Imagining Asia (eBook)

lt;span>Emily Stokes-Rees is associate professor of museum studies at Syracuse University, USA.

Chapter by chapter synopsis:
Introduction
The introduction will lay the groundwork for why a book addressing this particular subject is
paramount, as well as providing general theoretical background on postcolonial theory,
writings on national identity, and museum anthropology, which together inform the main
case studies of the central chapters of the book. It will also present a broad historical
account of the development of each nation-state, as well as provide a brief discussion of the
specific issues relating to the construction of identity in each case. It will be an overview of
how images of identity have been created, sustained, and more recently challenged during
the postcolonial development of Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau. Finally, a brief history of
each of the museums in this study will also be included, providing the reader with the
appropriate background and context from which to move to the following chapters.
Theme 1: ‘Legacies’
The first chapter, or ‘thematic section’, examines the awkward, aphasiac, and frequently
contested memories of colonial histories in postcolonial constructions of identity, and how
these dynamics have historically played out within the museum context. Whereas
colonialism has traditionally created a sense of difference between the self/other and
colonized/colonizer, postcolonial identity is based upon a sense of being unique in the world
– building up borders, distinguishing oneself from others. Postcolonial governments and
institutions desire the idea of ‘the nation’ to rise above all other group loyalties, and thus the
need to create museums which make people feel national becomes apparent. The
adaptation and transformation of colonial spaces by indigenous elites has been a complex
negotiation between the legacy of colonial structures and local cultural practices, resulting in
hybridities, ironies, and orientalism converging with nationalist expression.
In separate case studies, this section thus addresses the national history museums of
Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau as remnant objects of the colonial occupiers’ gaze, asking:
how has the condition of postcoloniality influenced the role of the nation’s museums? This
thematic section focuses on the various ways that the museums resolve these relationships,
between emphasizing hybridity in the case of Macau, romanticizing colonial history in
Singapore, and Hong Kong’s employing of a selective amnesia, each case uniquely pointing
to how formerly colonized peoples are actively contributing to dialogue on the relevance of
the colonial past in contemporary contexts where postcolonial identity is being forged. In
each case, moreover, the narratives which unfold in each museum are embedded in a
cultural politics where different actors jostle to determine which objects, practices, and
stories are to be valued above others and represented as symbolic of nationhood. The
relationships between them can swing from constructive engagement and negotiation to
contestation.
For example, in Singapore the formation of a strong sense of national identity is inextricably
linked to its history of colonization, decolonization, and the gaining of political
independence. This case study will demonstrate the unique ways in which the Singaporean
government makes use of the museum to reclaim and redefine the colonial past for their
own constructions of identity in which the museum does not lessen the role of Britain, but
re-positions it, taking a closer, self-authored look at its interpenetration into all aspects of
Singaporean life. In other words, it embodies co-constructed postcolonial narratives –
including both departing and remaining cultures.
In the Hong Kong Museum of History, in contrast, past and present are juxtaposed, avoiding
any in depth discussion of the colonial legacy, minimizing one’s perception of change and
denying inconvenient or unsavoury aspects of the past. In this way, the museum has
provided a stage upon which the ambiguities and complexities of the colonial encounter are
woven into a narrative that seeks to focus instead on Hong Kong's modernity and
cosmopolitanism. The final example of the Museum of Macau addresses Macanese culture
in relation to Bhabha’s (1990) concept of a ‘third space’, where identity is constructed
through the negotiation and expression of difference. It considers the issue of hybridity in
the museum context, assessing how the local community is challenging and twisting the
function and processes of traditional museums, creating a hybrid form in the face of Macau’s
transition from being a Portuguese colony for over 400 years to its 1999 reintegration with
China. In short, this section will illuminate the complex issues of cultural production and
commodification that are at stake in the postcolonial museum, drawing attention to the
continuing legacies of colonial influence.
Theme 2: ‘Performances’
This section considers the concept of cultural citizenship as a performative act of group
membership, and how the decolonizing spaces of the museum aid in creating constructive
dialogue. The reality of what occurs in and around any museum does not come without
performance; it is a cultural medium which is experienced through the body, through the
use of different spaces through which visitors move and engage.
This section thus begins where one commences a visit to any museum – outside - examining
the varied, and often contested, meanings of museum architecture in the postcolonial
environment. Considering issues such as the preservation and adaptive re-use of former
colonial buildings in the cases of Singapore and Macau, versus the construction of a new
museum building, as in the case of Hong Kong, short chapters within the section will analyse
the effects of architecture as well as the use of exhibition spaces, cases, and objects in order
to inspire certain ‘performances’ of cultural citizenship, and to communicate particular
messages about what those in power believe a museum is for.
To cite just one example to be discussed, in the National Museum of Singapore, visitors
become actors on the theatre set of the gallery floor, as they engage with exhibits including
an innovative ‘live diorama’, an interactive model of a contemporary Singaporean flat, and
the experience of attending a 1970s drive-in movie. In each case, the museum invites visitors
into the performance of cultural citizenship through the initial recognition of one’s
surroundings in the exhibit, followed by strong encouragement to enact and evoke the
atmosphere and activities of the era, creating an affective sense of the past as reality
through evoking the atmosphere of a particular era in Singapore’s history. As such, these
engagements become performative by transforming the experience of history within the
museum from simply ‘doing’, to the collective process of meaning making.
Section 3: Transformations
The final section of the book will address the nature and expression of multiculturalism in
these three museums, specifically through looking at the objects on display, and the
narratives woven around them. This work takes as one of its fundamental premises that
museums and their objects facilitate social change, and as such the narratives which unfold
in each museum are embedded in a cultural politics where many different actors jostle to
determine which objects, practices, and stories are to be valued above others and
represented as symbolic of ‘nationhood’. The relationships between them can swing from
constructive engagement to negotiation and contestation.
Common or shared themes evoked by material culture in the making of the nation will thus
be examined, especially those which point to overt narratives around origins, conflicts,
tensions, and commemoration. This section discusses the use of objects to evoke a manycultured
view of the past, linking artefacts to cultures that are continually evolving and
rewriting their stories. It also speaks to stories of past conflict in relation to particular
objects, assessing the different ways the museums have enabled certain objects to speak
eloquently about the human cost of war and conflict. In short, every object carries with it
multiple layers of history, and this section will emphasize the endlessly fluid and dynamic
nature of historical interpretation – object narratives formed and reformed to contribute in
transformative ways to the museums’ national story.
Finally, this section addresses the challenge of how museums address collective memories
emerging from the different ethnic communities that compose the nation state. We can
observe in each of these three museums, for example, a movement towards a more multivocal
approach to identity – not ‘rescuing’ or preserving a particular narrative of the past,
but expanding to incorporate many voices, creating a new multi-vocal national heritage.
Although the rhetoric of national heritage tends to reproduce the idea that the nation is
composed of a single culture, and silences histories of conflict, minorities, and subcultures
by romanticizing or sanitizing them, it also opens up a discursive space for the expression
and representation of local and distinctive ways of life. In each case, this is accomplished
through the telling of stories, rather than constructing narratives based on chronology and
completeness. Through allowing an increasingly rich tapestry of voices to permeate the
exhibits, the museums represent the transformation of these three tiny nations into the
global cities they are today.
Discussion and conclusions
The conclusions will draw together the overlapping histories and themes contained within
the body of research and this unique collection of museums. This work attempts to test and
stretch some of the assumptions often made about museums, and also to provide some
cross-cultural comparison at the national level. While certainly not claiming that this analysis
and findings are necessarily representative of all new postcolonial museums, I do aim to
illuminate what I believe is a global trend as seen through national lenses - local issues are
highlighted while also taking wider global dynamics into consideration.
The main conclusions to be drawn are that in each case, the museum itself has moved from
being an institution associated with unchanging displays, academic research, and
homogenous narratives, to be a dynamic place for storytelling, aimed at attracting and
entertaining visitors – a transformation from temple to forum (cf. Duncan, 1990). This
project also highlights the role of the museum in actualizing postcolonial identities, both by
representing them in fixed displays and by providing a forum for the negotiation of
converging and conflicting multi-vocal identities. These museums show, moreover, from the
perspective of formerly colonized peoples, that the exhibition of ‘culture’ is not simply about
the proliferation of alternative histories and narratives of exclusion. On the contrary, the end
of the colonial era and its particular view of the world in these nation-states has brought a
challenge to established institutions, such as the national museum, in terms of how culture
is presented. The challenge is to devise strategies of representation that do not reproduce
colonial structures, rather reflect the interpretative influence of those whose culture is on
display.
Additionally, much has been written about the powerful involvement of the international
tourist industry in the manufacturing, re-invention and branding of national heritage for
tourism. In fact, it can be argued that the museum’s increasing commodification may in
many ways play the most important role in the transformation of contemporary museums.
In the early twenty-first century, museums are thus concerned to strategically position
themselves in an increasingly global and rapidly changing market-place. Moreover, the
popularity of cultural tourism - tourism for the sake of learning about how other people live
(or used to live) - is a growing trend, and is already a significant source of income for many
developing countries. The role of the museum in this new and often lucrative field cannot be
underestimated, and is discussed here with reference to the rise of tourism in Asia.
As nation states around the globe struggle to represent their identities in reaction to
increasing globalization and the pressure to be multi-cultural, this study is important in that
learning lessons from these Asian nation-states will pave the way for others in the fields of
anthropology, Asian studies, multicultural politics, and museum studies. With its weaving
together of theoretical viewpoints on the nature of national identity and citizenship and an
in-depth analysis new national museums, it is my hope that this book will help broaden the
global understanding of changing conceptions of national identity and the evolving role of
the national museum in the postcolonial world.