This study continues my investigations of my indigenous and Han
colonizer heritages, this time using a text
written by PingPu (plains indigenous) people, "Declaration of the PingPu
Peoples of Taiwan," which I found in Jolan Hsieh's book, Collective Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Identity-Based Movement of Plains Indigenous in Taiwan. My other studies, "blood run" and "colonial mapping," have used my own writings and travel writings by Qing-era Chinese colonizers, respectively.
Version 1:
To Ask Pardon (Mandarin) from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.
password "pingpu"
Version 2
To Ask Pardon from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.
password: "pingpu"
FEEDBACK QUESTIONS:
(1) What intrigues or draws you in about this study politically, emotionally, aesthetically or intellectually? What does not?
(2) How might you imagine any of this content being used in performance? Do you want a more embodied approach, and if so, what would you suggest? (My original vision for this text was to either find original audio of the declaration or to record the original text in Mandarin as a voice-over. My performance would consist of attempting to translate -- eyes closed and with difficulty -- the voice-over into English, with the same messing of we/you pronouns that I do here. Since I just got the Chinese text, I haven't had time to do a recording.)
(3) CONTEXT: This declaration was ultimately not successful, and while PingPu (plains aborigine) peoples are recognized by the UN as an indigenous tribe, they are not recognized by the government of Taiwan. My father informs me that the PingPu search for official recognition by the government of Taiwan is very controversial and opposed by most other Taiwanese indigenous tribes. This is because (a) the PingPu people were historically coerced into killing other indigenous tribes and (b) indigenous nations in Taiwan are given special privileges and resources (such as a certain quota of Legislative Yuan -- Taiwan's equivalent of Congress -- representation). Since many PingPu peoples have been deeply assimilated into Han Chinese culture for generations, they (we?) don't necessarily suffer from the same systemic social disadvantages as other indigenous tribes. Originally, alongside this declaration the PingPu people stated that they sought only recognition in name without any of these special privileges, but this has not proved to be true over time. My dad also mentioned that a hematologist did a study in which he found that an incredibly high percentage (90%?) of Hoklo Taiwanese, which is the largest ethno-linguistic group in Taiwan and the one that my family belongs to, has aboriginal blood. How does this information change your reception of the study, if at all? Do you want more of this information, and if so, how could I share it in performance without being overly didactic?
(4) What do you make of my costume choices?
(5) Any other thoughts, suggestions, or useful connections to my previous studies?
Version 1:
To Ask Pardon (Mandarin) from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.
password "pingpu"
Version 2
To Ask Pardon from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.
password: "pingpu"
FEEDBACK QUESTIONS:
(1) What intrigues or draws you in about this study politically, emotionally, aesthetically or intellectually? What does not?
(2) How might you imagine any of this content being used in performance? Do you want a more embodied approach, and if so, what would you suggest? (My original vision for this text was to either find original audio of the declaration or to record the original text in Mandarin as a voice-over. My performance would consist of attempting to translate -- eyes closed and with difficulty -- the voice-over into English, with the same messing of we/you pronouns that I do here. Since I just got the Chinese text, I haven't had time to do a recording.)
(3) CONTEXT: This declaration was ultimately not successful, and while PingPu (plains aborigine) peoples are recognized by the UN as an indigenous tribe, they are not recognized by the government of Taiwan. My father informs me that the PingPu search for official recognition by the government of Taiwan is very controversial and opposed by most other Taiwanese indigenous tribes. This is because (a) the PingPu people were historically coerced into killing other indigenous tribes and (b) indigenous nations in Taiwan are given special privileges and resources (such as a certain quota of Legislative Yuan -- Taiwan's equivalent of Congress -- representation). Since many PingPu peoples have been deeply assimilated into Han Chinese culture for generations, they (we?) don't necessarily suffer from the same systemic social disadvantages as other indigenous tribes. Originally, alongside this declaration the PingPu people stated that they sought only recognition in name without any of these special privileges, but this has not proved to be true over time. My dad also mentioned that a hematologist did a study in which he found that an incredibly high percentage (90%?) of Hoklo Taiwanese, which is the largest ethno-linguistic group in Taiwan and the one that my family belongs to, has aboriginal blood. How does this information change your reception of the study, if at all? Do you want more of this information, and if so, how could I share it in performance without being overly didactic?
(4) What do you make of my costume choices?
(5) Any other thoughts, suggestions, or useful connections to my previous studies?
These are notes from skype feedback to Cyn on version 2:
ReplyDeleteCyn:
1.
Meena likes mixing up of pronouns. = main “in” as to where you stand politically/your positionality in relation to the words.
Shy at the end felt satisfying because the different parts of yourself converged: “we” became both colonizer and indigenous at the end, when the captions and my words coincided. Visually, the face changed a minute in (cut to another shot). In the beginning my hair made my eyebrow look like Vulcan make-up on the left side -- like half my face was totally different -- thought that was interesting. Play with the notion of two sides of your face, or do something different in costuming on two sides?
Meena: first saw it on iPhone then on computer, very small image -- really trying to look in and figure out what your face was looking like, hard to tell your expression, wished it was bigger. The words are clearer in terms of visual size than the image. Focus of the eyes was often going back and forth, splitting her time between the two. Felt frustrating as a viewer. Didn’t get much information from the visual image.
Shy: was intrigued that I had my eyes closed and that they opened at the end. Didn’t get emotional clarity about why my eyes were closed. Usually when someone is declaring such things, they’d declare it to the outside world, but it seemed more internal.
Meena: could tell there was some kind of affect on my face but didn’t know what it was about.
Shy: face looked disturbed at some times.
2.
Meena could imagine the performative translation that is described. Shy is curious whether she would pick out the mixing up of pronouns without the English being there. Meena thinks it’s very important for her to know that I’m both colonizer and indigenous. Shyamala: of all the different studies that you did, this is the easiest to do live, maybe next to a video of the words. In terms of embodiment, if you were to pick out any elements from the other studies, it might be interesting to play with rocks or beet juice blood. Some kind of simple task: board game with rocks. Something powerful about the face, eyes closed, trying to translate. Meena: different studies feel interconnected and live in the same space, just not sure how they interact. Shy likes the simplicity of it. When she thinks of the 3 together, she likes the idea of this study being simple. Different parts of an installation. If one part of a stage performance, it could be more layered. Shy loves the idea of the installation. It’s a textured world that we could come into and discover. Sense of discovery in the colonial mapping one. (Cyn: then maybe the audience should do the live feed with the rocks, not me.)
3. Meena is familiar with this complexity from the Canadian situation -- people do crazy stuff under white supremacy in terms of indigenous people killing each other -- not so sure about the second part. Shy thinks the confusion about the colonizer/colonized takes care of some of the political complexity. Meena - more so than blood quantum, that’s not the most important thing to her. It’s about (1) the stories around the complications of your history (2) your privilege and positionality currently -- she would want to know that my family is privileged (3) kara walker’s work - what is assimilation? go more deeply into that. in her visual art, you see the violence of a white person raping black women. work against a romanticization of the indigenous people. how do indigenous people disappear? genocide and the colonizer sleeping with people. shy - this video in isolation is different than in relation to the other 2 studies -- it provides one piece of the puzzle. meena wants more story-telling.
4. Shy: costume seemed neutral but formal. (Cyn: I’m wearing a Chinese shirt and an indigenous scarf.) Meena likes the different levels of understanding and the different windows in.
From a friend:
ReplyDeleteI'm of course super interested in this work as a U.S.er with Han ancestry (looking to understand colonization/genocide outside U.S. context better, thinking about oppressor/colonizer patterns and the complications of being a minority in this country but a majority in my "heartland" as Xabie would put it). I'm also super interested as someone transgender (pronouns usage is always fascinating to me).
For me as a mostly-English speaker, the switching of pronouns ended up being more confusing than clarifying to me in the first video, but in the second video I thought it was clarifying/thought-provoking when contrasted with the English words. In particular, I was struck by the switching of pronouns leading up to the line about the effect was to deny our own identity (and something similar impacted me with the line about forced concealment of identity). That's the part that hits closest to home for me.
I really appreciate your personal story and would love to see/know more of it in connection to your art (vs. in session or conversation), although maybe that's something that belongs in the program or the description not the piece itself???
I was curious about your closed eyes and the background noise. I'm also curious about the frequency of the pronouns switching, when/why you chose to switch, and if you'd want the frequency to change over time in the piece (math nerd coming out hahaha).
I could imagine it being interesting to see multiple images of you speaking the words too, not sure about same or different pronouns, but I think the multiplicity would be interesting both in terms of holding multiple identities in a single body and also since all the pronouns are "we" and "you (plural)" not "I" and "you (singular)".
A more embodied version could include you writing/typing the translation and crossing out/deleting and rewriting/retyping pronouns as you go, ideally with a live feed camera that documents what you're writing on paper OR typing up on a screen so it can be seen. (Or maybe the writing/typing is pre-recorded and you can move without worrying about the technology so much.)