Staging the Asian Modern: Cultural Fragments, the Singaporean Eunuch, and the Asian Lear

Abstract

771 An early version of this essay was presented at the International ConsumAsian Workshop on Intra-Asian Cultural Traffic, University of Western Sydney, Australia, 24–26 February 2000. Thanks to Beth Helsinger, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Chris Connery, Lee Weng Choy, Chua Beng Huat, Tay Tong, Lee Chee Keng, Lucy Davis, the late Kuo Pao Kun, Ong Keng Sen, Ray Langenbach, Arjun Appadurai, Jean Comaroff, Tay Tong, Uchino Tadashi, and Charlene Rajendran for responses to the essay, and also to Ien Ang and the workshop’s participants. General discussions with Aihwa Ong, Don Nonini, and Pheng Cheah also helped. Krishen Jit and Marion d’Cruz maintain an enlightening and ongoing discussion on Malaysian and Singapore theater. Thanks too to Traslin Ong and Lucilla Teoh at TheatreWorks (Singapore) Ltd., and also to Wong Yen Yen of the Practice Performing Arts School. Finally, thanks to Brenda S. A. Yeoh and the staff at the former Centre for Advanced Studies, National University of Singapore, where the initial research was undertaken. A note on the usage of Japanese and Chinese names in the article: by and large, I put the family name first, following the custom of both cultures. The exception will be when a writer is better known by the inverted use of their names or when their publications use that order. Staging the Asian Modern: Cultural Fragments, the Singaporean Eunuch, and the Asian Lear