Felicia Chan - The Little Nyonya: Sinicisation and the politics of return migration
| Dates: | 11 February 2020 |
|---|
| Times: | 12:30 - 13:30 |
|---|
| What is it: | Seminar |
|---|
| Organiser: | Manchester China Institute |
|---|
| How much: | Free |
|---|
|
In 2008-2009, Singapore’s national broadcaster, MediaCorp, produced a 34-episode Mandarin-language TV soap series chronicling the trials and tribulations of a ‘Nyonya’ woman of Peranakan (or Straits-born) descent. The Little Nyonya has since been twice remade in China, with all aspects of Peranakan culture fully sinicised, and with Malay influences and other regional hybridities selectively written out.
What does it mean for localised cultural histories of diasporic nations to be repackaged on their ‘return’ to China for popular consumption? And what does it mean for mainland Chinese producers to seek to reclaim the stories (and histories) of the diaspora? Where in this dynamic does space exist for Peranakan histories to assert themselves?
Travel and Contact Information
