Chinese customs they preserve. Filipino nationalist José Rizal is ethnic Chinese by descent but maintains a quite different cultural identity. (José Rizal is a pioneering writer who insisted on writing in Tagalog language for the purpose of highlighting Filipino nationalism.) Both Peranakan Chinese and José Rizal’s family were not the “real Chinese” in the eyes of the Chinese communities who immigrated to Southeast Asia between the late nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century. As far as these Chinese Southeast Asians were concerned, the Chinese identity was a question not only about sanguinity but also about the sustainability of languages and culture. However, such a perspective has been confronted with monumental challenges in the post-war era. The Chinese culture was deliberately suppressed in the newly emerging Southeast Asian nation-states within whatever bloc during the Cold War period. One result of this is that only a very small population of Chinese Indonesians speaks fluent Chinese languages nowadays. Chinese Indonesians have also been forced to name themselves in an “Indonesian style.” At the same time, in the eyes of other ethnic groups in Southeast Asian countries, Chinese communities still exist even though they have assimilated fully into the local cultures. As a consequence, Chinese Southeast Asians (whether they speak Phoca PDF asdada aasdChinese or not) have no way of circumventing the identity of “ethnic Chinese.” As far as Chinese Southeast Asian artists are concerned, identity not only involves introspective exploration of individuals, but also has much to do with the relationship between individuals and societies. An easily neglected, important point is that the identities their artworks take on are ergo not only political in nature, but also microcosmic incarnations of politics. Available Options of Political Identity: Two Chinas or a New Nation The Chinese cultural identity involves not only languages, religions, dietary habit and lifestyle, but also the connections with the Chinese dynasties embedded in the Confucianism order. On a more specific basis, both the ruler-official relationship and the clanship with the family of origin imply a matter of ethics in the Chinese culture. The ethics may not be renounced with the emigration from China to other countries, which was why Chinese Southeast Asians had used the year numbering system of the Qing Dynasty in their quotidian existence and on their tombstones throughout the nineteenth century. Since 1911, Chinese Southeast Asians had handled their relationship with the newly established Republic of China from the perspective of previous dynastic traditions. Malaysian artist TAN Kian Ming (陳建泯) recorded numerous Second Sino-Japanese War Monuments erected on the Malay Peninsula. His artworks suggested that the constructors of these monuments regarded themselves as nationals of the Republic of China. As far as they were concerned, the Pacific War was not so much a war Phoca PDF asdada aasdfought between the United Kingdom and Japan as the extension of the Sino-Japanese War. The massacre of ethnic Chinese (the intelligentsia in particular) carried out by Japan during its occupation of Southeast Asia has become a common historical trauma for Chinese Southeast Asians. However, Japanese imperialism had deliberately fostered Burmese and Indonesian autonomous governments and cultures, which indicated the differentiated treatment that Japan meted out to different ethnic groups in this region. This differentiated treatment had a far-reaching influence in the post-war era. Singaporean painter LIM Yew Kuan (林友權 , 1928) created Night Arrest in the 1950s, depicting the family tragedy that struck when Japanese troops arrested his brother. Making a powerful combination of painting, performance and video, Malaysian artist WONG Hoy Cheong (黃海昌, 1960) created Sook Ching (肅清, the Cantonese pronunciation of the massacre carried out by Japanese troops) in the 1990s. Both artworks drew on the survivors’ experience of the massacres perpetrated by Japanese troops; however, they respectively insinuated the political atmospheres prevailing in the times of their creation. The British colonial government’s elimination of Malayan Communists reached its climax in the 1950s. The Japanese soldiers in Lim’s work were not dressed in regimental uniform, which was reminiscent of the highly charged political atmosphere that pervaded the country in the 1950s. On the other hand, Wong’s artwork finished in 1989 evoked strong associations to the Operation Lalang in 1987 in which the Malaysian government not only ordered the mass arrest of opposition party members and social activists but also imposed a ban on Phoca PDF asdada aasdnewspaper publications.[1] Chinese Southeast Asians’ struggle for identity construction had become intensified and complicated in the post-war era. They first of all faced the obligation to define their identities as nationals of either the newly emerging nation-states or of the Republic of China. After the Chinese Civil War and the Nationalist Party’s (KMT Party) retreat from mainland China to Taiwan in 1949, however, Chinese Southeast Asians were also forced to take sides between Taiwan (controlled by the Chinese Nationalist Party) and mainland China (controlled by the Chinese Communist Party). The artwork National Language Class by CHUA Mia Tee (蔡名智, 1931) [2] clearly represented one of the identity choices made by Chinese Southeast Asians at the critical crossroads in the history of their sustainability. This work visualized the thought of the intellectuals who espouse Malayan neo-nationalism. The young people portrayed in this painting are ethnic Chinese by descent. They concentrate fully on learning to speak Malay, the national language of the new Malaya. In the 1950s, the fate of Chinese Southeast Asians was affected by three forces that resulted in the disappearance of the pre-war homogeneity inherent in the Chinese communities dwelling in different newly emerging nation-states, which therefore prompted these Chinese Southeast Asians to weave their distinct historical narratives based on the development of their residential countries. The three forces came respectively from China, Taiwan (The Republic of China), and the United States. In the 1955 Bandung Conference, China made clear that Chinese Phoca PDF asdada aasdSoutheast Asians were nationals of Southeast Asian countries rather than those of China, which not only cut the long-term political and cultural umbilical cord that connected Chinese Southeast Asians to China, but also promoted the Republic of China in Taiwan to play the role of the “motherland” for Chinese Southeast Asians. Following the policy formulated before 1949, namely treating overseas Chinese as its nationals, the government of the Republic of China attracted a large number of Chinese Southeast Asians to study in Taiwan. Dr. CHOONG Kam Kow (鍾金鈎, 1934) who studied fine arts in Taiwan in the 1950s and profoundly influenced the development of Malaysian modern art served as a stellar example.[3] TSAI Ming Liang (蔡明亮, 1957), an iconic figure in the film history in Taiwan, is a Chinese Malaysian. Among his tours de force, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2007) is the only work that shows his attempt to portray his homeland, Malaysia, a country which is unfamiliar to him. Another artist, Midi Z (趙德胤, KYAWK Dad Yin), who was born in Myanmar in 1982 and immigrated to Taiwan later, has been an active director in Taiwan recently. His works primarily focus on the real-life conditions of Chinese Burmese. The two examples starkly highlight the difference between the identities of the two Chinese Southeast Asian directors who work and live in Taiwan and belong to different generations. The repercussions of American cold-war strategy spilled over from Taiwan and China to Southeast Asia. In Singapore, a group of students in Chinese middle Phoca PDF asdada aasdschools launched a student movement on 13 May 1954. [4] After the

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