Staging the New Asia: Singapore's Dick Lee, pop music, and a counter-modernity

Public Culture

Volumn 8, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 489-510

  Wee, C J W L ^a  

^a NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0030306732     PISSN: 08992363     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/08992363-8-3-489     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. Chantal Mouffe, The Return of the Political (London: Verso, 1993), pp. 1, 2.
2. Samuel Huntington, "Now Watch the Faultlines between Civilizations," International Herald Tribune, 8 June 1993. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations?" (Foreign Affairs 72, 3 [Summer 1993]: 22-49) has been well received in Southeast Asia. This article was part of an Olin Institute Project on "The Changing Security Environment and American National Interests."
3. Samuel Huntington, "Now Watch the Faultlines between Civilizations," International Herald Tribune, 8 June 1993. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations?" (Foreign Affairs 72, 3 [Summer 1993]: 22-49) has been well received in Southeast Asia. This article was part of an Olin Institute Project on "The Changing Security Environment and American National Interests."
4. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong recently visited France, and told a journalist that "Confucian values"-"such as promoting the family, motivating education, developing a liking for hard work and a sense of thrift"-which some, such as Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Harvard's Tu Wei-ming have argued underpin Singapore's success, are universal rather than narrowly Asian, though these values seem to survive better in Asia (Jean-Pierre Clerc, "Eastern Approach," Le Monde section of the Guardian Weekly, 30 October 1994, p. 21).
5. See Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?": "differences among civilizations are . . . basic. Civilizations are differentiated from each other by history, language, culture, tradition and, most importantly, religion. . . . These differences . . . are far more fundamental than differences among political ideologies and political regimes" (p. 25). Despite Huntington's gestures in other places towards development in Asia, what Edward Said argues of (especially) French Orientalism applies to the latter quotation: "The Oriental is given as fixed. . . . No dialectic [between East and West] is either desired or allowed" (Orientalism [New York: Vintage, 1979], p. 308).
6. Samuel Huntington, "Emergence of East Asia Intensifies Conflicts with the West," Straits Times, 4 November 1994, p, 34. Also see Xiaomei Chen, "Occidentalism as Counterdiscourse: 'He Shang' in post-Mao China," Critical Inquiry 18, 4 (1992): 686-712.
7. Samuel Huntington, "Emergence of East Asia Intensifies Conflicts with the West," Straits Times, 4 November 1994, p, 34. Also see Xiaomei Chen, "Occidentalism as Counterdiscourse: 'He Shang' in post-Mao China," Critical Inquiry 18, 4 (1992): 686-712.
8. See, especially, Cultural Anthropology 3, 4 (1988) on "Anthropology and the Analysis of Modernity," edited by Paul Rabinow. Arjun Appadurai's "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" (Public Culture 2, 2 [Spring 1990]: 1-24) is also important, but it emphasises more the difficulties entailed in thinking through what the globalisation of the imagination means.
9. See, especially, Cultural Anthropology 3, 4 (1988) on "Anthropology and the Analysis of Modernity," edited by Paul Rabinow. Arjun Appadurai's "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" (Public Culture 2, 2 [Spring 1990]: 1-24) is also important, but it emphasises more the difficulties entailed in thinking through what the globalisation of the imagination means.
10. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, "From the Margins," Cultural Anthropology 9, 3 (1994): 279.
11. "Globalisation" is now a buzzword in the business world. See Business Week's special bonus issue on "21st Century Capitalism: How nations and industries will compete in the emerging global economy," 18 November 1994.
12. In 1988, Singapore expelled an American diplomat for allegedly meeting with anti-government lawyers. The backdrop of this event was the detention of twenty-two allegedly Marxist activists by the government. The lawyers the diplomat met were representing the activists. The Financial Times opined: "The fracas between tiny Singapore and the mighty US looks set to go down as one of the more improbable . . . diplomatic clashes . . . All this is directed against a country which absorbs a quarter of Singapore's total exports, [and] provides about a third of its foreign investments" (in Stan Sesser, The Lands of Charm and Cruelty [London: Picador, 1994], p. 46).
13. See, for example, "Asian Values: The Scourge of the West," The Economist, 22 April 1995, pp. 24-25.
14. Gerald Segal, "This Rhetoric About Clashing Civilizations Can Only Hurt Asia," International Herald Tribune, 6 October 1993; reprinted in Asian Bulletin 18, 12 (December 1993).
15. Gerald Segal, "This Rhetoric About Clashing Civilizations Can Only Hurt Asia," International Herald Tribune, 6 October 1993; reprinted in Asian Bulletin 18, 12 (December 1993).
16. Ogura Kuzuo, "A Call for a New Concept of Asia," Japan Echu 20, 3 (Autumn 1993), pp. 39, 38, 40, respectively.
17. Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad deploys a generalised idea of Asian values in his public discourse on modernity and human rights, but also speaks about "Islamic modernisation." See for example, "Mahathir Blasts Western Nations' Liberal Values on Human Rights,"Straits Times, 7 December 1994, p. 19.
18. Irene Ngoo, "S'pore Less Interested in Hosting 2nd WTO Meet,"StraitsTimes, 17 December, 1994, p. 1.
19. Keith Negus, Producing Pop: Culture and Conflict in the Popular Music Industry (London: Edward Arnold, 1992), p. 7.
20. A Singapore magazine cited these criticisms: "'This guy's not for real. He's got no talent. All he's got is money,' says a 30-year-old accountant. . . . 'He's for show only. He's part of that crowd of beautiful people all so covered with gloss. If that's who he is, it's still a bit too much. That super-duper [usage of] Singlish [i.e., colloquial Singapore English],' says a 28-year-old secretary" (Go Magazine [Singapore], September 1989, p. 79).
21. For a critique of global arguments of the postmodern, see Yoshimoto Mitsuhiros "The Postmodern and Mass Images in Japan," Public Culture 1, 2 (1989): 8-25.
22. See Robert Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race (London: Routledge, 1994)
23. and C. J. W.-L. Wee, "Kipling, a 'Primitive' National Identity and the 'Colonial' Condition at Home," New Formations 24 (Winter 1994): 51-65 for work which deals with the "consumption" of the primitive Other within the imperial homeland.
24. Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p, 149.
25. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak interviewed by Robert Young, "Neocolonialism and the Secret Agent of Knowledge," Oxford Literary Review 13, 1-2 (1991): 221.
26. S. Rajaratnam, "Malayan Culture in the Making," in The Prophetic and the Political: Selected Speeches of S. Rajaratnam, eds. Chan Heng Chee and Obaid ul Haq (Singapore: Graham Brash, 1987), p. 119. The term "Malayan" is used rather than "Singaporean" because in the 1960s, PAP was working towards merging with Malaya (now West Malaysia).
27. Keith Negus quotes David Howells, managing director of Peter Waterman Ltd.: "99 percent of people give answers that relate [music] to the visual. The extraordinary thing is that you see what you hear" (Producing Pop, p. 66). This statement holds true for Lee. During the launch of Orientalism in 1991, he appeared at a popular dance club, Zouk, dressed in trousers with feathers at the hem, Elvis Presley style sideburns and striped, Gary Glitter-type platform shoes (Grace Fernando, "Birthday Boy Dick Lee Launches New Album," Straits Times, 24 August 1991, p. 29).
28. Keith Negus quotes David Howells, managing director of Peter Waterman Ltd.: "99 percent of people give answers that relate [music] to the visual. The extraordinary thing is that you see what you hear" (Producing Pop, p. 66). This statement holds true for Lee. During the launch of Orientalism in 1991, he appeared at a popular dance club, Zouk, dressed in trousers with feathers at the hem, Elvis Presley style sideburns and striped, Gary Glitter-type platform shoes (Grace Fernando, "Birthday Boy Dick Lee Launches New Album," Straits Times, 24 August 1991, p. 29).
29. Of this release, one writer says: "Blending elements of Indonesian, Chinese, Indian and Malay pop and folk songs, plus adding rap and singing in English has made 'The Mad Chinaman' one of the most adventuresome and satisfying albums in years" (James Hale, "Singapore Singer Now Rocks Abroad," Japan Times, 3 August 1990). Mad Chinaman marks the moment Lee broke into the difficult Japanese market: "Dick Lee . . . has been given as much space in music magazines in Japan during the past six months as the Rolling Stones. Lee, 33, has won so much attention solely on the basis of his album The Mad Chinaman" (Shig, "Lee Leads World Music Boom in Asia," Asahi Evening News, 30 June 1990).
30. Of this release, one writer says: "Blending elements of Indonesian, Chinese, Indian and Malay pop and folk songs, plus adding rap and singing in English has made 'The Mad Chinaman' one of the most adventuresome and satisfying albums in years" (James Hale, "Singapore Singer Now Rocks Abroad," Japan Times, 3 August 1990). Mad Chinaman marks the moment Lee broke into the difficult Japanese market: "Dick Lee . . . has been given as much space in music magazines in Japan during the past six months as the Rolling Stones. Lee, 33, has won so much attention solely on the basis of his album The Mad Chinaman" (Shig, "Lee Leads World Music Boom in Asia," Asahi Evening News, 30 June 1990).
31. Lee, quoted in "A Day in the Life of Dick Lee," Asia Magazine, 29 June 1986, p. 54.
32. Kant's Political Writings, ed. H. Reiss, trans. H. B. Nisbet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), p. 54.
33. Lee's lyrics here can be read as a response to the PAP government's policy, until recently, of consistently tearing down much of old Singapore to create more commercially viable buildings; current "restoration" activities have been criticised as giving buildings a theme park-like appearance.
34. Go Magazine, p. 79.
35. Lee's photo appeared on the cover of Billboard, 18 February 1992, and he was cited in the caption as one of "the artists . . . who helped the Japanese music industry achieve its fastest growth in two decades." Lee also did well in 1991 when he won Best Newcomer award in the International Music Poll organised by Radio Television Hong Kong.
36. Teresa Watanabe, "In the East, Pop Audience Gets Icons of its Own," Los Angeles Times, 19 May 1992.
37. Laure de Gramont, "In Search of an Identity," supplement to Vogue Paris, November 1993, pp. 26-27. It must be noted that, with the exception of a minority who attended the more elite mission schools, most people of Lee's age with even a lower secondary school education can muster passable Mandarin.
38. Tommy Koh, a former ambassador to the United States, is chairman of the Council, and he has said, "I told Dick that anything I can do to help him fulfill this [Broadway or West End] ambition, I'll do it." The Asiaweek writer added, "[Koh] is trying to get Lee and Mackintosh together " ("It's Glamor Time! From rock to musical, top acts light up the Asian stage," Asiaweek, 3 November 1993, p. 41).
39. See C. J. W.-L. Wee, "Contending with Primordialism: The 'Modern' Construction of Postcolonial Singapore,"positions: east asia cultures critique 1, 3 (Winter 1993): 715-44.
40. Cited by Alex Josey, Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore: Donald Moore Press, 1968), pp. 172, 173.
41. On Confucian modernity, see Robert Elegant, "The Singapore of Mr. Lee: 'Confucian' Ethics, Asian Values," Encounter, June 1990, pp. 22-29. Regarding opposition 10 the state's endorsement of the primordial, or the traditional, S. Rajaratnam, then in retirement, protested in a letter to the press: "At this rate, there will be a long queue of Singaporean citizens proclaiming Sikh identity, Jewish identity . . . Cantonese identity, Hokkien [Fujian] identity - and goodbye Singapore identity" ("Raja Wants Revival of a 'Singaporean Singapore,'" Straits Times Weekly Overseas Edition, 17 March 1990, p. 3). The fear was that "communalism," as the British called it, might again rear its ugly head.
42. On Confucian modernity, see Robert Elegant, "The Singapore of Mr. Lee: 'Confucian' Ethics, Asian Values," Encounter, June 1990, pp. 22-29. Regarding opposition 10 the state's endorsement of the primordial, or the traditional, S. Rajaratnam, then in retirement, protested in a letter to the press: "At this rate, there will be a long queue of Singaporean citizens proclaiming Sikh identity, Jewish identity . . . Cantonese identity, Hokkien [Fujian] identity - and goodbye Singapore identity" ("Raja Wants Revival of a 'Singaporean Singapore,'" Straits Times Weekly Overseas Edition, 17 March 1990, p. 3). The fear was that "communalism," as the British called it, might again rear its ugly head.
43. Kwok Kian Woon, "Social Transformation and the Problem of Social Coherence: Chinese Singaporeans at Century's End," Department of Sociology Working Papers 124 (Singapore: National University of Singapore, 1994), p. 32.
44. See for example, Tu Wei-ming, Confucian Ethics Today: The Singapore Challenge (Singapore: Federal Publications, 1984); and Tu Wei-ming, ed., The Triadic Chord: Confucian Ethics, Industrial East Asia and Max Weber (Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies, 1991).
45. See for example, Tu Wei-ming, Confucian Ethics Today: The Singapore Challenge (Singapore: Federal Publications, 1984); and Tu Wei-ming, ed., The Triadic Chord: Confucian Ethics, Industrial East Asia and Max Weber (Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies, 1991).
46. Tsing, "From the Margins," p. 282.
47. In the liner notes to Year of the Monkey, Lee says that he used "(in part) the gamelan scale of Indonesia, which coincidently is similar to the Japanese Koto Scale." This sort of mix-and-match is consonant with Lee's pan-Asian thematics.
48. See Wee, "Kipling."
49. Ezra F. Vogel, The Four Little Dragons: The Spread of Industrialization in East Asia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), p, 92.
50. Thanks to Wong Seng Tong for help with the translation.
51. Chua Beng Huat, "Culture, Multiracialism and National Identity in Singapore," Department of Sociology Working Papers 125 (Singapore: National University of Singapore, 1995), pp. 14-21.
52. William W. Appleton, A Cycle of Cathay: The Chinese Vogue in England during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951), p. 41.
53. Rob Wilson and Arif Dirlik, "Introduction: Asia/Pacific as Space of Cultural Production," boundary 2 21, 1 (Spring 1994): 7.
54. Jay Branegan, "Is Singapore a Model for the West?," Time, 18 January 1993, p. 36; also see Stan Sesser, "Singapore: The Prisoner in the Theme Park," in his Lands of Charm.
55. Jay Branegan, "Is Singapore a Model for the West?," Time, 18 January 1993, p. 36; also see Stan Sesser, "Singapore: The Prisoner in the Theme Park," in his Lands of Charm.
56. Beng-Huat Chua, Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore (London: Routledge, 1995).