Reading Responses
Mrázek argues that it is inadequate to consider Javanese shadow puppets as simply pictorial representations, as he claims is the primary mode of analysis for Western art historians. Instead, they should be understood as instruments, with a physical and material presence, that is yoked to their function in performance. These puppets have an active relationship to both the puppeteers and the audience. Mrázek emphasizes the detailed physical qualities of the puppet — how they...
Response to “Dance of Life: Popular Music and Politics in Southeast Asia” by Craig A. Lockard (1998)
Craig A. Lockard’s 1998 book, Dance of Life: Popular Music and Politics in Southeast Asia, delves into the intersection of popular music genres and politics in various Southeast Asian countries. We will further analyze Chapter 4, which centers around Thailand and the role of politicized popular music in society as it relates to the political turmoil in the early and mid-1970s. The chapter explores the types of music that arose to address “a...
Nora Taylor’s “‘Pho’ Phai and Faux Phais: The Market for Fakes and the Appropriation of a Vietnamese National Symbol” explores the proliferation of forged artwork to perpetuate the romanticization of pre-modern society in Hanoi, Vietnam, during its modernization period at the end of the twentieth century. Despite having his artwork censored by the Vietnamese Communist Government for most of his life, Bui Xuan Phai (1920-1988) became a posthumous icon for the Vietnamese art...
This semi surreal story follows Hoi, the Chief of Planning in a Vietnamese construction factory, and the strange things that follow the purchase of his new color television set. When Hoi’s wife and children are out of the home he watches a TV show where a model strips her clothing, and other salacious programs. Hoi recounts these tales to the men at work, but none were lucky enough to catch this late night tale. His bragging caught the interest of...
In the short story, The Boy With the Flower That Grew Out of His Ass, Wong uses ‘unusual appendages’ as a symbol for queerness. However, this symbol could also be applied to those who feel they do not fit into mainstream society.
Michael was born with a flower growing out of his ass. His mother loved him, but she told him to hide it as he grew older ‘so nobody would notice anything was wrong...
In this excerpt of Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline: Factory Women in Malaysia, Aihwa Ong argues that everyday resistance and individualization are tools of women factory workers as they navigate the transition from kampung to city life and an ambivalence—among both factory workers and greater Malaysia—towards more western values and equal gender roles. Ong first sets up her piece by discussing how Malaysian media and public officials...
In Beauty as Control in the New Saigon, Professor Erik Harms argues that the ambiguous concept of beauty is used by national urban developers to control and order space in Saigon. Residents resist governmental encroachment on an individual level, squabbling about corruption and poor compensation, yet they never challenge the development plan or the concept of “beautifying” the city, ultimately affirming the city’s assertion of beauty and thus the development project.
...The Bugis, an ethnic group of muslims who speak both Malay and Burgis, lived in Sebatik. When Malaysia was incorporated outside of British rule, the Burgis were adopted into the Malay identity. This saw an increase in undocumented Bugis immigrents to Malaysia from Indonesia. As a result, non-malay, indeginous Christian groups have dwindled in number, with them claiming it stemmed from the immigration issue. It is here where we posit the question “how...