Publications
Published and In-Progress Written Works
2021
RENEGOTIATING MALAYSIAN IDENTITY
Textual Analysis of Chong Fei Giap's Selected Paintings Depicting Waterfront Communnities
Type
Conference Paper
Academic Journal (Pending)
Authors
Eddy Izuwan Musa (Corresponding)
Johan A. Othman
Status :
PRESENTED in
9th ICLK – International Conference on Local Knowledge – Imagineering
Technology and Heritage, 2019
PUBLICATION SUBMISSION IN PROGRESS
THE CYCLE EMPIRE
Reflections on Tibetan Culture
Abstract
This paper discourses factors and trajectories of an individual’s self-defined Malaysian cultural identity while witnessing the manifestations of State’s envisioning for a collective, political-intended national identity. In general, multi-ethnic nation-states provide complexities to contemporary identity and diasporic discourses. Here, theories positing identity to be characteristically fluid and internal which reacts to external circumstances or experiential and habitual associations provide crucial rhetoric to several public contestations to Malaysia’s government repeated attempts, such as its 2019 cultural script integration policy among others, to orchestrate a ‘fixed’, default national identity for her citizens. Upon this premise, this paper extends upon those theories and respond to the situation’s criticisms through an empirical qualitative study of an individual Malaysian artist that visually exemplifies this dissonance between State’s articulated identities with the internally self-defined. Thus, this paper zones semiotically into those visuals as a case study; artworks depicting interactions of local waterfront communities by Chong Fei Giap, to attain in-depth analysis of factors that clarifies the social dynamics behind the opposing group’s altered definition of what constitutes national identity.
Digital Paintings taken from the web for research and academic purposes with the consent of Chong Fei Giap and subsequently, Lokamade.
For more of his works, please visit:
This paper then corroborates its semiological findings with Chong’s coded interview to further interpret these self-defined identities that disparage both diasporic and State’s established notions. As a whole, the findings of this study, while not generalizable to all social groups, do elucidate the necessary rhetoric of ‘certain groups’ parameters for self-defined national identities that are held at higher significance than the authority defined. This updated understanding of present factors contributing to the identity formation, specifically in a multi-ethnic nation-state provides the impetus for any future governance especially in the global age to effectively strategize their policies in closer alignment to their respective citizens’ contemporary social movements.
Keywords
Cultural Identity, Identity, Nationalism, Malaysia, Chong Fei Giap, Grounded Theory, Semiotics.
These selected highlights are photographs taken by Eddy I.M. and are also among those featured within the Book Print.
Type
Book Print
Authors
Eddy Izuwan Musa
Photographers
Eddy Izuwan Musa
Tristan Yap
Status : COMPLETED & PUBLISHED
Abstract
The author, Eddy Izuwan Musa travelled to a distant realm, seeking out a cultural world in complete contrast to his own Malaysian waterfront experience. The Cycle Empire: a journey of philosophical self-contemplation undertaken while exploring a foreign land that is Tibet – pondering the details of its geographical, sociological, and religious conditions, and its dissimilitude to the country of one’s birth.
What are the variables that define Tibetan culture and produce a civilization which sets itself apart from others? Although the telos is to learn another culture without prejudice, comparisons are inevitably made – for the gaze is not pure.
The cultural uniqueness of Tibet, stemming from its geographical, sociological, and religious factors, is juxtaposed against the waterfront-based Malaysian experiences more familiar to the author. The author theorises the variables that define Tibet’s culture and set its people apart from those of other civilizations. The thought process is predicated upon a comparative methodology; Malaysia provides a vantage point of observation rather than operating as a point of bias.
One can only note the progression of one’s thoughts which arise while witnessing an order of monks immersed in debate, or while bathing in the smoky fragrance of herbaceous incense. With tentative awe, one grasps the moment when the master apprehends the Yak, the mountaineer beholds the mountain, the Sanyasi contemplates the cycle of Samsara.
As an aspiring semiotician and art historian, the author will attempt to explore Tibet and its fascinating aspects via an existentialist approach and analytical strategy, using the methodology of semiotics, iconography and iconology. The writing will be accompanied by photographs of Tibet’s picturesque landscapes, architecture and society captured and curated by two photographers throughout the journey.
Keywords
Tibet, Reflections, Travel, Gaze, Photographs, Visual Anthropology, Existentialism, Semiotics, Iconography, Iconology, Barthesian
Recommended Citation:
Musa, Eddy I. & Yap, Tristan. 2020. In The Cycle Empire: Reflections on Tibetan Culture. Malaysia, 2020. Areca Books Asia Sdn Bhd. Phoenix Press. Print.
Publication Information
Hardcover I 17.78 cm x 25.4 cm
200 Pages I Illustrated.
ISBN: 978-967-5719-38-7
Musa, Eddy I. & Yap, Tristan. 2020. In The Cycle Empire:
Reflections on Tibetan Culture. Malaysia, 2020.
Areca Books Asia Sdn Bhd. Phoenix Press. Print.
Published in 2020
by Areca Books Asia Sdn Bhd
70 Lebuh Acheh, 10200 Penang, Malaysia
www.arecabooks.com
Text © Eddy Izuwan Musa
Photographs © Eddy Izuwan Musa, © Tristan Yap
Coordinated by Howard Tai Kai Shen
Edited by How Wei Ping, Khoo Salma Nasution, Manasi Dhanorkar
Design and layout by Malvina Anthony
Additional Design by Vivian Yong Mei Wen
Printed by Phoenix press, Malaysia
Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Eddy Izuwan
The Cycle Empire: Reflections on Tibetan Culture
/ Eddy Izuwan Musa, Tristan Yap
ISBN 978-967-5719-38-7
1. Tibet Autonomous Region (China) - Description and travel.
2. Travel - Anecdotes.
3. Travelers' writings, Malaysian.
4. Travel writing.
I. Yap, Tristan.
II. Title.
951.5
2017
ICONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PERANAKAN INTIMATE LIFESTYLE
A Case Study of Sylvia
Lee Goh’s Woman, Oh! Woman Painting Series
Paintings are scanned from a physical book copy of Sylvia Lee Goh's, utilized for research and academic purposes with the consent of Sylvia Lee Goh. Consult the gallery on the left for her signature of approval.
Abstract
Type
Academic Journal
Authors
Eddy Izuwan Musa (Corresponding)
Sarena Abdullah
Status :
PUBLISHED in
Wacana Seni Journal of Arts Discourse, Volume 16, 2017
The Peranakan Chinese, sometimes known as the Baba Nyonya, are known for their hybrid culture. Most studies on the Peranakan examine the architectural heritage, material culture and cuisine; there is limited focus on the study of visual artworks of the Peranakan. This paper explores and analyses a painting series entitled, “Woman Oh! Woman Series” by Sylvia Lee Goh, a descendant of a Peranakan family in Kedah, who works predominantly in producing Nyonya-themed paintings. This paper provides a deeper reading of this series by drawing on Panofsky’s theory of iconography and iconology as a tool in discussing these artworks within the larger context of Peranakan culture.
FULL PAPER AVAILABLE
FOR READING BELOW
Through Panofsky’s three stages of iconography, this paper explores how the four artworks in the “Woman Oh! Woman Series” could be read through three main significant trajectories in parallel with the Peranakan ethos—the persistence of nature veneration against mortality and ancestor worship, refined etiquette and gender roles, and camaraderie and communal guest reverence.
Keywords
Peranakan Chinese, Peranakan community, lifestyle, Baba Nyonya, Sylvia Lee Goh, iconography analysis
Recommended Citation
Eddy Izuwan Musa and Sarena Abdullah. 2017. Iconological analysis of the peranakan intimate lifestyle: A case study of Sylvia Lee Goh’s Woman, Oh! Woman painting series. Wacana Seni Journal of Arts Discourse 16: 135–162. https://doi.org/10.21315/ws2017.16.6
To Link to This Article
https://doi.org/10.21315/ws2017.16.6
