通過跨國域少數民族在多元文化世界遺產之定位重新思考東南亞文化

2016-05-19

Speaker: Dr. Hong-Chuang Loo, Faculty of Creative Industries, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia

LOO HONG-CHUANG is currently an assistant professor at University Tunku Abdul Rahman Mal

: R106, Humanities and Social Science Building 2, NCTU

Abstract
Southeast Asia is a socio-culturally diverse region that continues to experience rapid changes and transformation. In 2016, Asean becomes a community. The establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) not only creates a US$2.6 trillion market, the third largest economy in Asia and the seventh largest in the world, but it also presents a challenge to foster “a sense of regional identity in addition to the national identities that make up Southeast Asia” (The Straits Times, 2016). Even though forging a common regional identity among 622 million people from different national backgrounds is not a simple task, historian Farish A. Noor has reminded that Southeast Asians were non-passive, self-aware recipients of the constant migrations of new cultures and traditions. He continues to point out that “mobility has always been crucial to us. We’ve never had a centralized power, or a massive rebellion, or been a martial people. Because if we didn’t like something or how things were back in the day, we packed up the sampan and left”.

‘Modern’ Southeast Asians remind active contributors to the (re)making and maintenance of cultural practices and diversity in the region. One of such evidences is the re-emergence of the hybrid Chitty Melaka community, an ethnic minority in and beyond Malaysia who trace their origins back to Melaka, after the historical centre of Melaka City was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as ‘World Heritage Cities’ in 2008. The artificiality of the Government’s restyling of Melaka’s inner city as a Disneyesque theme park has actually triggered the Chitty Melaka to enter this discursive space through social media and begin the recuperation of their own often forgotten traditions. Examining the experiences of Chitty Melaka community, this paper argues that by rearticulating their identity, the Chitty Melaka is not only reclaiming and defining their positions in the mosaic of a multi-ethnic Melaka, in opposition to an ethno-centric construction of this national heritage site. Their active participations are also transforming Melaka from the birthplace of a national multicultural heritage to a shared transnational heritage site in Southeast Asia.

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經費來源：台聯大系統、主辦單位：臺灣聯大系統＆國立交通大學文化研究國際中心、交通大學社會與文化研究所、台聯大系統亞際文化研究國際碩士學位學程主辦