in spite of the fact i had to send several research writing material to cambridge, i am still required to re-do my ielts test. srsly? why can’t my brown excellence be on par with queen’s english sksksksks.
i am not even sure why i am anxious about sitting for ielts again. it shouldn’t be so difficult since i speak english 24/7. but the thing is, the test is very rigid and clinical, so there is room for carelessness. i guess i should remember to keep to british spelling the most.
anyway, in case whoever reading my blog also needs some preparation tips, i thought of sharing some material that were great for refreshing my memory.
SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO (god bless that user in the comments section).
LISTENING 1. Read the questions properly. 2. Read the questions before the listening starts. 3. Answer the questions on the list and transfer to your answer sheet later. (because there may be corrections/misleading speech) [So, listen to the entire information before answering] 4. Focus on the information. It may not be repeated. Write it down as soon as you listen. 5. Spelling matters. Use British English spellings.
READING 1. Spend 15, 20, 25 minutes on the subsequent test sections respectively. 2. Answer directly in the sheet because you won’t have time in this section later. 3. Read the first question and then look for answers in the text body. No need to read the whole text first and then read questions. 4. Only use the context and info of the text for True/False. 5. If you can’t find an answer then don’t waste time. Move on and come back later. Use your best guess. 6. Take your own watch.
WRITING SECTION 1. 20 minutes for the 1st and 40 minutes for the 2nd task. 2. If you write less than minimum words your points will be deducted. 3. Practice writing at home to get an estimate of the number of words in a given time. 4. Writing should be legible. 5. Only describe the picture, don’t give an analysis. 6. Describe in a structured manner – introduction, two paragraphs (1 para for similarities and 2nd for differences) 7. Pay attention to the trends, highest lowest point. Don’t need to pay attention to specific figures for each year etc. 8. Say – the graph represent, not “we can see”, “i can see” etc. 9. Can use past indefinite or present indefinite. 10. For essay – Put your arguments and support them with ideas. 11. Spend the first 10 minutes on reading the task and thinking about the arguments, making a plan. 12. Use 25 minutes to write. Last 5 minutes to check. 13. The structure is important. One argument should have one paragraph. 14. If you think you are about to run out of time, then jump to your conclusion. Better to miss your argument than to miss the conclusion. 15. Your ideas need not be brilliant, they must be relevant and you should support them.
INTERVIEW 1. Be friendly, smile, make eye contact. 2. Don’t worry about the accent. But be clear and speak loud enough. 3. Questions about yourself – family, friends neighbors music pets. 4. Give expanded answers and not one-word answers. 5. When not sure about what to say, fill it up with an example. 6. Answer the questions one by one. Make sure you cover every part. 7. Practice speaking at home with timing. 8. Just make a story up if you don’t have one. You just need to cover the topics 9. Try the topics at home. 10. The structure here is important too. – Introduction, body, conclusion. 11. Give examples from real life in the last discussion. 12. If you have doubts, then you can ask.
DO AS MANY MOCK TESTS AS YOU CAN.
grammatical range // grammatical accuracy: use a mixture of 6 types of sentences:
simple sentence: one idea
compound sentence: one idea + one idea
complex sentence: two or more ideas [usage of connectors such as “while”, “which”, “although”, “so that”, “in order to” etc.]
finally got my grade back for my field notes assignment! but i am not happy with my marks. i know that 68/100 is a decent mark but still… it was just field notes!!! how could i have screwed it up?? maybe i am being too hard on myself since i was not even sure about what i was supposed to do. the feedback suggests that i did not do enough to tie my observations together. i guess this must be true as i was concerned about doing too much in 1000 words. i guess i should have not hold back!
Netusha,
This is a very good set of field notes because it makes a sufficient number of relevant observations that cluster around the question of “mukmin” (faithfulness, perhaps). However, it starts off with observations that seem a little disconnected, such as the architecture of the building and the area. Still, the quality of the observations that do cluster around faithfulness are very good.
nonetheless, i had a great time working on this assignment. i actually enjoyed visiting the bookstore one more time, but this time to collect as many observations as i could. it gave me the opportunity to have a greater appreciation of pustaka mukmin and its role in shaping the hybrid landscape of masjid india, kuala lumpur.
On the 22nd of March, I visited a bookstore named Pustaka Mukmin (KL) Sdn. Bhd. located in Tuanku Abdul Rahman (TAR) street, Kuala Lumpur. As seen in Figure 1, the facade of the building has been painted a lighter shade of magenta and navy blue accents. Many of the shophouses in TAR street were built before World War 2 and thus, the facade of the bookstore is very consistent with elements of neo-classical architecture such as a Palladian-inspired parapet, window frames and the Renaissance-inspired ornate dome (Ho, Hasan & Noordin, 2005).
Figure 1. Facade of Pustaka Mukmin along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Photography by Netusha Naidu
Pustaka
Mukmin is located on a street with persisting historical roots, better known as
Jalan TAR, it remains a popular shopping area. Flanked by buildings of similar
pre-war architecture, these shophouses have been transformed into modern
retailers selling a wide range of products, especially fabrics and textiles.
The
signboard on the first floor states “PEMBORONG BUKU AGAMA” above its name,
which means “wholesaler of religious books”. The signboard on the second floor
of the building states “KEDAI BUKU DAN ALAT TULIS” which means, “book and
stationary store”. It is coupled with the logo of Oxford Fajar, the Malaysian
branch of Oxford University Press. This was probably done to advertise the bookstore’s
collection of the company’s publications and attract a prestigious reputation
among its patrons.
Etymology and history of Pustaka
Mukmin
According
to Pustaka Mukmin’s owner, an Indian Muslim man named Haji Ishak, the bookstore
is a family business that was established in 1970. He explained to me that the
bookstore attempts to cater to all sorts of readers as a means of maintaining
the business. “Whatever people would like read, we will order. It is good for
business”, he said in a soft-spoken tone. Haji Ishak mentioned that they pride
on their extensive networks with publishing houses of Islamic texts outside
Malaysia, including countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia,
Indonesia and India.
A
particularly interesting aspect of the bookstore begins with the name itself.
On one hand, according to the 2nd edition of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP)’s
Malay language dictionary, the word pustaka
originates from Sanskrit and can be defined as the following: (a) a
compilation of papers that are bounded together; (b) a book that contains
predictions of the future; (c) library and (d) a place that stores reading
materials (PRPM, 2017a). On the other hand, the word mukmin originates from Arabic term for “believer” or “faithful
Muslim” as stated in the holy Quran
(PRPM, 2017b). However, as described by practicing Muslims I have encountered, mukmin is often used to refer to men and
women who are distinguished from other Muslims due to having complete
submission to Allah.
Observations and conversations in
Pustaka Mukmin
Upon entering Pustaka Mukmin, I first noticed the large banner of neon-red fonts contrasted against black, at the back of the bookstore’s ground floor. It states “BUKU AGAMA DAPAT HARGA BORONG & RUNCIT” which translates to “religious books at wholesale and retail price”. Such emphasis might indicate the desire to make Islamic texts more affordable and therefore, more encouraging for the surrounding Muslim community to cultivate a holistic Islamic way of life. This is further reinforced by an extensive array of supplements that were prominently displayed at the front of the store (see Figure 2). Some products included honey, herbs, arabic gum, henna hair dye, kohl eyeliner and zamzam water. When I asked Haji Ishak about where they were acquired from, he mentioned that they were purchased from third party agencies that imported these products from various parts of India and the Middle East. Other items that featured near the entrance of the bookstore include tasbih (prayer beads), rehal (book rest for the Quran), nasheed (vocal music) albums, audio lectures by preachers and skullcaps.
Figure 2. Inside the first floor of the bookstore. Photography by Netusha Naidu.
Examples of religious books that were put on display include on Islamic jurisprudence, commentaries on the Quran and hadiths as well as Islamic history and philosophy. However, these were not the only type of books to dominate the shelves of Pustaka Mukmin. In fact, there were also books that aim to address mental health from an Islamic perspective, motivational and lifestyle books authored by Islamic preachers, Malay language romance novels, biographies of political activists such as Malcom X and Malala Yousafzai, commentaries on Malaysian politics and conspiracy theories that were inclined to anti-Semitism. Most of the books available were in Malay, but there was also at least three to four shelves were for books in English.
Figure 3. A group of young Singaporean Malay women shopping at the bookstore. Photography by Netusha Naidu.
Figure 4. Bookshelf of translated versions of the Holy Quran accompanied by commentaries. Photography by Netusha Naidu.
Haji Ishak mentioned that patrons of the bookstores are not just locals, but also come from Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq. Fortunately, I managed to speak to a group of young Singaporean Malay girls (Figure 3). One of them said she frequently visited the bookstore several times when she was much younger. When asked what compelled her to come back to Pustaka Mukmin in particular, she mentioned that she appreciated the wide range and variety of books that were available. “In Singapore, due to restrictions on the circulation of books, there are very limited choices in obtaining Islamic texts”, she added. In spite of the bookstore mostly catering to Malay-language readers, she was convinced that Pustaka Mukmin offered more options for translations of the Holy Quran from Arabic to English, as shown in Figure 4.
A room of a mukmin’s own
The purpose for an establishment like Pustaka Mukmin might be in aiding preparation for the Hajj. This is seen in the range of books in Figure 5, that includes a well-acclaimed meditation on the enigmatic experiences of the pilgrimage to Mecca by Iranian scholar, Ali Shariati.
Figure 5. A copy of “The Hajj” by Ali Shariati. Photography by Netusha Naidu.
Pustaka Mukmin can be regarded site that is constituted by manifold Muslim networks in a transnational religious economy. The goods available at Pustaka Mukmin are acquired through trade relations that extend beyond the boundaries of Malaysia. Consequently, the richness and diversity that encompasses Pustaka Mukmin makes it a site of multiple interactions and scales as several interlocutors, from Haji Ishak himself, to import agencies and publishing houses abroad. As a result, this amalgamation formed a localized environment that promotes a mukmin’s lifestyle.
just parking this really well-written excerpt about a european man with very intimate connections with this part of the world. i might find it useful to picking out observations about the transnational flows of culture and family in my postgraduate research. especially since i intend to look at malayan-thai relations.
so, this is not my own writing. this is from a research article as spelt out in the following. happy reading! hope you appreciate this as much as i did.
Walker, K. (2012) “Intimate Interactions: Eurasian Family Histories in Colonial Penang,” Modern Asian Studies 46, 2 (Mar.), pp. 303-29.
Joseph Christopher Pasqual
Birthdate: circa February 04, 1865
Death: circa 1941 (67-83)
Singapore
Joseph Christopher Pasqual was a Thai-Portuguese Eurasian born in 1865 to a Catholic family in Pulau Tikus, whose ancestors stretched back to the second migrant group of Eurasian Catholics from Phuket. Pasqual joined the Land Office in Kuala Lumpur around 1885, and moved between government departments for several years. He distinguished himself, showing that he had ‘abilities far above the ordinary standard of Clerks’.73 But in 1889, he decided to give up his clerical career, stating that he was ‘physically unfit for a sedentary calling’.74 He went into coffee planting and tin mining in Selangor and Negri Sembilan and, in later years, in Perlis.75
In the history of tin mining in Malaya, Pasqual was a significant figure. In 1902 he served as president of the Miners’ Association in the Federated Malay States.76 Pasqual’s career spanned a period of major structural changes within the industry, technical innovations, and changeable market conditions.77 But success in tin mining made him an influential and affluent figure. Older residents of Malaya reflecting on the ‘good old times’ in 1952 remembered that he owned one of the first motorcars—an Alldays and Onions model—seen in Penang.78 Pasqual was also a prolific writer, publishing books and articles on a vast number of topics, from Chinese tin mining, rice cultivation, and sugar-cane growing in Malaya, to Malay customs and traditions, and the history of Penang.79 He had a long-held interest in Thailand, where he had travelled extensively, and published several articles on his train journeys from Perlis to Patani, and Malayan-Thai relations.80
In 1916, Pasqual married Ong Kim Choo, born of Teochew parentage in Trang in southern Thailand, a trading port with well established commercial tin mining and familial links with Penang.81 It was only during the second decade of the twentieth century that Teochews began to arrive in Trang in significant numbers, many coming as workers on the construction of the Southern Line of the Thai State Railway.82 By the early twentieth century, the Chinese community in Thailand was large and complex, and a dominant force in Thai commercial life. Many Chinese families had assimilated into Thai society. Others maintained a distinct Chinese identity, institutionalized in language group associations, schools, and newspapers, and, by the 1910s, a growing Chinese nationalism.83 When Pasqual met Ong Kim Choo,the Chinese presence in Thailand was becoming increasingly politicized. Family members remember Ong Kim Choo telling them that she was just 15 when she married the then middle-aged Pasqual in a Chinese ceremony, a relationship her parents had forced her into (see Figure 2).84
After they married, Ong Kim Choo changed her name to Rosa Pasqual, but retained many of her Thai nyonya traditions, continuing to wear a baju and sarong, and chew betel nut.85 Like Ponnia Moissinac, she only converted to Catholicism later in life. Although she shared many Western customs with her grandchildren, including celebrating Christmas with them, they remember that she ate with her fingers, and enjoyed eating spicy sambal belachan on a lettuce leaf, which she rolled up and chewed.86 This was a multilingual household, as she spoke Thai with her children; Malay with her Tamil servant, and also with her grandchildren who replied to her in English or Hokkien; and Hokkien with other Chinese. Pasqual’s writings were peppered with Figure 2. Rosa Pasqual with her children, 1920. Source: Private collection of Avril Pasqual.87 Malay and Chinese words, and he was known to speak Thai, English, possibly a Chinese dialect, and read Jawi, a script of spoken Malay.88
Figure 2. Rosa Pasqual with her children, 1920. Source: Private collection of Avril Pasqual.87
From his writings, a flavour of the domestic life in the Pasqual household emerges. In an article about the Ma’yong, a form of ancient Malay theater native to the northern Malay States, Pasqual revealed that he had personally tried to revive its popularity by financing a troupe of Ma’yong players from Kedah to play in his compound in Province Wellesley, and had invited all the villagers to watch.89 But although ethnic, linguistic, and cultural pluralism emerge strongly from the archive of memory within this Eurasian family, Joseph Pasqual remained in many ways an elusive figure. Family members discovered later that Pasqual was actually already married when he met Ong Kim Choo. His first and only legal wife was an Australian woman called Victoria Keaughran, with whom he had three children who were brought up as Europeans and were educated in England and Scotland.90 After ‘marrying’ Ong Kim Choo, he was married twice more, to another Sino-Thai woman, and then to a Chinese woman. His demise is equally mysterious. Within the family’s history, several contradictory stories about his death have come to light; in one, he died, along with his first wife, in a ship that sank off the coast of Singapore; in another he was murdered by communists after the war for collaborating with the Japanese.91 The enquiries of the colonial government in 1947 revealed that Victoria Keaughran had been evacuated from Penang to Singapore in February 1942, and was believed to have died on the Gian Bee, an evacuation ship which was bombed by the Japanese. It was gathered that J. C. Pasqual had been living in Thailand before the war, and was separated from his wife. He too was evacuated to Singapore, where he died at some point during the Japanese occupation.92
73 Auditor, Audit Office, to British Resident, Selangor, 18 July 1888, 1957/0011788, Arkib Negara Malaysia. 74 Joseph Pasqual to Acting Collector and Magistrate, Ulu Langat, 18 November 1889, 1957/0017687, Arkib Negara Malaysia. 75 Stanley Musgrave Middlebrook,Yap Ah Loy,1837–1885 (Kuala Lumpur: Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,1983),p.126. See also ‘A Model Coffee Planter’, Straits Observer, 23 July 1897, p.3; and Petition from Towkay’s Ah Yeok Lok Chen, Ah Peng and J. C. Pasqual, 27 July 1892, 1957/0032174, Arkib Negara Malaysia. 76 Straits Times, 18 December 1902, p.4. 77 J.M.Gullick, A History of Selangor (1766–1939)(Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1998), pp. 150–53. See also Wong Lin Ken, The Malayan Tin Industry to 1914 (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1965). 78 Straits Times, 30 November 1952, p.4. 79 His writings include ‘One Hundred Years of Penang’, The Pinang Gazette, Centenary Edition, 1933, pp. 9–10, 73; ‘Chinese Tin Mining in Selangor’, Selangor Journal, 4, 1896, pp. 25–29; ‘The Limestone Caves of Perlis’, Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 30 August 1921, p.1; ‘A Trip to Patani’, Straits Times, 2 August 1923, p.10; ‘The Mayong Play’, Straits Times, 16 May 1937, p.10. 80 Straits Times, 19 June 1913, p.11; and2 August 1923, p.10. 81 Email conversations with Avril Pasqual. On the familial and commercial connections between southern Thailand and Malaya, see Jennifer Cushman, Family and State: The Formation of a Sino-Thai Tin-Mining Dynasty, 1797–1932 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 14. 82 Tong Chee Kiong and Chan Kwok Bun, Alternate Identities: The Chinese of Contemporary Thailand (Leiden: Brill, 2001), pp. 149–50; and G. William Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1957), pp. 178–79. 83 Christopher John Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, A History of Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 95–96. 84 Email conversations with Avril Pasqual. 85 Email conversations with Avril Pasqual. 86 Email conversations with Avril Pasqual. 87 Reproduced with permission from Avril Pasqual. 88 See, for example,J. C. Pasqual,‘Chinese Tin Mining in Selangor’,Selangor Journal, 4, 1895, pp. 25–29. 89 Straits Times, 16 May 1937, p.10. 90 Email conversations with Avril Pasqual. 91 ‘Serani Sembang’. 92 Memorandum from O i/c V.F.R.O., Peel Avenue, Penang to O.C., CRO, VFRO (Malaya), Kuala Lumpur, 8 July 1947, 1957/0472465, Arkib Negara Malaysia.
feel like i’ve been a little less active here. tbh i really just have been so excited about getting a conditional offer to cambridge that i couldn’t bring myself back to the ground for a bit. it’s just such a big deal for me you know? i never thought that i would have such potential to be considered for an opportunity like this. i feel like it must be a long road because for the longest time, i never felt that i was any good in spite of spending so many hours studying and doing things that i am passionate about.
the biggest improvement i have seen so far is my sense of identity and confidence levels. i feel like i am able to acknowledge and own that my struggles were worth it, and that i can assure myself that i conquered whatever that crossed my path.
usually, i am pretty goon during seminar discussions for sites of asian interaction (probably because of the brain fog i was dealing with) but it seems to be going away… and possibly returning. the only way to deal with it is to sleep it off. so i guess i should take my friday slow and do what i can. i really need to finish the draft of the introductory chapter to my dissertation. the last two chapters are just too intense and i probably need to dedicate a lot of time in order to submit them on time!
anyway, back to the seminars, i actually noticed that i am able to tease out and articulate what i find interesting about the readings and lectures again. we recently looked at ronit ricci’s paper about how citations in islamic manuscripts are a site of literary networks in what she calls, ‘the arabic cosmopolis’.
Ricci, R. (2012). Citing as a Site: Translation and circulation in Muslim South and Southeast Asia. Modern Asian Studies, 46(2), 331-353.
when i was preparing for the cambridge workshop in kuala lumpur, my supervisor recommended me to read ricci’s book, islam translated, so that i had a more nuanced idea about the circulation of islamic texts and its role in conversion of maritime southeast asian polities.
ever since i read this book, i fell completely in love with the way in which manuscripts play such an important role in this part of the world. this paper is a more compressed version of the book, but still brilliant nonetheless.
i really like how meticulously she draws comparisons between various translation styles in different literary traditions. for example, she points out how the phrase bismillah ar-rahman ar-rahim as what she calls, a paratext, is adapted to suit tamil, javanese and malay linguistic structures. the javanese example is pretty unique because of all the cases she looked at, the javanese text is the only one to translate the words into localized vocabulary, and basically paraphrases this sacred phrase rather than keeping it as it is.
essentially, ricci’s contemplations on the emergence of islamic literary tradition in southeast asia sheds light on the complexities in understanding what it means to undergo “arabization”. in fact, the term itself has become incredibly loaded in malaysia. especially after a particular prime minister’s daughter described the rising islamic conservatism as “arab colonization” or “arabization”. during a panel session of which she spoke about this topic, i somewhat challenged her to think about how uncritical and potentially, xenophobic such a remark comes across. and that it does not necessarily capture the wider imagination of malay muslims. she was pretty upset with me so i didn’t really get a good conversation at the end.
what i despise most about conversations about how malaysia is so “arabized” is basically for several reasons, as discussed during class the other day.
one, it operations on the assumption that there is a “real” and “pure” malay identity that is tolerant and inclusive. this essentialist concept of malays gallivanting in figure hugging kebayas and dancing to western music, drinking wine and gambling is mostly captured by the liberal malays that often make up the elite class. this is not to say that they are wrong about what it means to be malay. i just don’t think that this is the only way malayness has been expressed in the very long history of plurality that we are in. what more when you think about the presence of hadrami arabs and their tremendous influence on cultural, social and political practices of malay muslims.
two, it assumes that malays have no responsibility and agency in taking on trendier performative gestures of their piety. like, why blame everything on a community that exists outside of your own (taking this in the context of alienation produced by the modern nation-state)? ricci’s paper demonstrates that without interlocutors that are locally bred and based, such versions of faith and religion that we know of today wouldn’t be so widely embraced. so i think such a narrative is merely a trope of fear among the more liberal factions of the country, and not so much a genuine address of issues like political extremism.
is there some kind of communication breakdown in the society we are in today? ricci’s paper also make me ponder upon the whole “allah” drama-o-rama that happened a few years ago. basically, we had one of the most racially tensed court cases in the history of this country. all because there were many muslims that got upset with the usage of allah in reference to god in a malay translation of the holy bible.
apparently it caused great offense because the muslims concerned felt that allah was a specific signifier for god in an islamic context. and so to use it in a christian context was painted as being an insidious trick to seduce muslims into christianity. can’t help but to wonder how true this really is. after all, the arrival of christianity to the malay world was a LOT later than islam.
if we apply ricci’s analysis, allah was one of those words that authoritatively superseded”tuhan” in the malay language, especially in the advent of islamization. i guess this is what she meant by these processes being referred to “arabicized” rather than “arabized” because local languages were influenced by arabic in a way that encouraged combinations rather than replacements. perhaps more than anything, these issues are mostly deeply embedded by the severity of our racialized politics, rather than islamic discourse.
i don’t think i will be able to come up with a final opinion on these issues, but i am certainly on the side that we should abandon a blanket term like arabization to describe the slippery slope towards theocratic tendencies in malaysia. it’s a lot more complicated than that! but that doesn’t mean we don’t have the language for it. we just need to spend more time pondering and searching for pluralities that we can be at peace with.
currently wrestling with developing more specific research questions for my investigation of martaban jars. good thing is that my lecturer set some guidelines for us to follow in writing the archival research report. one of the suggestions he made was to read the following:
Harper, T. and S.S. Amrith, (2012) “Sites of Asian Interaction: An Introduction,” Modern Asian Studies 46, 2 (Mar.), pp. 249-257.
honestly, this is such an epic read. it is not just a summary of the papers that are in the book. it also lays out the various methodological frameworks that historians can utilize to tease out more subaltern aspects of history. the overarching theme of the book is histories of cosmopolitanism in asia, and how through a study of movements, goods, ideas, people and objects (i have literally memorized that phrase btw because my supervisor repeats it like a chant for lectures lel) we can actually even look at the limits of cosmopolitanism.
i am a neat-freak and use colour to memorize so here are my notes.
these limits are not necessarily dictated by the creation of the modern nation-state, but they seem to also be due to factors that involve the extent of mobility that these movements, goods, ideas, people and objects are capable of. huhu saw what i did there?
close-up #1
plus, my entrance into understanding the study of material culture began with one particular chapter in this book. it also started my extreme fandom during my gap year when i was self studying historiography and southeast asian studies in anticipation that my parents would force me back into the rigidity of law school. aren’t i glad i won the battle at the end.
Mandal, S.K. (2012) “Popular Sites of Prayer, Transoceanic Migration, and Cultural Diversity: Exploring the Significance of Keramat in Southeast Asia,” Modern Asian Studies 46, 2 (Mar.), pp. 355-372.
i never really looked at keramat (muslim shrines) in this way. this chapter taught me that history is not necessarily centred on the discourse of powerful individuals. i could actually make the focus of complex relations more evident if i tried to examine materials that can demonstrate a broader process that is going on in the vastness of world history.
so now onto my martaban jars *cracks knuckles*, perhaps i can write about how when we look at the localization of martaban jars into heirloom objects in borneo, we can actually see how cosmopolitanism fades away into the background, becoming deeply embedded to the point of subtlety.
most of the secondary sources i am reading to acquire photographs and information about the jars are from museum collection catalogues in europe. at first i thought of understanding the reasons for artifact acquisition to be the object of study, but then i need to make the jars as the archive itself. i think they can because of their aesthetic origins, but also for their functionality in different cultures, particularly ranging from myanmar to china and borneo.
close up #2 (please forgive me for that ugly ass arch in the second column)
plus, i found out that eric tagliacozzo wrote in one of his books about how martaban jars were so valuable that they were often looted and smuggled through the borders between borneo! that really does break the whole orientalist curation trope that seems to colonize narratives of material culture.
now that i have some ideas for my approach to the jars, i am quite excited to read some of the papers in my bibliography to further refine my research questions.
netusha naidu [ نتشا ] 