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Performing Human Rights in Neoliberal Asia: Artistic and Activist Engagements in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore

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Performing Human Rights in Neoliberal Asia: Artistic and Activist Engagements in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2017 Performing Human Rights in Neoliberal Asia: Artistic and Activist Engagements in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore Melissa Wansin Wong The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1988 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] PERFORMING HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEOLIBERAL ASIA: ARTISTIC AND ACTIVIST ENGAGEMENTS IN HONG KONG, MALAYSIA, AND SINGAPORE by Melissa Wansin Wong A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2017 © 2017 MELISSA WANSIN WONG All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Theatre to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Peter Eckersall Chair of Examining Committee Date Peter Eckersall Executive Officer Jean Graham-Jones David Savran Domna Stanton Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract PERFORMING HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEOLIBERAL ASIA: ARTISTIC AND ACTIVIST ENGAGEMENTS IN HONG KONG, MALAYSIA, AND SINGAPORE By Melissa Wansin Wong Advisor: Peter Eckersall This dissertation examines artistic and activist performances that address issues of rights abuses in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. I demonstrate how the centralized ruling parties encourage the neoliberalization of their economies while maintaining autocratic rule, thus intensifying structural inequalities while also clamping down on dissent. This condition then exacerbates the lack of labor, sexuality, and democratic rights. Concurrently, the states’ aspirations to be part of the global capitalist market have paradoxically provided conditional spaces of political and artistic expression. I contend that existing critiques of human rights from sociological and legalistic perspectives are inadequate for contemplating this state of affairs. My intervention thus lays in examining how the lens of performance studies reveals the fraught significance of rights claims in the region. My case studies show how authoritarian neoliberalism has created peculiar scenarios where queer subjects are legally criminalized yet desired as economic generators, resulting in the proliferation of queer theatre and businesses; where low-waged migrant workers are exploited even while the state and the market fund theatre initiatives addressing the issue; and where aspirational practices of democracy are seen in the structures of artistic rather than electoral processes. By deciphering the dramaturgical strategies of works of theatre, installation art, photography as well as participatory street protests and demonstrations, I argue how by means of their embodiment, artistic and activist practices not only viscerally confront the urgency of addressing injustice, they also manifest the particularities of the contexts in which they occur. In conclusion, I posit that a performative framework of human rights moves the judgment of its efficacy past that of legislative possibilities to how it enables nuanced agential shifts in the participants’ political subjectivities. As such, I see how the artists and activists in the quest for rights claims are constantly trying to strike a balance between resisting and being co-opted by authoritarian states in neoliberal Asia. iv Acknowledgements It’s been a long journey. Thank you to the Graduate Center CUNY and the Theatre department for supporting my trajectory over the years. The Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship, the Vera Mowry Roberts Dissertation Award, the Doctoral Student Research Grants, and the conference support grants have been vital to the successful completion of my doctoral studies. Being a part of CUNY has also given me the opportunity to teach at a public university whose mission of access has stirred my pedagogy and research. Thank you to the colleagues and students in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts and the Communications Studies Department at Baruch College, as well as the Department of Communications and Theatre Arts at John Jay College. This project would have been impossible without the artists and activists whose labor propelled its inquiry: Kok Heng Luan, Jo Kukathas, Li Xie, Zheng Bo, Jolovan Wham, Shaun Teo, Loo Zihan, Pang Khee Teik, Paerin Choa, Alfian Sa’at, Ivan Heng, Zelda Tatiana Tan, Danny Yung, and the unnamed rights advocates on the streets fighting for a more just society in spite of the odds. There are many others I could not include in the limited pages of this manuscript who took the time to inform me of what drives their work as well as trusted me with their companies’ archives. They’ve all left their mark on how I’ve thought through the writing of this dissertation in one way or another. Thank you for the generosity and inspiration. In Singapore: Alvin Tan, Koh Hui Ling, Huzir Sulaiman, Lee Weng Choy, Tan Tarn How, Serene Chen, Melissa Lim, Chong Tze Chien, Katherine Khoo, Vincent Wijeysingha, and Martyn See. In Malaysia: Marion D’Cruz, Mark Teh, Fahmi Fadzil, Ezra Zaid, Umapagan Ampikaipakan, Loh Kok Man, Yeoh Lian Heng, Sumit Mandal, Ray Langenbach, Kok Man, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Swee Seng Yap, Fahmi Reza, and Andre D’Cruz. In Hong Kong: Mok Chiu Yu, Cedric Chan, Wen Yau, Sanmu Chan, Damian Cheng, Him Lo, Maru Yuen Kin Leung, Cheng Yee Man, Cheung Ka Lai, James Tan, Zune Kwok, and Freddie Chen. My committee members, Jean Graham-Jones, David Savran, and Domna Stanton. From the classes that have shaped my critical thinking to the initial crafting of the proposal to the careful reading of my drafts, their scholarship and pedagogy have shaped my own. My gratitude to my committee chair, Peter Eckersall. The consistency of his astute guidance and gentle encouragement has made the rigorous course of completing a dissertation fulfilling and, dare I say, enjoyable. I’ve looked up to him professionally long before this shared process, and I’m deeply appreciative of his mentorship and friendship. I’ve been a student of the theatre for a little over two decades now, and the following scholars and mentors are a big part of why I’ve continued to walk this path. Thanks to Reynold Buono, Grant Shen, Richard Schechner, Andre Lepecki, Karen Shimakawa, Maurya Wickstrom, Paul Rae, C.J. Wanling Wee, and Daphne Lei. Thank you too to Elizabeth Early for her invaluable feedback in the final stages of this manuscript. I couldn’t have surmounted this challenge without the love of family. My life’s love, Alphonse Hardel—no words. And our daughter Amaris Augustina SiXi Hardel—her arrival has deepened for me the urgency of contributing to the pursuit of a more equitable world. Also her caregivers Kumarie Busgith, Julia Feng, and my mother-in-law Anne Neuve-Eglise, the invisible labor that v enabled me to expedite the completion of my writing. My brother and sister-in-law Kevin Wong and Jade Chen, who held the fort in Singapore as primary caregivers for our elderly parents in challenging times, gifting me the ease of mind to complete this goal. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Augustine Wong Kum Fook and Julia Koo Khuan Hoi, whose unconditional love and support continue to buoy my dreams. Born in a contextual time and circumstance that made the pursuit of higher education economically untenable, they’ve continually stressed the primacy of knowledge and learning and made sacrifices to ensure their children could achieve that which eluded them. I hope I’ve made them proud. vi Table of Contents Table of Figures .................................................................................................................. x INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE PERFORMATIVE DIMENSIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS .............................................................................................................................. 1 Towards an Embodied Performance Methodology .........................................................7 Neoliberal Asia ..............................................................................................................14 Neoliberalism and the Arts in Asia ................................................................................18 Asian Values: Nativist Politics Disguised as Second-Generation Rights ......................21 Embodying Alternative Articulations of Rights Claims through Performance .............26 Contextual Inspirations ..................................................................................................28 Performance Studies ................................................................................................. 28 Human Rights ........................................................................................................... 33 Literature of and from Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore ................................. 39 Chapter Summaries ........................................................................................................44 Chapter Conclusion ........................................................................................................48 CHAPTER 1: THE REPRESENTATION OF LOW-WAGED MIGRANT LABOR RIGHTS IN SINGAPORE AND HONG KONG ............................................................
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