Won’t Someone Claim Us?
Questions of identity in an increasingly globalized, confusing world are foremost on the minds of young Asian filmmakers.
Grobalization
Material Culture
Too Much Is Never Enough
The relatively understated Chinese objet d’art had to bejewel itself to meet the tastes of customers in the Mughal and Persian markets.
Material Culture
The Pink Portent
Till the seventeenth century, pink was markedly absent from Chinese visual culture. In art, there was a traditional preference for monochromes. Artists would even…
Grobalization
What is Balinese Hinduism?
There are two Balis: “Bali,” the seeker’s paradise of the Eat, Pray, Love set, and the other Bali, a less penetrable, more complex place. “Bali” was born out of the other Bali’s dialogues with European orientalists and the Indonesian state.
The Jungle
Trop Picks: Carl Linnaeus
Where are all the non-Western artists in the global marketplace of ideas?
Bad Gals/ Boys
The Intimate Enemy
Alain Soldeville’s photos of the transgender community in Singapore in the 1980s are startlingly intimate.
Material Culture
Burmese Box
The material an artist choses to work with reveals much about the way she views herself. Take this nineteenth century box from what was then Burma, for example:
International Relations
2 Photographers, 2 Philosophies
The photo series Longing by Prabuddha Dasgupta (1956-2012) is, in his own words, an “ongoing personal journal of memory and
International Relations
What is Modern Art in the Asian Context?
Summarizing the development of art in the West, the artist Chen Hengke (1876-1923) described Western painting as typically faithful to forms
International Relations
A New (Old) Kind of Glocal
Whatever happened to “Glocal”? An amalgam of the words “global” and “local,” it was the corporate buzzword of the late Nineties.
The Jungle
Trop Picks: Venkai and Valli
Here’s a symbol of romantic love that predates Hallmark and Valentine’s Day. In the Akam (love) poetry1 of Tamil culture, the classical poets sang of…
International Relations
The Eternal Outsider
What is the point at which the foreign becomes local? This is a question we might ask ourselves as we view the artistic creations of immigrants who express themselves through the idiom of their adopted land.
Material Culture
Is the Cheongsam Really the Chinese National Dress?
Why do Chinese fashionistas eschew the cheongsam?
International Relations
Rethinking a Classic
Looking at a classic with fresh eyes.