Asian and Pacific Cosmopolitans: Self and Subject in Motion

251 Pages·2007·4.168 MB·English

by  Kathryn Robinson (eds.)

Asian and Pacific Cosmopolitans
Asian and Pacific
Cosmopolitans
Self and Subject in Motion
Edited by
Kathryn Robinson
Australian National University
Foreword by
Richard Werbner
Selection and editorial matter ©Kathryn Robinson2007
Chapters ©their authors2007
Foreword © Richard Werbner 2007
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007978-0-230-01330-8
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Foreword: By Richard Werbner x
Notes on Contributors xvii
1 Introduction: Asian and Pacific Cosmopolitans: Self
and Subject in Motion 1
Kathryn Robinson
Part I Representation, Self-recognition and Self-discovery
2 ‘Self’ and ‘Subject’ in Southeast Asian Literature in the
Global Age 19
Tony Day
3 Art and Identity Politics: Nation, Religion, Ethnicity, Elsewhere 37
Kenneth M. George
4 Moving Stories: Beyond the Local in Ethnography
and Fiction 60
Kirin Narayan
5 Wounds in Our Heart: Identity
and Social Justice in the Art of Dadang Christanto 77
Caroline Turner
Part II Religion, Cosmopolitanism and Subjectification
6 Billy Graham in the South Seas 103
Richard Eves
7 A Cultural Revival and the Custom of Christianity in
Papua New Guinea 128
Alison Dundon
8 Sufi Regional Cults in South Asia and Indonesia: Towards
a Comparative Analysis 145
Pnina Werbner
v
vi Contents
Part III Identity and Displacement
9 The Dragon Dance: Shifting Meanings of Chineseness
in Indonesia 169
Melani Budianta
10 Identities in a Culture of Circulation: Performing Selves
in Filipina Migration 190
Deirdre McKay
11 Transporting Culture Across Borders – the Hmong 209
Nicholas Tapp
Index 230
List of Figures
3.1 Surat Ikhlas,A. D. Pirous, 1970, 40(cid:2)50cm, color etching 45
3.2 White Writing, A. D. Pirous, 1972, 100(cid:2)180cm, marble
paste, acrylic on canvas 49
3.3 And God the Utmost, A. D. Pirous, 1978, 30(cid:2)30cm,
marble paste, gold, acrylic on canvas 50
3.4 Sura Isra II: Homage to Mother, A. D. Pirous, 1982,
80(cid:2)54cm, serigraph 52
3.5 The artist and They Who are Buried without Names,
A. D. Pirous, 2001, 122(cid:2)122cm, marble paste, sand,
acrylic on canvas 54
3.6 Detail from The Shackling of the Chronicle of the
Holy War II, A. D. Pirous, 1999, 72(cid:2)77cm, mixed
media on canvas 55
5.1 Dadang Christanto, Indonesia b. 1957, Api Bulan
Mei/Fire in May, 1998/1999, installation and performance
at Third Asia-Pacific Triennial Queensland Art Gallery,
Brisbane (Australia) 78
5.2 Dadang Christanto, Indonesia b. 1957, For Those
Who Have Been Killed(detail), 1992, Bamboo, metal,
110(cid:2)80(cid:2)335 cm (irreg., approx.). The Kenneth and
Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art.
Purchased 1993 with funds from The Myer Foundation and
Michael Simcha Baevski through the Queensland Art
Gallery Foundation Collection: Queensland Art Gallery,
Brisbane (Australia) 83
5.3 Dadang Christanto, Indonesia b. 1957, Mereka Memberi
Kesaksian/They Give Evidence, 1996/1997. Installation
at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (Japan).
Fibreglass, brick powder, stone and clothes Dimensions
variable. Collection: Museum of Contemporary Art,
Tokyo (Japan) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales,
Sydney (Australia) 85
5.4 Dadang Christanto, Indonesia b. 1957. 1001 Manusia
Tanah/Earth (Soil) People, 1996. Installation at
Marina Beach, Ancol, Jakarta (Indonesia). Fibreglass,
1000 life-size figures 90
vii
viii List of Figures
5.5 Dadang Christanto, Indonesia b. 1957, Litsus/Portrait of
a Family, 15 August 2004. Performance by Dadang
Christanto, Tukgunung Tan Aren (right) and Kilau Setanggi
Timur (left). Humanities Research Centre, The Australian
National University, Canberra (Australia) 92
5.6 Dadang Christanto, Indonesia b. 1957. Performance at
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Australia), in
association with the work ‘Heads from the North’, 2004 94
8.1 Sufi myths in Morocco and Indonesia (after Geertz 1968) 150
11.1 The new Hmong Cultural Centre in Chiangrai province 220
Acknowledgements
The chapters in this volume were originally presented at the conference
Cultures, Nations, Identities and Migrations, held at the Humanities
Research Centre (HRC) at the Australian National University (ANU) in
April 2004. The HRC sponsored the conference under its 2004 theme,
Asia Pacific. The HRC Director, Professor Iain McCalman identified this
theme and his successor, Professor Ian Donaldson enthusiastically
supported this particular conference. Deputy Director Dr Caroline Turner
and Research Project Officer Ms Christine Clark were unstinting in their
assistance in bringing the programme to fruition, and Program Manager
Leena Messina gave all of her extraordinary organizational skills, assisted
by Judy Buchanan. Additional funding was provided by the ANU
National Institute of Law and Social Sciences, and Christine Debono
facilitated a smooth collaboration. In preparing the papers for publica-
tion, Belinda Henwood (Rent-a-Writer) gave meticulous attention to
editing, and Fritha Jones coordinated production of the final manuscript.
ix
Foreword: Oceanic Visions,
Situated Practices and the
New Cosmopolitanism
Richard Werbner
The worlds within worlds in these chapters are never at rest. Their people
are on the move; their selves, subjects and identities in becoming; their
stories, driven by uncertainties; and even the contributors are caught up
reflecting upon their own self-development through cosmopolitan
engagement with their subjects. Yet, taken as a whole, the chapters
reflect the current force of confidence in the growing intellectual move-
ment which is the new cosmopolitanism.
It is already well known that the new cosmopolitanism represents a
cross-disciplinary movement of intellectuals, mainly liberals, who since
the mid-1990s have been seeking a mid-way between extreme doctrinal
positions. Of these, one is overcommitted, David Hollinger argues, to
universalism and its appeal to identification with humanity as a whole,
to moral obligation without borders and the same treatment for all
(2002, p. 230). Martha Nussbaum’s approach – her manifesto being the
focus of debate in a landmark special issue of The Boston Review(1994) –
is the leading example. At the other extreme, again emerging within
liberal philosophy, is a communitarian form of pluralism which, in
Hollinger’s view (somewhat of a caricature, in my own view) disregards
multiple, overlapping identities, ‘is likely to ascribe to each individual a
primary identity within a single community of descent…[and is] more
concerned to protect and preserve the cultures of groups that are already
well established’ (2002, p. 231). For Hollinger, the leading exponent of
such pluralism is the Canadian philosopher Will Kymlicka (on
Kymlicka’s ideas, see also Werbner 2004a, p. 34, 2004b, pp. 262, 267),
although it is in my view Charles Taylor who has contributed even more
to what I call ‘the new dialogue with post-liberalism’ through which the
political theory of liberalism, above all its concern for equal rights, is
being rethought, repositioning it in history and society (Werbner 2004b,
p. 261, see also 2002a, 2002b, 2002c, passim).
x