Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 271 - 285 of 285

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Popular Music And A Sense Of Place In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1996

Popular Music And A Sense Of Place In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper illustrates how popular music written, produced, and performed by Singaporeans provides a means through which the culture and society of Singapore may be understood. Music with English language text conveys a sense of place and reflects a distinctively Singaporean spirit and identity. The paper examines four themes: the portrayal of Singapore's multiracial population which reflects a unique cultural synthesis; the Singaporeans' concept of urbanity, manifested as the simultaneous attraction and repulsion towards the city and the desire for nature and the rustic; the distinctive social engineering in Singapore; and the way in which global issues are imported into …


The Commercial Face Of God: Exploring The Nexus Between The Religious And The Material, Lily Kong Jan 1996

The Commercial Face Of God: Exploring The Nexus Between The Religious And The Material, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the nexus between the cultural and the material by examining the ways in which religion and the economy are integrated in the context of economy-driven Singapore. The mutually constitutive relationships between the cultural and the material are explored through a discussion of the role of the state, capital and religious institutions in pulling together the sacred and the secular. Specifically, the analysis focuses on how the state harnesses religion ideologically in its economic development strategies; how capital harnesses the potential of religion in commercial enterprises in practical terms; and how religious institutions themselves behave as financial institutions. …


Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1996

Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Formalist critics and aestheticians have argued that music does not possess any kind of "extra-musical" significance, that there is no meaning beyond the form and structural relations of the notes. For them, music exemplifies the laws of mathematical harmony and proportion rather than the social and political contexts within which it is produced, reproduced and consumed. This view has been challenged by a number of social theorists: Max Weber, Theodor Adorno and Edward Said have all argued for an understanding of music within its social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Such analysis of popular music is now unquestioned. Indeed, it …


Folktales And Reality: The Social Construction Of Race In Chinese Tales, Lily Kong, Elaine Goh Sep 1995

Folktales And Reality: The Social Construction Of Race In Chinese Tales, Lily Kong, Elaine Goh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper illustrates how folktales are a repository of primary material for the geographer. Using the example of The Strange Tales of Liaozhai, we discuss how these tales are not purely fictive constructs but constitute instead fictive, historical and projected realities. As an example of the value of such analysis, we discuss Chinese constructions of race as revealed in the tales.


Popular Music In Geographical Analyses, Lily Kong Jun 1995

Popular Music In Geographical Analyses, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As an area of geographical inquiry, popular music has not been explored to any large extent. Where writings exist, they have been somewhat divorced from recent theoretical and methodological questions that have rejuvenated social and cultural geography (see, for example, Cosgrove and Jackson, 1987; Jackson, 1989; Cosgrove, 1989; 1990; Anderson and Gale, 1992; Bames and Duncan, 1992). In this article I will focus on the interface between geography and popular music, focusing specifically on the contributions of such exploration towards cultural and social understanding. In what follows, I will first discuss the reasons for geographers’ relative neglect of popular music …


Music And Cultural Politics: Ideology And Resistance In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1995

Music And Cultural Politics: Ideology And Resistance In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper focuses on popular music written and produced by Singaporeans to illustrate the nature of social relationships based on ideological hegemony and resistance. Analysis is based on two groups of music: 'national' songs supported by the government in the 'Sing Singapore' programme; and songs brought together in Not the Singapore song book. Interviews with local lyricists and analysis of video productions provide supplementary information. Music is used by the ruling elite to perpetuate certain ideologies aimed at political socialization and to inculcate a civil religion that directs favour and fervour towards the nation. Music is also a form of …


From Empire Defence To Imperial Retreat: Britain's Postwar China Policy And The Decolonization Of Hong Kong, James T. H. Tang May 1994

From Empire Defence To Imperial Retreat: Britain's Postwar China Policy And The Decolonization Of Hong Kong, James T. H. Tang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Attempts to examine Hong Kong as an issue in British postwar colonialpolicy often emphasize the unique nature of the colony, andtherefore a special case in British decolonization. Hong Kong hasbeen regarded as an unconventional colonial entity, an anachronismin the modern world. But others argue that the word colony is not anappropriate term to describe it, except in the most severely technicallegal sense, because of its spectacular industrial and economicdevelopment since the end of the Second World War.' Nonetheless,Hong Kong has existed as a British crown colony since I842, and itscolonial political structures have remained more or less the same untilthe …


Ideological Hegemony And The Political Symbolism Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong Feb 1993

Ideological Hegemony And The Political Symbolism Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Cultural geographers have for too long ignored the association between the 'religious' and the 'political', concentrating instead on separating the 'religious' from the sociopolitical and economic forces in society. The challenge is taken up in this paper in an analysis of the contemporary meanings and values of religious buildings in Singapore as invested by the state. Attention is paid to the state's conceptions of religion and religious space and the roles it plays in influencing such space. The ways in which, through its various roles, the state in Singapore plays a significant part in influencing context and hence in shaping …


Negotiating Conceptions Of 'Sacred Space': A Case Study Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1993

Negotiating Conceptions Of 'Sacred Space': A Case Study Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper, I approach the study of religious place from a re-theorized cultural geographical stance. Using multi-religious Singapore as a case study, I examine the tensions which arise over the meanings and values associated with religious buildings because of the conflict between state hegemony on the one hand and the oppositional meanings and values of religious groups and individuals on the other. I also examine the ways in which individuals negotiate their conceptions of sacred space in order to cope with changes imposed on their religious places by the state. Primarily, my argument is that conflict is avoided because …


The Sacred And The Secular: Exploring Contemporary Meanings And Values For Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1992

The Sacred And The Secular: Exploring Contemporary Meanings And Values For Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The study of human environmental experiences has engaged a range of disciplinary attention, with work deriving chiefly from environmental psychologists and geographers. However, most research has focused on the sensory aspects of environmental experience, while the intangible, immeasurable experiences of environments have been somewhat neglected. Certainly, the meanings and values that are invested in places, which form part of the interaction between humans and environments, have not been sufficiently researched. My intention in this paper is to address one aspect of this silence, namely the ways in which humans experience their religious environments, and more particularly, the symbolic meanings and …


Geography And Religion: Trends And Prospects, Lily Kong Sep 1990

Geography And Religion: Trends And Prospects, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

That geography and religion can and do meet to form a valuable focus of inquiry has not always been immediately apparent. While the study of religions has engaged the attention of a large and ever-widening circle of scholars, research has tended to proceed under the varied rubrics of sociology, anthropology, philosophy, history, and certainly, theology. Classics that have had significant impact on the development of 'religious thought' have emerged from the pens of scholars professing several diverse disciplines. For instance, Weber (1904-1905), Durkheim (1976), Otto (1950), and Eliade (1959) represent but a sample of the multifarious writings that have shaped …


Welfare, Contract, And The Language Of Charity, Chandran Kukathas Jan 1989

Welfare, Contract, And The Language Of Charity, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.


Confucius, Mencius And The Notion Of True Succession, John N. Williams Apr 1988

Confucius, Mencius And The Notion Of True Succession, John N. Williams

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.


Hunger Strikes And The State's Right To "Force Feed": Recent Australian Experience, Mark Findlay Dec 1984

Hunger Strikes And The State's Right To "Force Feed": Recent Australian Experience, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Whether or not it is the nature of the protest itself which makes it unsuitable for resolution in a court-room situation, the case law relating to "hunger strikes" (and State's response) is both sparse and insignificant. Perhaps on the basis of its uniqueness alone, the case of Schneidas v. Corrective Services Commission(New South Wales) and Others should be of particular interest to jurists on both sides of the Irish border.


Singapore, Kirpal Singh Jan 1983

Singapore, Kirpal Singh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.