Scholar Speaks: New Findings from Projects Supported by SCCC Research Grants Scheme

Self-Fashioning Towards Modernity: Early Chinese Studio Photography of Chinese Women

Image-making for Chinese women in the past demonstrated a limited situational agency signalling modernity and buttressed the re-Sinicisation drives undertaken by the Peranakan Chinese male elites. The talk focuses on the social history revealed by photographs of Chinese women in the 1920s and 1930s and the social forces impacting the self-fashioning strategy of women before the camera.

Exploring Transformations in Chinese Opera in Singapore: A Photo Essay

The talk will showcase transformations within the performance art of Chinese opera and the people involved in it, including creators who have used Chinese opera in their craft and situate them in the larger context of the Singapore arts scene. Through visual anthropological methodologies, this talk also addresses how photography has helped the wider audience access Chinese opera.

Speaker(s) biography:

 Elaine Chiew

Elaine Chiew is the author of The Heartsick Diaspora (a short story collection) and editor/compiler of Cooked Up (a food fiction anthology). An award-winning writer, her stories have been anthologised globally. She has appeared as speaker at international literary festivals.

Ramakrishnan Ramesh 

Ramesh is a photographer, artist and is currently doing his PhD in the Nanyang Technological University. He loves taking pictures of urban culture, architecture, festivals and people. He uses photography to create photo books and essays in storytelling and documentary form. Ramesh has been a part of multiple artist residencies worldwide and has exhibited internationally.

Moderator:

Jeffrey Say

Programme Leader

Masters in Asian Art Histories

LASALLE College of the Arts

Pre-registration required.

To attend online: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_n6acaADDTPaujcmLO1wfiQ