Lives from Perantauan

2022-11-02 - 2022-12-17

justkids (No.55 Dongqian St., East Dist., Hsinchu City.)

[Fall 2022 Lecture Series: Border Politics, State Logistics, and Precarious Zones, No. 5]

Topic
Lives from Perantauan

Location
justkids  ( No.55 Dongqian St., East Dist., Hsinchu City.)
 
Date
December 17 (Sat), 2022, 14:30-17:30

*The event includes an opening gig by Indonesian musician Ang Wang, please join us on time. Simultaneous Mandarin-English interpretation is provided for non-mandarin audiences.

Event Description 
Perantauan is an Indonesian term widely used to describe working class people migrating to foreign land. Merantau (act of journeying) is a temporal life and perantau (journeyer) are those who are trying their best to stay connected with lives at their homeland.
 
This event will untangle the stories of perantau (migrant workers) in Taiwan. We invited three cultural activists and an Indonesian fisherman and musician to have a dialogue with audiences about daily lives, feelings and expressions of perantau in Taiwan: life uncertainties, brotherhoods, beliefs, and longing for home. Ang Wang, an Indonesian fisher and musician in Taiwan, will give a solo performance of his own songs. Speakers who have spent years on the field of migrant worker groups will share their recent cultural productions. Wu Tingkuan and Lan Yuchen will introduce their latest curation and collaboration with FOSPI “Silaturahmi: Stories of Indonesian Community in Tangkáng”, an art exhibition held this year at TAIWANfest in Vancouver, Canada. Jiang Wanci will give a talk about her latest book Why Migrant Workers Love Live Streaming (《移工怎麼都在直播》).
 
Part I —— Solo Performance
王哥 Ang Wang

Ang Wang was born in Indramayu, West Java, Indonesia. He is a songwriter, band musician, a former member of “Pasukan Hore” in Tangkang, and a fisherman. He has worked in Tangkang for more than 17 years. He played Tarling songs, while his favorite band is Slank.
 
Part II —— SILATURAHMI:  Community Making and Art Practices by the Indonesian Fisher’s Community, Tangkang. 
講者 Speakers: 吳庭寬Wu Tingkuan、藍雨楨 Lan Yuchen

“Silaturahmi: Stories of Indonesian Community in Tangkáng” is an art exhibition held at this year’s TAIWANfest in Vancouver, Canada, created in collaboration with Indonesian fishers’ communities and local Taiwanese cultural workers WU Tingkuan and LAN Yuchen. “Silaturahmi” means “connecting and mending ties of relationships.” The concept reflects the ethos and aspiration of the fishers’ community in Tangkáng: to support each other, accept differences, and learn to interact with the local society. In this event the speakers will share the stories of communities making and the artistic process, and how the fishers practice “Silaturahmi” to forge solidarity and new connections in Taiwan.

 

Part III —— Little sorrows in the life of migrant workers 
講者 Speaker: 江婉琦 Jiang Wanci

Four years after knowing my Indonesian friend, she told me that the reason she came to Taiwan was to escape from the failure of her past marriage and love affairs. In the mainstream narrative on media, migrant workers are usually described as either "inspiring and touching" or “miserable and pitiful”. Though I am not a researcher, I started to ask my Indonesian friends about the ordinary and little sorrows in their lives. The sorrows about love, lack of confidence, and troubles of life. I have even asked the gods, what should we do?

 

Speaker Bios

Ting-Kuan Wu is a cultural activist based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He graduated from the College of Communication, at National Chengchi University. With a strong interest in the Malay Archipelago, especially in Indonesian migrant workers’ art and cultural practices, he explores the historical truths behind labour and migration, expanding the narrative with more perspectives and developing new knowledge through research, archiving, and art collaborations. Since late 2015, he has been doing fieldwork and building collaborative relationships with Indonesian fishers’ communities in Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Penghu, and more. He was the project coordinator of the “Trans/Voices Project: Indonesia-Taiwan” (2019) and “Sketching Singapore – Literary Exchange & Writing Project” (2020). He was also the co-curator of “Jalan-Jalan: Be with You Along The Way” (2021-2022), which deals with the human rights of migrants in Kaohsiung and Pingtung, and was exhibited in the Kaohsiung Museum of Labor.

Yu-Chen Lan is a cultural worker and freelance writer. While conducting ethnographic fieldwork on urban art activism in Bandung, Indonesia (2017-2019), she was inspired to continue initiating socially-engaged art projects such as the Trans/Voices Project (2019-present). This project is a platform connecting Taiwan and Indonesia that explores migrant workers’ issues, mainly the cultural and artistic scenes, labour conditions, and community building.

Wan-ci Jiang was born in 1997 in Tainan. She is an INFJ and the Reflector in the Human Design System. She accessed SEA migrant workers and the topic of migration since 2015. She has a talent for observing the world with curiosity. In order to conduct the fieldwork, she has once been to the Tainan Luerhmen Mazu Temple for divination. After throwing eleven “sacred combinations”, she was appointed by the goddess Mazu and became Mazu’s fairy. Currently, she works as a freelance writer. Recently, she published a book titled Why Migrant Workers Love Live Streaming (《移工怎麼都在直播》).

 

主辦單位：國立陽明交通大學文化研究國際中心、台聯大文化研究國際中心、台聯大系統亞際文化研究國際碩士學位學程、國立陽明交通大學社會與文化研究所、國科會計畫「全球化勞動力榨取的物流拓撲分析：公民政治與內部殖民」

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