Mystique Asia
Yesterday for the first time I have missed the entry since the start of this Blog Diary. Although I am not perfectionist, it is not really nice to see one day has been skipped in the daily continuation of the journal entries. The reason why I missed yesterday's entry is simple. I watched the show in CCP and went home very late at night. I had received a few free tickets from a friend of mine and his friend; she is the member of the folkloric dance group called ROFG.
This name stands for Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group. Mr. Obusan is one of the famous choreographers in the Philippines who have focused on the Philippine traditional dances. The name of show was Mystique Asia by ROFG. In this show the representative folkloric dances in each country throughout Asia have been assembled and synthesized so as to transform the combination of them into a kind of multicultural mixture of Asian taste.
What Mr. Obusan used to do was the field research to find out and collect the folkloric dances throughout the Philippine archipelago. In other words, the initial purpose of his research was the anthropological preservation. And of course CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) has been one of such research initiatives. While it is easy to collect and preserve the materials such as folkloric artifacts and still not so difficult to collect and preserve the songs if you use the audio equipments, in the case of the dances it is not easy to conduct the same kind of preservation.
Of course just like the songs, if we use the audio-visual devices, it is not impossible to keep them as the data. However, not only for the sake of such academic preservation, but the point or rather the challenge was how we can keep the folkloric performances alive and if possible how we can transform them into the more contemporary acceptable performances that can be appreciated by the actual audiences in the modern and post-modern environment. Modern means the modernized setting such as the theater and auditorium with the advanced audio-visual devices; and post-modern means the multi-cultural setting where people can be encouraged to understand other cultures.
In my understanding, Mr. Obusan is the one of the initiators who started preserving the folkloric performances in this way. To do so, the first thing he did was to establish the dance group such as ROFG. And the second was to train the dancers and performers in ROFG, so that they can preserve the traditional folkloric dances as a sort of live form. And his intention was not only to preserve them as a live form, but also (this is the third one) to transform them into the more professionally presentable artworks. Using the analogy of folkloric materials, his third intention was similar to that which one tries to create the contemporary works of art out of the folkloric, traditional artifacts.
And if necessary, the fourth intention was to put such performances on the multi-cultural, global setting. The title of the show is Mystique Asia. It is not to present a single particular ethnicity or nation-state, but rather to embrace the dynamic reality of multicultural environment as the whole entity. Thus, if you try to focus on a single performance that represents a particular culture, nation-state or ethnic group, then you cannot be probably satisfied. Each performance has been quite simplified and even has contained the risk of becoming a sort of kitsch. But if you try to see the show as the dynamic wholeness of contemporary globalization, somehow you can restore the eye to appreciate those colorful entries of each performance.
If I try to put a name on it, it can be called a trans-national or trans-cultural dynamics or entity that cannot necessarily be belonged the traditional authenticity of each culture. For example, there was also the performance to represent Japan. If I try to see the authentic cultural esthetics in the performance, unfortunately this was far from it. However, there was room that such inauthentic performance can be accepted and appreciated that is the so-called global dynamic context in which each culture has been expected to be more collaborative to form the global entity. Using the analogy of linguistics, it is not to preserve the pureness of language, but rather to create a creole language. In this sense I was quite interested in this kind of show – Mystique Asia.
Thus, in my point of view, "mystique" is not the premodern, but rater post-modern. It is not such premodern view that Westerners consider the Asian taste as something mysterious, but rather such post-modern view that all of us tend to consider the newly emerged collage of cultural diversity as something mysterious indeed.
I received free tickets from Mr. O who is a student of Community Development. He has been mentioned several times already in my Blog entries here. And his friend, Miss N is the member of ROFG. She is a student of anthropology at the same time a dancer of ROFG and has been working on her thesis about the Philippine folkloric dances. As far as I know, her intention is not only to collect and report some of the Philippine folkloric dances. Such approach is rather categorized as the traditional or classical methodology of anthropology. Rather, if her approach is keen, then it should focus on such concept as invention of culture.
It is the view that culture has been invented so as to articulate the national identity of the nation-state in a particular context. In this context the dynamics between cultural identity and national identity can be discussed. And in the same manner she can also focus on the "role" of CCP. Cultural Center of the Philippines was established as part of national projects – its intention was quite political. CCP has also the pure academic role (this definition is also controversial, though) and yet it is also important to see how CCP has contributed to the invention of culture. Though anthropology is not my expertise, I just hope she will write her thesis from this point of view. In fact, she has her big advantage as the insider of ROFG and CCP in order to conduct the intensive participatory observation.
This name stands for Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group. Mr. Obusan is one of the famous choreographers in the Philippines who have focused on the Philippine traditional dances. The name of show was Mystique Asia by ROFG. In this show the representative folkloric dances in each country throughout Asia have been assembled and synthesized so as to transform the combination of them into a kind of multicultural mixture of Asian taste.
What Mr. Obusan used to do was the field research to find out and collect the folkloric dances throughout the Philippine archipelago. In other words, the initial purpose of his research was the anthropological preservation. And of course CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) has been one of such research initiatives. While it is easy to collect and preserve the materials such as folkloric artifacts and still not so difficult to collect and preserve the songs if you use the audio equipments, in the case of the dances it is not easy to conduct the same kind of preservation.
Of course just like the songs, if we use the audio-visual devices, it is not impossible to keep them as the data. However, not only for the sake of such academic preservation, but the point or rather the challenge was how we can keep the folkloric performances alive and if possible how we can transform them into the more contemporary acceptable performances that can be appreciated by the actual audiences in the modern and post-modern environment. Modern means the modernized setting such as the theater and auditorium with the advanced audio-visual devices; and post-modern means the multi-cultural setting where people can be encouraged to understand other cultures.
In my understanding, Mr. Obusan is the one of the initiators who started preserving the folkloric performances in this way. To do so, the first thing he did was to establish the dance group such as ROFG. And the second was to train the dancers and performers in ROFG, so that they can preserve the traditional folkloric dances as a sort of live form. And his intention was not only to preserve them as a live form, but also (this is the third one) to transform them into the more professionally presentable artworks. Using the analogy of folkloric materials, his third intention was similar to that which one tries to create the contemporary works of art out of the folkloric, traditional artifacts.
And if necessary, the fourth intention was to put such performances on the multi-cultural, global setting. The title of the show is Mystique Asia. It is not to present a single particular ethnicity or nation-state, but rather to embrace the dynamic reality of multicultural environment as the whole entity. Thus, if you try to focus on a single performance that represents a particular culture, nation-state or ethnic group, then you cannot be probably satisfied. Each performance has been quite simplified and even has contained the risk of becoming a sort of kitsch. But if you try to see the show as the dynamic wholeness of contemporary globalization, somehow you can restore the eye to appreciate those colorful entries of each performance.
If I try to put a name on it, it can be called a trans-national or trans-cultural dynamics or entity that cannot necessarily be belonged the traditional authenticity of each culture. For example, there was also the performance to represent Japan. If I try to see the authentic cultural esthetics in the performance, unfortunately this was far from it. However, there was room that such inauthentic performance can be accepted and appreciated that is the so-called global dynamic context in which each culture has been expected to be more collaborative to form the global entity. Using the analogy of linguistics, it is not to preserve the pureness of language, but rather to create a creole language. In this sense I was quite interested in this kind of show – Mystique Asia.
Thus, in my point of view, "mystique" is not the premodern, but rater post-modern. It is not such premodern view that Westerners consider the Asian taste as something mysterious, but rather such post-modern view that all of us tend to consider the newly emerged collage of cultural diversity as something mysterious indeed.
I received free tickets from Mr. O who is a student of Community Development. He has been mentioned several times already in my Blog entries here. And his friend, Miss N is the member of ROFG. She is a student of anthropology at the same time a dancer of ROFG and has been working on her thesis about the Philippine folkloric dances. As far as I know, her intention is not only to collect and report some of the Philippine folkloric dances. Such approach is rather categorized as the traditional or classical methodology of anthropology. Rather, if her approach is keen, then it should focus on such concept as invention of culture.
It is the view that culture has been invented so as to articulate the national identity of the nation-state in a particular context. In this context the dynamics between cultural identity and national identity can be discussed. And in the same manner she can also focus on the "role" of CCP. Cultural Center of the Philippines was established as part of national projects – its intention was quite political. CCP has also the pure academic role (this definition is also controversial, though) and yet it is also important to see how CCP has contributed to the invention of culture. Though anthropology is not my expertise, I just hope she will write her thesis from this point of view. In fact, she has her big advantage as the insider of ROFG and CCP in order to conduct the intensive participatory observation.
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