Kampung:
Imagining Southeast Asia:
Historical & Contemporary
Conceptions of the Region
When we think about our regional village, what do we think of? With different histories, cultures, and even flora and fauna, there seems to be little that unites Southeast Asia. We'll explore the history behind SEA, how understandings of SEA have changed over time, and what that means for conversations on SEA today.
screenshot from panel session
Southeast Asia is an imaginary construct, but we cannot ignore lived experiences that may unite the region.
Prof. Goh’s analogy: “It is like race. You cannot wish away racism”
Prof. Edwards and Mr Tzu Nyen: Openness of Southeast Asia, where people, ideas, and cultures blur into one another, calls into question whether political definitions (e.g. ASEAN) are valid
Southeast Asia as a political construct is composed of negotiations between the elites and the masses
Prof. Edwards: “Why isn’t Northeast Asia referred to by that label?” — who determines if countries in a geographical place should be referred to collectively with such a label?
But Southeast Asia’s cultural heritage has entwined cultural elements from each country
Mr Tzu Nyen: The Tiger - dispersed throughout SEA, predates history and language; the image of the ‘gong’ and its resonance as a way to depict how every SEA country is unique in its own way, but perhaps harmonize over shared elements.
Thus, we should not throw away our understandings of SEA, but instead seek out alternatives by defining our own histories
Panelists
Speaker 1
Prof Penny Edwards
Associate Professor of Southeast Asian studies at UC Berkeley and has taught courses ranging from the history of SEA civilisations to cinema in the region and the Chinese diaspora.
Dr Goh Beng Lan
Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore researching the intersection between ethnography, urban anthropology, and SEA art and politics.
Mr Ho Tzu Nyen
Filmmaker, installation and performance artist that makes work that often begin as engagements with historical and theoretical texts. His recent works are populated by metamorphic figures such as the weretiger (One or Several Tigers, 2017) and the triple agent (The Nameless, 2015), under the rubric of The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia, an ongoing meta project.
