Knowledge gained from the summer school programme

Hi friends! This is Yat Kuan from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Wherever you are right now, I believe that you guys are doing fine.

Here, I would like to briefly share about what I have learned from this summer school programme and also field research conducted in Georgetown, Penang. Honestly, my knowledge on history is finite because I am originally not from historical background. Initially, I felt anxiety because I have not much knowledge on history. However, throughout a series of lectures class, I feel relax because the classes were very fascinated and all of the lecturers were willing to share their knowledge and even experiences.

During the first week of the programme, some classes are scheduled for us to get better understanding on what is about "past" and how is the "past" shape the memory and identity of the people in the society. Lecturers such as Prof. Vincent Houben, Prof. Bambang Purwanto, Dr. Soon, Dr. Margana, Dr. Lye, Dr. Mahani, Aleah, Li Feng and Brooke shared their knowledge and experiences in history and even field research as well. They are expert enough to give fascinating classes on historical knowledge and share their fieldwork research. Besides, some case studies were presented well by the lecturers in order to provide abundant of information on history, namely Germany and Quebec, Banyuwangi, Netherlands, Philippines, Georgetown and so on and so forth. Apart from the sharing session of case studies, some conceptual knowledge, includes history, collective memory, historiography, identity, embodiment and qualitative research methods also have been shared and discussed during the classes. By this means, I have gained a lot of historical knowledge which may be included in my future research.

Teochew Puppet and Opera House

During the second week of the programme, we conducted a field research in a place that is well-known of its heritage sites in Georgetown, Penang. I have been grouped with a German friend, Sandra and an Indonesian friend, Riris to conduct a research on Teochew Puppet and Opera House. Teochew Puppet and Opera House is a Teochew-based museum located in 122, Armenian Street, Georgetown. It operated since last year by Ling Goh, the director of the museum and aims to bring back the traditional Teochew culture to the public. 

Representing Teochew culture: Puppets

During the field research, we were lucky to have a chance to visit to the museum and study the Teochew culture in-depth. With that, we learned about how it constructs the memory and identity of public. Initially, our group had made a call to Ling Goh and asked her permission to do an interview with us. But unfortunately, due to her full scheduled throughout the year, we are not able to interview her. Luckily, our group managed to contact her assistant, Mr. Chew, who works in the museum and have abundant of knowledge about the Teochew culture and museum itself. He was passionate in explaining the embedded messages in Teochew culture which include how it he local memory, collective memory and even cultural identity of public, especially for the Teochew's group. 

According to Mr. Chew, the museum is functioning as a platform that provides a better understanding on Teochew culture, especially the puppet shows and live performances. Puppet shows is the representative of Teochew culture and it often plays by Ling Goh herself and also puppeteers from her Teochew Opera Troupe. Normally, the small puppet shows and live performances are performed in the museum and open to public. However, the opera troupe will be invited to perform in various places, such as local temples and those in Thailand and Cambodia during the major festivals or celebrations. Other than that, the Teochew Puppet and Opera House is also available in Facebook. Public can add them (潮艺馆Teochew Puppet & Opera) and drop their comments in the page. Public can even get the updated information from the page regarding the time schedule of the opera show.

(From left to right): Riris, I and Sandra playing 
puppet in the museum

(From left to right): Riris, Sandra and I
wearing traditional costumes
in the museum

In the museum, there are many Teochew displays, includes puppets, headgears, weapons, cosmetics, music instruments, scripts and costumes set are distributed around the museum. When I first step into the museum, I was not only a researcher, but also a visitor.  I went around the museum and tried to understand Teochew culture by asking help from Mr. Chew for more explanation. He is an enthusiastic guide who had shared a lot of information and knowledge about Teochew culture to my group mates and I. Besides, he shared his working experience and the origin and structure of Teochew puppet shows.

Apart from the sharing session from Mr. Chew, Riris, Sandra and I have an extraordinary experience to play the puppet and wear the traditional costumes, which are worn by the opera performers for their live performance. Generally, the costumes are matched with headgears, weapons and sometimes with some accessories. Every characters have their own set of costumes which represent different roles in the opera shows.

I enjoyed these two weeks of the summer school programme and it has benefited me on the knowledge about the "past". Meanwhile, I have an opportunity to get interactions with all the lecturers and friends from Germany, Indonesia, Vietnam and even Malaysia. Once again, thanks for their sharing and discussion throughout the programme. I wish all of you the best in the future.  It has been my pleasure to have you guys in these two weeks summer school programme. Take Good Care and do Keep in Touch!

Last but not least, I would like to express my appreciation especially to Dr. Soon and Dr. Lye for giving me an opportunity to take part in this interesting programme.

Thank you!!!

What's taught at our summer school (2014)

In 2014, the summer school was conducted at the Fakultas Ilmu Budaya (Faculty of Cultural Knowledge) of Universitas Gadjah Mada.

UGM local organiser Widaratih Kamiso

and HU lecturer Dr. Olivia Killias

Photo (c) Lye Tuck-Po

The first week of the summer school was lecture-driven. These lectures illustrated important sources of meaning and various ways of forming social memory and prepared the students for their field research projects in the second week.

The five days of classes covered the following topics:

• "Memory and the national canon of Indonesian historiography" by Prof. Dr. Bambang Purwanto (UGM); deconstruction of nationalist historiography.

• "Memory, memory making and heritage: Some fundamental considerations" by Prof. Dr. Vincent Houben (HU); introduction to the central concepts and theories important to memory studies.

• “Legitimacy, lost heroes, and memory,” Dr. Soon Chuan Yean (USM): emerging politics in the Philippines; memory repackaged; memory ruptured; memory sustained.

• “Other ways of remembering” by Dr. Lye Tuck-Po (USM): bodily practices; landscape as a source of meaning, social memory based on experience; differences with inscribed memory

• “The battle goes on: debates on (negative) memory in post-authoritarian and post-colonial societies” by Joszef Berta (HU guest lecturer): transnational genealogies of negative memory; Indonesia and Germany compared; roles of victims and rehabilitation

• “Memory, monument and national hero” by Dr. Sri Margana (UGM): memory contestation; construction and deconstruction of monuments; competition between government, local populations, people from Bali

• “The resonance of silence: Remembering Indië in the post-colonial Netherlands” by Dr. Olivia Killias (HU): remembrance of the Indies in Holland; collective amnesia; absence of a postcolonial debate; decolonisation by means of the culturalisation of memory; subaltern memories; diversity in memory of communities

• “The uses and abuses of memory” by Dr. Budiawan (UGM): comparison between Cambodia, Singapore, and Indonesia; empty signifiers; move beyond discourse of innocence and victimhood

• “Memory, violence and emotions” by Rosa Castillo (HU): subaltern formats of memory making; social memory of violence; role of emotions; context in memory making
• "Philosphical and practical considerations in field research", by Aleah Connley (HU), Rosa Castillo (HU), and Uji Nugroho (UGM).

Uji Nugroho (UGM) lecturing on methodology
Photo (c) Lye Tuck-Po

(extracted from the summer school Final Report and Prof. Houben's summing-up notes)

Memory, memory making and heritage: Some fundamental considerations

An introduction to memory studies: Notes from Prof. Vincent Houben 


Memory is infused in individuals, groups, and societies; it is the object of national and supranational institutions. Memory can be characterised as a system of reference in order to allow for its positioning in a spatio-temporal order. It gives a sense of direction, a sense of purpose, and it reworks past events in such a way that these become meaningful. Memory is therefore fundamental to identity formation. 

Memory is also a social phenomenon. Maurice Halbwachs has underlined the social conditioning of memory, because it mirrors the system of reference people use in their society. Collective memory means that memories can only be generated by communication and interaction within social groups. We remember not only what we know, but also what others tell us and confirm as being important. 

Memories, as Jan Assmann argued, depend on sensuousness in that they must be figured and attached to concrete moments, places, concepts, thereby creating ”memory figurations“ (Erinnerungsfiguren). These figurations reflect reconstructivity, i.e. what a society, or actors within a society, at a given time believe it is meaningful to keep. Collective memory is therefore the result of a changing and active social process of memory making. Communicative memory consists of memories which refer to the recent past. Cultural memory on the other hand, is aimed at fixed points in the past and is connected to socially differentiated formats of participation. 

When institutions get involved in memory making they seek to create history. History aims to override diffuse memories and potentially conflicting practices of memory making through the creation of order. This entails creating order in terms of time and place (what came where, what before and what after), as well as creating order with regard to the broader meaning of what happened in the form of cause-effect relationships. History has thus become the instrument of statehood, since nation-states need to legitimise their existence through the creation of an official narrative. The culmination of history is in heritage, i.e. something material or immaterial which is transmitted down through the generations, exemplifying the core of memory, memory making and history alike. 

However, the field of memory and history is highly contested, since remembering is, as Roxana Waterson and Kwok Kian-Woon pointed out, a dimension of social relations, if not a political matter. Selection and distortion, the politics of forgetting, are as much part of memory, history and heritage as is setting the record straight. 

 In this summer course we will address all these dimensions of memory making and heritage in the region of Southeast Asia, allowing for critical comparisons as well as theoretical and empirical insights. The course will also give participants the opportunity to "do memory studies" by going into the field, visiting sites, having discussions with collective memory experts and getting impressions of how ordinary citizens visiting history sites interpret and accommodate what they have heard and seen into their personal world views.