The Journal of Theatrex Asia Issue 1 Volume 1 by Richard Chua

Editorial Board Co-editors:

Mr. Richard Chua (KDU University College, Malaysia) Dr. Benny Lim (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Members:

Prof. Ser Shaw Hong (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) Dr. Rochelle Yang (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Dr. Loy Chee Luen (Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia) Mr Stanley Yu (Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan)

The Journal of Theatrex Asia is an open access e-journal. By open access, it means that all authors acknowledge that the content is free for the public to read, download, print and distribute without their prior permission.

Content (Caleb Lee Wei Hao) Observing Children’s Responses- An Alternative Framework to Evaluate Children’s Theatre Page 1 – 14 ** (Benny Lim Kok Wai) Rethinking Community Arts in Singapore Page 15 – 22 ** (Lee Siu-Lun) Cultural and art development in industrial areas in Hong Kong Page 23 – 34 ** (Selene Zhang/章詩雯)

台灣女性藝術中的儀式抵抗 Page 35 – 45

The Journal of Theatrex Asia, Vol. 1:1

Observing Children’s Responses- An Alternative Framework to Evaluate Children’s Theatre By Caleb Lee Wei Hao1 Keywords

Abstract

Children’s Theatre

The paradox surrounding children’s theatre is that it primarily focuses on the adult’s perception and interest in the performance as

Audience Reception Singapore

a final product. There is a tendency for parents and educators to use a ‘checklist’ to evaluate what ‘good’ children’s theatre should be. A trip to the theatre becomes a tool that is utilized because of its instrumental effectiveness in facilitating learning, rather than trying to engage its audience for its own sake. Here, I posit that there is value in considering audience engagement in a theatrical event as it is. Victor Shklovsky highlights that “art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important” (Shklovsky, quoted in States, 1985: 21). Since theatrical perception can be described as a bricolage- an assemblage of bits and pieces that construct one’s own representations and interpretations, my concern here is how a child can engage with the performance through his/her own unique experience. This paper investigates the live experience of the young audience as a web of complex networks- encompassing the theatre architecture, social setting and bodies. Specifically, it hopes to provide an alternative way of considering theatre and reception by looking at a bottom-up approach and taking into account the child’s way of seeing, responding to and understanding theatre which is often not included in its assessment. More importantly, it proposes how audience experiences do not just reside temporarily in the moment of the performance itself but are ongoing, reflective engagements within memories, social relations and our imaginative lives.

Caleb Lee Wei Hao is a Lecturer with the Faculty of Performing Arts (Theatre + Performance), LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore. 1

Caleb Lee Wei Hao

Introduction In my earlier research, (Re)locating the Boundaries of Children’s Theatre in Singapore, I asserted that children’s theatre is still a marginalized area that is yet to be fully explored. To quote Dr Aileen Lai-Yan Chan2, she describes the existing view of children’s theatre across the world “as nothing but a sideshow, a genre that is noticed by only a few...marginalized, and neglected3” and this is no exception in Singapore. Often, when looking at children’s theatre at a glance, scholars tend to dismiss this area by instinctively associating it with “the amateur, the playfulness, and the lack of seriousness in this area of discipline’” (Swortzell, 1990: 2). As a result of this perception, it appears that the stigma associated with children’s theatre is that it is seen as less important as compared to its adult theatre counterpart. What was valuable in my initial research was that it made me realise how children’s theatre as a marker of a cultural experience and unique art form can engage with its audience intellectually, imaginatively and emotionally through its complex nature. More importantly, it allowed me to rediscover the forgotten language of the communicative quality in children’s theatre that often escape definitions and interrogation. I argued that the focus should not always lie in the construction of the performance as a tool for teaching, but also include the appreciation of the young audience’s engagement and experience of that performance. The key concern here is the nature of spectatorship and the relationship between the theatrical experience and the individual’s reception processes in reacting, watching and experiencing. If children’s theatre is a neglected research genre, surely engagement with the young audiences is something that has been even more far off the radar by scholars. This paper aims to open discussion on how observing the young audience’s facial expression, his/her oral language, and the movements of his body enables us to gain an understanding of his/her experience. Through this shift in perspective in evaluating children’s theatre, I hope this method of analysis can be a useful provocation for exploring

the young audiences’ active participation in the construction of their own

knowledge, rather than purely considering questions of the theatrical event as an instrumental tool for teaching. Research Method: Sharing the Experience

2 Dr Aileen Lay-Yam Chan is a senior lecturer at School of Continuing Professional Education at the City University of Hong Kong. Conference of Children’s Theatre Arts in Asia, Hong Kong: 2010. 3 Quoted from Dr Aileen Chan, Conference of Children’s Theatre Arts in Asia, Hong Kong: 2010.

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To collect the data of such nature, it was critical to use my primary observation to gather the young audiences’ responses in the theatre space, before, during and after the performance as part of my analysis. This also required interpreting both the “said and the unsaid” by the audience. While I agree with Reason that there are limitations of such an approach of qualitative research because it is “impossible and also unethical if we start second guessing and reinterpreting participants’ statements” (Reason, 2010: 24), I combined the position of an observer together with a phenomenological approach to further understand the lived experience of the audience in relation to my own experience during my practice and research phase. Phenomenology’s primary concern is with the “engagement in lived experience between the individual consciousness and reality; which manifests itself not as a series of linguistic signs but as sensory and mental phenomena” (Fortier, 2002: 8). Since phenomenology focuses on the individual’s immediate perception, judgment and contemplative relationship with the world, this provided an appropriate framework to be used to investigate audience responses in children’s theatre based on my position. As States also mentioned, if we approach theatre phenomenologically, “there is more to be said.....not simply by signifying the world (through signs), but by being of it” (States, 1985: 20). The young audience “being” and engagement in theatre “as doing” is an interesting one to watch and research on. Reason states that the audience response is something “embodied”. There is something present in the audience as not just watching and listening to a performance with their eyes and ears but “experiencing it with their whole bodies” (Reason, 2010: 19). Hence, in this investigation, my presence in the space with the audience provided me insights of the young audience fully investing bodily in the moment of that experience. At the same time, this additional method was crucial for my investigation because my presence in the space and ‘being part of it’ provided something real, visceral and offered different perspectives of the world through the eyes of a child, open to new possibilities, novelty and playful ideas. More importantly, by immersing ourselves in research on how children’s responses, we are in fact researching ourselves and reflecting on how we view the world. Examining the Applause Kershaw, in his paper entitled Oh for Unruly Audiences! Or, Patterns of Participation in the Twentieth Century-Theatre, asked “In what ways can theatre, and particularly in politics, be better understood than through thinking of its applause?” (Kershaw quoted in

Caleb Lee Wei Hao

Schonmann, 2006: 56). While Kershaw’s article does not explicitly refer to children’s theatre, his statement served as an entry point for my research in studying modes of participation and levels of engagement with the young audience. Kershaw’s question is highly appropriate in this context because the function of the applause differs in adult theatre

and

children’s

theatre.

the

former,

the

applause

acknowledgment to the actors and to bring closure to a performance. However, the applause in children’s theatre is almost instinctive and occurs at any time during the performance; regardless of whether it is a sad or happy moment. These responses are often unexpected and occur during unpredictable points of the performances which make them intriguing encounters for analysis. In this sense, it highlights that art imparts “sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known” (Shklovsky quoted in States, 1985: 23). An extract from my observation4 of the viewing process follows: As with most theatre performances, the house lights were brought down to signify the commencement of the performance of The Gruffalo. However, bringing down the intensity of lights in this performance did not result in the expected silence that falls on an adult audience in adult theatre, but instead acted as a signal for the children audiences’ volume in noise to rise. This was followed by thunderous applause and even occasional playful screams by the children. The noise was reduced only when prompted by adults through hushing and glaring at the children. As the performance progressed, the applause was also heard at different points. One clear instance of this applause was when Mouse, the central character, managed to outwit The Gruffalo into not eating her, and eventually chased him off the stage. In instances when lively music was played, the children also stood up, clapped, jumped and danced with the music. At the end of the performance, the actors returned on stage to take a final bow. The children did not applaud immediately. Instead, after some prompting (and clapping) from the adults, the children imitated the adults and started to applaud.

Extract taken from my journal records of The Gruffalo by Tall Stories (UK), Alliance Francaise Theatre (2 June 2010). 4

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From the above anecdote, it appears that when the young audiences express their participation via applause (or the lack of it), their understanding of what applause means to them may be completely different from the adult’s understanding. The ways they clap and react can illustrate the ‘meaningfulness’ of the child’s individual experience and engagement with that particular instance. For the adults, the applause is a social convention sent to the stage. States points out that when we applaud the actors, usually at the end of the play, “we imply that he ‘became’ the character well: we were moved by the illusion that the performance signified” (States, 1985: 119). Hence, adults use the applause as a form of appreciation to applaud the actors for a job well done. However, for children, the applause is more of an instinctive expression and release towards a particular instance in the performance, rather than as an indicator to the acknowledgment of the actors’ contribution to the performance. In the case for The Gruffalo, whenever characters broke into song and dance, the children audience showed their appreciation of the performance with their applause, accompanied by excited screams, dance and laughter. Rather than only applauding during the curtain call, these sporadic moments were observed throughout the entire performance. States explains that “we feel good when someone breaks into song. Song is only the expression of emotion...Song is lyrical: the whole body may feel the power of the song. Song does not affect identity. It is like laughter or weeping: it simply alters the composure of identity” (States, 1985: 159). This could be a reason why children react very positvely whenever a song was sung or played. The applause for children works on a sensory level in which they react from feeling what they see and hear. More importantly, the encounter demonstrates how these applauses are indications of how children engage with the ‘meaningfulness’ of the performance, according to their own feelings as the play progresses. More importantly, how the applause can be used as an index in re-examining actor-audience interaction in the context of children’s theatre, which differs from adult theatre. Imitation Winifred Ward has declared that “children are the most genuine audience in the world” (Ward quoted in Schonmann, 2006: 58). The above example of the applause illustrates their genuineness in engagement. Children make no pretence of being interested if they are disconnected or do not understand the performance. To this, Schonmann claims that “children do not feel the need to be like the person sitting next to them and they do not need to imitate his/her reaction” (2006: 57). However, my observation deviates slightly from that.

Caleb Lee Wei Hao

In a recent production of How to Catch a Star by Blunderbus Puppet Theatre, the main character, Little Boy, appeared on stage and addressed the audience With both hands lifted, he prompted, “When I wave at you, I want all of you to raise your hands and twinkle like stars. Can you do that?” While I observed that majority of the children responded spontaneously after the performer waved, I also noticed that that some children turned to the accompanying adult audience and other children to obtain an indication as to how to react. With some prompting and demonstration by the adult audiences, the children then responded to the performance. In my earlier research, I have discussed how the presence of the adult mediators can influence and affect the child’s perspective and responses in a theatrical event both positively and negatively. The assumption is that since the adult has more experience than the child, he is qualified to guide the child through the process of watching a performance. This then raises the question of whether the young audiences have the intellectual and emotional capacity to fully ‘read’ and ‘understand’ what is being communicated to them via the stage. Based on the above example, this lack of spontaneity could be due to various factors such as the unfamiliar environment of the theatre, age and varying levels of literacy. When the young audiences are unsure of what to do in an unfamiliar environment, they sometimes replicate a response of another child and imitate his or her action. Aristotle states that imitation is “congenital to human beings from childhood” (Aristotle quoted in States, 1985: 158). Imitation is a way of learning how to become an adult. To quote States, “there is something about the imitation of another human being, about speaking in another’s voice, that requires either a creatural naiveté, a touch of madness, or an invited audience” (States 1985: 58). My reading of this is that children are eager to experience these heightened moments in theatre. While sitting in the theatre they can be “lifted out of reality and drawn close together in a bound of expectancy, laughter, or sympathy through the fiction” (States, 1985:53). Children might imitate other children or adult responses in a theatrical event to feel solidarity and each child as a member of the audience becomes involved in watching the performance. While one might argue that this is seen also in adult theatre, the difference here is that children observe the accompanying adult and imitate the without knowing the function of it, while the adult audiences imitate other audiences in the applause because they are aware of this function.

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What is imperative to note here is that the public nature of the theatrical experience goes beyond the production. For them, it seems that the series of level of attention and inattention is not just focused on the stage but includes the various levels of social performance going on among the audience. This includes moving restlessly in their seats, screaming and asking questions during the performance. It points to the fact that there is an indication of an acute sensitivity to other people within the audience and of their very close, physical and bodily proximity which seems more pertinent in the context of children’s theatre. Hence, this occurrence in itself is something that is recognized by the audience as part of the theatrical experience, since children’s theatre does not rely on the set of conventions commonly used in adult theatre. For these reasons, the experience of being in a children’s theatre performance is always going to be largely about something very different than simply sitting down as passive audience and watching the performance. Important however, is how this social experience is heightened by the nature of the live performance. Hence, the theatrical pleasure rests in engaging with the environment as part of the experience and not just a semiotic reading of the stage. Negotiating Reality and Fiction I have revealed how the study of children engagement with the performance is a complex one since the sensitive, intense and communal environment influences that viewing experience. Pinciotti argues that children’s theatre uses the “art of theatre to build and enhance participants’ artistic sensitivity and develop dramatic imagination. It allows participants to imagine and reflect on experiences, real or imagined. The dramatic process is practical, immediate, and engages both the emotions and intellect” (Pincotti, quoted in Isbell, 2009:224). What is most perplexing and fascinating in this research is that it led to questions pertaining to how children negotiate with the fictional world presented on stage and their own reality 5 , since sometimes the boundaries are not clear to the child audience. Specifically, I argue that the concept of the fourth wall 6 does not exist in a young audience’s knowledge of a theatrical convention. As Peter Handke puts it, “in the theatre, light is brightness pretending to be other brightness, a chair is a chair pretending to be another chair, and so on” (Handke quoted

5 I define the ‘fictional world’ presented on stage during the live performance; and the term ‘reality’ to be the actual environment in which the audience is living in. 6 The fourth wall is a metaphor for an “imaginary wall”, separating the audience and the world of the play.

Caleb Lee Wei Hao

in States, 1985: 20). This matter is often associated with our understanding of how an image or action on stage perceived through a smeiotic reading. While this is not just present in children’s theatre, the boundary that separates the representation on stage and reality can be said to be mutually intertwined more so in children’s theatre since the child often makes sense of the experience for himself . In doing so, I hope to address this gap between how the child audience perceives and responds to the represented world on stage in relation to his understanding of reality, and the theatrical communication impact it has on him. By way of establishing my own perspective, it will be useful to begin with the concept of ‘distance’ in theatre. The concept of ‘distance’ here does not refer to the physical distance between stage and audience but rather the metaphorical distance through which the child audience receives and reacts to the action on stage. Schonmann links this idea of ‘distance’ to “aesthetic response” that relates to the spectator’s level of engagement with the action on stage (Schonmann, 2006: 107). She states that “children have the chance to be imaginative and expressive in order to develop their social, emotional, physical, and intellectual abilities” (2006: 107). Hence, this idea of distance refers to the proximity between the represented world on stage that the child engages with and the temporary detachment he/she has from reality. I would like to point out that one main function of theatre is often to create an alternate space for a fictional world using this idea of ‘distance’. Theatre provides a platform for the audience to proceed through the construction of the fictional world which is constantly revised, negated and negotiated in the viewing process. Hence in the context of children’s theatre, I would like to question how a child makes ‘sense’ of the performance and in return, how do we make sense of this experience. Herbaut Blau states that “an audience without history is not an audience” (Blau, 1987: 34). This “history” is associated with the cultural and social environment which in turn affects the emotional responses, behaviours and perceptions of the audience when watching a performance. For example, in adult theatre, the adult audience might cry during an emotional scene if he can relate it to his own personal encounters, or laugh at a comical anecdote. This level of engagement can vary depending on how he frames his memories and in relation to the scene on stage. While he might bring in his own past memories in fully engaging with the performance, he is more likely to distinguish between his past experience and the represented world on stage. They know that they are emotionally involved in a theatrical experience within a framework of fiction and that there is a suspension of disbelief for the duration of the performance. As such, in adult theatre, an adult spectator will not run towards the stage to stop an act or a scene if it

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gets too intense for him; what is performed on stage is a representation of the real world. It is the combination of signs and theatrical conventions which permits the audience to ‘distance’ and differentiate the represented world on stage from reality. However, in children’s theatre, this boundary between representation and reality is blurred since this concept of ‘distance’ is not always fully realised by the child audience. Furthermore, the understanding and engagement of children’s response is not a simple and linear process since children’s reactions are often spontaneous and unpredictable. Children may run onstage yelling and responding instinctively to the action happening on stage thinking that encounter is in the framework of their reality. The example below illustrates how these boundaries between fiction and reality can be blurred in a performance for children: During one of I Theatre’s performance entitled The Little Green Frog, interaction between audience and actors were part of the performance. Actors would occasionally prompt audience for suggestions and ideas as the plot progressed. In the performance, there was a scene in which Big Mama Frog asked her son, Chung Kayguri to help her with the laundry by folding the clothes. Being defiant and disobedient, Chung Kayguri refused and instead picked up various pieces of clothing from the clothes basket, crumpled it, and threw them onto the floor. This resulted in a huge mess on the stage. As part of the performance, Big Mama Frog reacted exasperatedly by begging Chung Kayguri to stop and at the same time rushing around to pick up the clothes on the floor. However, Chung Kayguri refused to and continued to mess up the clothes. Since the performance was not performed on a raised stage but on the level ground as the seated child audience, this made it very accessible for the audience to enter the playing area freely. During the scene when Chung Kayguri did not pick up the clothes, one of the child audience started to rush onto the stage to help Big Mama Frog pick up the clothing and drop them into the laundry basket. This was not part of the intended plot. Almost instinctively, other children got out of their seats and rushed onto the stage to help. The children continued to pick up the clothes and drop them to the laundry basket

Caleb Lee Wei Hao

until Big Mama frog (with the help of the ushers) asked them to return to their seats7. What the above example illustrates is that the young audience can become immersed in the world of make-believe. A possible interpretation of this response is that their involvement during the performance is so intense that they lose themselves in the fiction; since the boundary between reality and fiction is not explicit to them. Therefore when the child loses this aesthetic distance, he threads into the “as if’ situation as though it were a real life circumstance. Children enjoy the “as if” situations, because the play becomes real for them. They are living it, feeling it, experiencing it and at the same time reflecting consciousness of this very investment. Swedish theatre researcher, William Sauter, provides a useful construction of this relationship between reality and fiction, when he describes the difference of the “referential” and “embodied” experience of theatre (Sauter quoted in Reason, 2010: 59). The embodied experience relates to the actual appearance of the performance and the referential experience is that what is described or evoked by the performance8. There is a constant oscillation between one and the other and back again. In this context, it is the reflective and conscious experience that is particularly compelling for our understanding of the responses of the audience. Connected to this idea is also Ubersfield’s argument on how “theatrical pleasures are rarely passive, ‘doing’ plays a larger role than ‘receiving” (1982: 132). I argue that this “doing” suggests an activation and desire of our senses to ‘touch’ in order to fulfil a physiological response. To quote Benedetto, “we experience and move through the world as a result of data collected by sensory receptors lodged in the skin” (2010: 72). Perhaps in trying make meaing of the performance, the young audiences experience part of the theatrical event through the body’s experience of stimul- through touching and sensations as part of his/her participation. To activate touch is to make accessible the object’s properties- material, surface, texture. Hence, despite the non –partipatory nature of this performance, there was a desire by the young audience to physically touch what was seen as a way to explore and interact with their immediate environment to create meaning-rich experiences. What this further points to is the fact that the social language in the theatre cannot be taught. These moments are often unrehearsed and reveal the spontaenous interactions between spectator and performer. The represented reality provides a platform for the

7 Extract taken from my journal records of The Little Green Frog by I Theatre (Singapore), Esplanade Theatre Recital Studio (4 April 2009) 8 Or more colloquially, what audience see in their imagination

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child to react and respond through their own engagement and experiences. That is, it stimulates the ‘as if’ type of thinking that forms the basis for reasoning and problem solving. The emphasis, therefore, is on the experiential perceptions, focusing on the audiences’ immediate and instinctive engagement with the situations at present. Dansky has highlighted that these forms of “play” and creating a make-believe world stimulates children to think creatively and will contribute to creativity in his/her later stage (Danksy, quoted in Hughes, 1988: 91). Perhaps, these moments of spontaneous moments should be valued and included when evaluating children’s theatre as it is through engaging with children’s theatre that we can deepen and extend the child’s knowledge and ownershipcreative, imaginative, emotional and technical-of the performance (Reason, 2010: 122). (Somewhere) Between Reacting, Responding...and Recalling So far, I have attempted to offer an alternative framework in which we might evaluate children’s theatre by discussing how children’s theatre should emerge from the children’s concern:

their own ways of seeing, responding and understanding theatre A

performance can activate a diversity of responses, but it is the audience which finally ascribes the meaningfulness and usefulness to it. To this point, I have deliberately used the term ‘reacting’ and ‘responding’ broadly to emphasize the fact that there is value in the development that arises from the spontaneity from the young audiences. However, as part of my current and subsequent research, I argue that there is a distinction between the two. To put simply, I contend that the former operates on the level of sensation and instinct, whereas the former, while might also be instinctive, takes into account a level of mental consideration and thought process in relation to a wider set of cultural experiences, socializing and influences that shape the child’s identity, choices and behaviours.Understanding young audiences’ behaviourial patterns in the theatrical event exists in constant flux, oscillating between ‘reacting’ and ‘responding’, making it almost impossible to locate and define. To illustrate this, below is a recent encounter during a performance in the theatre9. The performance had already begun and a girl sitting beside me was clearly engaged with the performance but yet at the same time annoyed by the lights emitting from the screens of the audiences’ mobile phones.

Extract taken from my journal records of The Little Red Hen by I Theatre (Singapore), Drama Centre Theatre (2 March 2012)

Caleb Lee Wei Hao

Little girl beside me (whispering to her mother): Why are people still using their phones? Did they not hear the announcement? Me (whispering to her): Maybe you should remind them. The girl leaned forward and tapped the shoulder of several strangers sitting in the row in front of her. Girl: Excuse me. Can you please switch off your phone? It's VERY bright! You’re scaring the animals away. In line with Swortzell’s claim that children’s theatre operates in a world of paradox in which it can be “naive, child-like, complex and spectacular all within the same performance” (1992: xiv), the same can be argued about the responses of the young audiences based on the above example. More often than not, the responses situate themselves somewhere between logic, socialized knowledge and imagination. This liminal space offers a rich field of undiscovered data and analysis, in which engaging in audience responses can continue to contribute to intellectual and social competency. As part of the continued research, I also question not just the minds and bodies during a performance but also

what the young audiences ‘do’ with this experience after the

event. While this on one hand tests their abilities to recall the performance, the insights that can emerge from remembering can reveal various forms of thinking and process of reinterpretation. In recent years, practictioners and academics have formulated new methodologies to investigate the post-performance. For example, Saldana (1996) looked at the relationship between remembering theatrical elements and their affect on children’s interepretation; Reasons (2011) explored how drawing the performances by children can be used a tool to enhance theatrical experiences; Kein (2012) proposed using interview questions to discuss and talk about the the theatrical event. What is valuable in the ‘post’ is that it uncovers multiple layers and dimensions of the visual, verbal and psychological modes of perceptions which serve as further tools of analysis to infer the abstract. This,

I term,

‘the extended experience’. The performance might

cease the moment the curtain drops but the children’s processing, reimagination and reflections continue even after it is over. To conclude, what is worth stressing is that audience experiences do not just reside in the moment of the performance itself but is an on-going, reflective engagement within memories and social relations in communities. For children’s theatre to grow, educators

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and parents need to acknowledge that children need to adopt for themselves a sense of entitlement, ownership and legitimacy as audience members. There are definitely challenges but there is potential to obtain deep and rich insights these experiences. David Wood confidently states, “theatre for young audiences is an art form.” (Wood quoted in Maguire and Schuitema, 2012: vii). To which I add, it is an art form that needs to allow tensions, complexities and differences to exist for it to continue redefining itself in its search to increase its variety of goals and forms. This includes considering a wider cultural concern to shift watching into ‘experiencing’; and seeing into ‘engaging’.

References Bennett, Susan. Theatre Audience: A Theory of Production and Reception. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. Blau, Herbert. The Audience. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1990. Dodd, Nigel & Hickson, Winifred. Drama and Theatre in Education. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Elam, K. The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. London: Eyre Methuen, 1980. England, Alan. Theatre for the Young. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1990. Hornbrook, David. Education and Dramatic Art. London: Routledge, 1998. Hughes, Fergus P. Children, Play and Development. USA: Allyn and Bacon, 1991. I Theatre Ltd. Web. 12 Nov 2012. <http://www.itheatre.org> Isbell, Rebecaa T & Raines, Shirley C. Creativity and the Arts with Young Children. Canada: Thomson, 2007. Maguire, Tom & Schuitema Karian. Theatre for the Yung Audiences- A Critical Handbook. London: Institute of Education Press, 2012. Nicolson, Helen. Applied Drama: The Gift of Theatre. UK Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Nicolson, Helen. Theatre, Education and Performance. UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Prentki, Tim & Preston, Sheila. The Applied Theatre Reader. USA: Routledge, 2009. Reason, Matthew. The Young Audience. Exploring and Enhancing Children’s Experience of Theatre. USA: Trentham Books, 2010. Ribicoff, Abraham. “The Theatre as Teacher.” Educational Theatre Journal. 13: 4 (1961): 241-244. Schhonmann, Shifra. Theatre as a Medium for Children and Young People: Images and Observations. Israel: University of Haifa, 2006. Slade, Peter. Child Drama. London: University of London Press Ltd, 1973. States, O. Bert. Great Reckonings in Little Rooms: On the Phenomenology of Theatre. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. Swortzell, Lowell. International Guide to Children’s Theatre and Educational theatre: A Historical and Geographical Source Book. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.

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Tassel, Wesley Van. “Differences in Contemporary Views of Children’s Theatre”. Educational Theatre Journal. 21:4 (1969): 414-425. Taylor, Philip. Applied Theatre: Creating Transformative Encounters in the Community. Portsmouth: New York University, 2003. Thompson, James. Applied Theatre: Bewilderment and Beyond. Germany: Peter Lang AG, 2006. Wagner, Betty Jane. Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a Learning Medium. Portsmouth: Calendar Islands Publishers, 1999.

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Rethinking Community Arts in Singapore By Benny Lim1 Keywords

Abstract

Community Arts in Singapore,

In Singapore, community arts projects are often initiated

Social Activism in Singapore, Community Development,

by the government for the purpose of social development and social cohesion. Such community arts projects usually aim to spread the appreciation of the arts to a specific

Social Cohesion, Space and Politics in Singapore,

community,

within

specific

geographical

location. This paper encourages one to rethink about the heavy government involvement in community arts in Singapore. It reiterates the main function of community

Homosexuality in Singapore

arts, which is to use the arts to voice out important issues faced by different communities, so that the issues can be heard by others. Communities, in this sense, are not just connected based on location. Certain groups of people with similar beliefs or in similar contexts can come together to form a community.

Introduction The word ‘Community’ in community arts suggests a few possibilities. A community can refer to a specific location or district and therefore, community arts can be defined arts activities happening within a fixed geographical location (Myerscough, 1986). A community can also be a unified body of individuals. People with the same interest or belief come together to form a community. In this context of community arts, it is no longer just about arts activities within a location, but arts activities by a group of people with a common set of interests or beliefs (Green & Haines, 2011). Community arts first came about when communities voiced out their respective issues and problems through the arts (Coutts & Jokela, 2008). Community arts does not just focused on the artists involved and the quality of the artworks produced (product) but the process of creating

1 Benny Lim (Ph.D.) is a Lecturer with the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Benny Lim Kok Wai

the artworks by the said community as well as the eventual message that will be generated from the community and sent to the public (Krensky & Steffen, 2008). The Singapore Government and Community Arts Community Arts in Singapore has always focused on community development and social cohesion (Kong & Yeoh, 2003). This probably explains the heavy governmental involvement in the development of community arts in Singapore. The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY)2 oversees the development of culture (arts and heritage) and the community. As a government ministry, MCCY is supported by several statutory boards to achieve their strategic objectives. Three of its statutory boards 3 directly involved in the promotion of community arts include the People’s Association (PA), the National Arts Council (NAC), and the National Heritage Board (NHB). PA was established in 1960 with the main aims to promote social cohesion and racial harmony (Gassner, 2006). One of its key arts and cultural projects to promote racial harmony and social cohesion is the Chingay parade. The Chingay parade started in 1973 initially to promote Chinese culture and has evolved into a multi-racial and international arts and cultural parade (Bravo-Bhasin, 2009). The parade involves over 10,000 performers (Tiong, 2013), many are amateurs from different walks of life, and is broadcasted live on national television. On top of that, besides the main parade in the city centre, Chingay also travels to the residential communities with the hope to have a wider reach (Chingay Parade Singapore, 2014). From a community development viewpoint, Singapore is divided into five main districts, with several towns within each district. For PA to better achieve their aims, each district is managed by a Community Development Council (CDC) 4 led by a government-appointed Mayor to oversee the district’s community development. Some of the CDCs have developed community arts projects as a tool for community development and cohesion. For instance, the Central Singapore CDC has been running a Community Live Arts Programme (CLAP) since 2001. Live arts are brought to the heartlands of the district four times a year. Most of the time, the live arts events are performed by amateurs or residents in the community (Central Singapore, 2014). The South West CDC runs an annual arts festival with the aim to bond the community through the arts. Most of the participants in the arts festival are residents and organizations (such as schools and companies) within the district. Another project in the same district is the Community Refurbishment Painting Project, where

Refer to the Ministry’s website: http://www.mccy.gov.sg/ Statutory boards are autonomous bodies, with rights define administration, purpose and authority, in Singapore formed by the Acts of Parliament. Each statutory board reports to a specific Ministry. 4 There are five CDCs in Singapore, namely Central Singapore CDC, South East CDC, South West CDC, North East CDC and North West CDC. 3

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families living in the district come together to paint new artefacts that will beautify the community. This project promotes family bonding through the arts. As mentioned, each district is made up of several towns. Each town has at least one community centre. The main purpose of a community centre is to serve a bridge between the government and the people for information transfer (Vasil, 2004). On normal days, community centres serve as a recreational and gathering point for the residents of the town. Many community centres are equipped with sport facilities and amenities such as gyms, badminton courts and multipurpose hall. In the recent decade, there has been an increased focus on the arts to connect the residents in the community. This can be seen in community centres with adequate physical resources and strong artistic leadership. One such example is the Siglap South Community Club

. The

community centre houses professional arts companies, such as theatre companies, that put up performances in community centre’s auditorium. NAC has given its monetary support in the development of the infrastructure of the auditorium in the community centre to make it more ready for all types of performing arts events. The Kallang Community Centre6 runs regular arts events for the residents, focusing on families and children. In the recent speech to the 2014 Committee of Supply debate, the Acting Minister of MCCY, Mr. Lawrence Wong, further reiterated that more community centres would be identified for arts and cultural activities (MCCY News, 2014). NAC was formed in 1991 with the specific aim to develop the direction and policies of the arts in Singapore (Oon, 2008). NAC has in place some grant schemes to assist artists or arts organizations to develop projects. One of the assistance schemes is the Presentation and Participation grant7. This grant is specifically meant for artists or arts organizations to develop arts projects that will enhance participation and appreciation of the arts in general. One of the main criteria for the award of the grant is the project’s capability to engage the member of public or community the project intends to serve. Individuals or organizations who are keen to organize community arts projects are therefore encouraged to apply for this grant. Another statutory board of MCCY involved in the promotion of community arts is the NHB. Most of the public museums, which are under the jurisdiction of NHB, are located in the city centre. In recent years, museums in Singapore have taken efforts to bring the arts to the community. One such project is Our Museum @ Taman Jurong, which was launched in 2013. Taman Jurong is a residential

5 Refer to Siglap South Community Club website at http://www.ourcommunity.sg/locate-us/communityclub/?ccid=5550&hd=1 6 Refer to Kallang Community Centre website at http://www.ourcommunity.sg/locate-us/communityclub/?ccid=4810&hd=1 7 For more information about the grant, refer to NAC website: https://www.nac.gov.sg/grantsschemes/grants/presentation-and-participation

Benny Lim Kok Wai

area in Singapore that is relatively far from the city centre. By bringing the museum into the community, it allows visitors to understand the history and heritage of the area as well as develop a culture of visiting museums8. Rethinking Community Arts in Singapore Despite a rather comprehensive development of community arts in Singapore, it is clear that the rationale behind the promotion of community arts is for social development, cohesion and integration through the appreciation and participation of the arts and culture. There is also a focus on geographic location for community arts. Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society. The promotion of community arts in Singapore is, therefore, aligned to governmental policies to maintain peaceful living of its people, despite the cultural differences. However, community arts in Singapore has the potential to develop a lot further. As highlighted in the introduction, community arts should be a platform for voicing out specific issues within a specific community and the community is not just limited by geographical considerations. For instance, HIV is common disease in Thailand because of the prominent sex industry and the lack of knowledge to prevent the spreading of the disease. Many children are HIV positive because their mothers are infested with the disease. Child sex workers can still be found in the country. Many of these children are stigmatized because of their disease and are rejected by the society (Liamputtong, 2007). In recent years, UNICEF has run a series of community arts projects in Thailand involving children who are HIV positive. For instance, these children are involved in drama productions where they reflect on their existence and identity. On one hand, these children can more confidence and positivity through the involvement in the drama. On the other hand, the public gets to understand the problems and difficulties these children face daily through the drama. In this case, the community refers to the group of HIV positive children and through the arts (drama), the message to the public to cease the discrimination against HIV positive children can be delivered effectively (Keenapan, 2007). Singapore has no lack of issues that can be addressed through community arts. Singapore is a postmodern city state (Klieger, 2012), with the size of only 710 square kilometres (Gwee, 2013). Yet, Singapore has a population of 5.4 million9. Singapore is currently the world’s most densely populated country (Ng, 2013). Even so, the government is intending to grow Singapore’s population between 6.5 to 6.9 million by

8 Refer to the speech by Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore during the launch of Our Museum @ Taman Jurong on the 12th January 2013: http://www.juronggrc.sg/OurMuseumatTamanJurong 9 Based on the latest Singapore Statistics (June 2013): http://www.singstat.gov.sg/

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2030 (Cheam, 2013). Space is a constant political issue in Singapore (Lim, 2012). Singaporeans are getting concerned about their space, which includes employment opportunities, being taken up by the new immigrants and foreign workers. In the past year, there have been several key incidents relating to foreign workers and space in Singapore. One of the main highlights include the riots by a group unskilled foreign workers, who worked mainly in the construction industry, in Little India in December 2013. Rioting is illegal in Singapore and if convicted of initiating a riot, one can faced up of 7 years in prison10. This recent riot in Little India is considered a landmark event in Singapore because the country has not had a riot in 40 years11. One of the possible explanations for these unskilled foreign workers to initiate the riot was due to the unfair treatment from their employers (Grant, 2013). Shortly after the riot, the Singapore government put in place some initiatives to talk to the unskilled foreign workers to solicit feedbacks. The results were expected – the foreign workers are generally happy living and working in Singapore (Staffing Industry Analysts, 2014). This method of gathering feedback is not the most effective because of the low education level of these workers that leads to their inability to clearly articulate their displeasure. From a psychological point of view, such feedback sessions generate fear among the workers and it is unlikely anyone will voice out the real problems they face (Brett & Drasgow, 2002). In such a situation, community arts can be a possible platform for these workers to share and voice out their problems and challenges living and working in Singapore. An excellent example of community arts is one that happened in a village in India. In that village, poor and illiterate women gathered together and perform their respective workplace scenarios. They use drama as a platform to voice out their daily problem of being sexually abused by their employers at work. The community arts (in this case, the drama performed) attracted attention outside the village and globally. Subsequently, the sexual abuse cases reduced (Patnaik, 2008). In this way, community arts serve as an excellent platform for the communities to voice out key issues and challenges. Besides spending a good amount of time at work or in school, Singaporeans spend a lot time in spaces that have very little cultural significance, such as modern shopping malls, underground train stations (with more built-in malls), fast food joints and cafes. This is aligned to Marc Augé’s concept of non-places in postmodern societies (Augé, 1995). The government played a key role in designating several cultural spaces that reflect the multi-racial scenario in Singapore. For instance, there is Chinatown, Little India and

10 11

Refer to Attorney-General’s Chamber, Penal Code 148: http://goo.gl/DTnkB The last major riot before this incident was the racial riots in 1964.

Benny Lim Kok Wai

Geylang Serai, representing Singapore’s three main racial groups Chinese, Indians and Malays respectively (Lim, 2012). Other than these initiatives that offer some form of ‘protection’ to spaces with cultural past, many spaces with cultural significance have been

redeveloped

into

modern

housing,

expressways

and

financial

institutions.

Cemeteries, for instance, play a significance role in preserving one’s cultural and historical past. In 1972, Singapore stopped more burials in cemeteries and encouraged dead persons to be cremated instead of buried due to the space constraint (Perera, 2011). In the 1980s, one entire housing estate, Bishan New Town, was developed on a large piece of cemetery land. The bodies were exhumed from their graves and cremated or re-buried (Yeoh & Kong, 1997). More cemeteries have since made way in the name of national development. One cemetery facing destruction is the two-century old Bukit Brown Cemetery. Other than the issue of space in Singapore, there is another issue that has generated a lot of debate in recent years in Singapore. In 2003, then Singapore Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong announced in a landmark speech that homosexuality is tolerated in Singapore and LGBTQ civil servants would not be penalized for coming forward to declare their sexual orientation (Lim, 2004). Despite the increased tolerance in homosexuality, sexual acts between men are still considered illegal in Singapore12. There have been several community projects that gather LGBT in Singapore together. One such project is Pink Dot SG. The project started in 2009 and aims to spread the message of inclusiveness and freedom to love (Lim, 2013). In recent months, the debate on the morality of homosexuality has heated up. Homosexuality was referred by Pastor Lawrence Khong as breaking the moral-norm (Chiu, 2014) and by National University of Singapore’s Associate Professor Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied as a form of ‘cancer’ (Lee, 2014). Community arts can play its part in voicing out some these issues and challenges faced by the LGBTQ community. An example of a community arts event is the GFEST – Gaywise FESTival, an annual arts festival in London13. The artists and arts organizations involved in the festival are from LGBTQ community and or LGBTQ-friendly organizations. Through the arts festival, the issues of human rights and equality are voiced out. Conclusion The Singapore government, through its initiatives for social development and funding schemes for arts appreciation and participation, has generated a lopsided perception of community arts. Community arts is not just based on bringing the arts as a form of

12 13

Refer to Attorney-General’s Chamber, Penal Code 377A: http://goo.gl/WpFB2j Refer to the festival’s website: http://gaywisefestival.org.uk/

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appreciation to a specific geographical location or district. Community arts should be a platform to highlight issues faced by specific communities, which includes specific social groups that might not be linked by location. Singapore, being a young, multi-cultural and, yet, developed nation, has got many issues in which community arts can address. It is hoped that more people can come together to redefine community arts and its purpose in Singapore.

References Augé, M. (1995). Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Verso. Bravo-Bhasin, M. (2009). CultureShock! Singapore: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. Brett, J.M. & Drasgow, F. (2002). The Psychology of Work: Theoretically Based Empirical Research. Psychology Press. Central Singapore (2014, March 28). CLAP!. Retrieved from Central Singapore CDC website: http://www.centralsingaporecdc.org.sg/clap/. Cheam, J. (2013, January 29). Singapore's population could hit 6.9m by 2030. Retrieved from The Straits Times website: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/singapores-population-projected-hit69m-2030-singaporean-core-20130129. Chingay Parade Singapore (2014, March 30). Chingay 2014 @ Heartlands. Retrieved from Chingay Parade Singapore website: https://chingay.org.sg/heartlands. Chiu, P. (2014, February 17). Singapore church publishes pro-377A guide. Retrieved from Yahoo! News Singapore website: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-pastor-lawrence-khong-s-support-377a--guide-leaked-034943128.html. Coutts, G. & Jokela, T. (2008). Art, Community and Environment: Educational Perspectives. Intellect Books. Gassner, M.E. (2006). Investigating the Long-term Impact of Adventure Education: Retrospective Study of Outward Bound Singapore's Classic 21-day Challenge Course. ProQuest.

Grant, J. (2013, December 9). Riot tarnishes Singapore’s image as place of ethnic harmony. Retrieved from Financial Times website: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9266db8a-602e-11e3-b36000144feabdc0.html#axzz2xin0gh1f. Green, G.P. & Haines, A. (2011). Asset Building & Community Development. SAGE. Gwee, J. (2013). Case Studies in Public Governance: Building Institutions in Singapore. Routledge. Keenapan, N. (2007, April 28). Art helps Thai children heal the wounds of HIV. Retrieved from UNICEF Thailand website: http://www.unicef.org/thailand/reallives_3942.html. Klieger, P.C. (2012). The Microstates of Europe: Designer Nations in a Post-Modern World. Lexington Books. Kong, L. & Yeoh, B. (2003). The Politics of Landscapes in Singapore: Constructions of "nation". Syracuse University Press. Krensky, B. & Steffen, S.L. (2008). Engaging Classrooms and Communities through Art: The Guide to Designing and Implementing Community-Based Art Education. Rowman Altamira.

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Lee, P. (2014, February 28). NUS prof's comments on lesbians spark protests from past and present students. Retrieved from The Straits Times website: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/nus-profs-comments-lesbianssparks-protests-past-and-present-students-. Liamputtong, P. (2007). Childrearing and Infant Care Issues: A Cross-cultural Perspective. Nova Publishers. Lim, B. (2012). Postmodern Self-reflexivity and Post-independence Singaporean (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom.

Theatre.

Lim, E.B. (2013). Glocalqueer Pink Activism. In Lichtenfels, P. & Rouse, J., Performance, Politics and Activism. Palgrave Macmillan. Lim, G. (2004). Invisible Trade. Monsoon Books. MCCY News (2014, March 11). Building a cultural city and sporting nation: Speech by Mr Lawrence Wong, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth at the 2014 Committee of Supply debate. Retrieved from MCCY website: http://www.mccy.gov.sg/news/speeches/2014/Mar/COS2014_AgMinSpeech1.aspx. Myerscough, J. (1986). Facts about the arts 2. Policy Studies Institute. Ng, W.H. (2013). Singapore, the Energy Economy: From The First Refinery To The End Of Cheap Oil, 1960-2010. Routledge. Oon, H. (2008) Singapore. New Holland Publishers. Patnaik, S. (2008). Theatre and Education: A Different Interpretation for India. In Joubert, L., Educating in the Arts: The Asian Experience: Twenty-Four Essays. Springer. Perera, A. (2011). Singapore at Random. Editions Didier Millet. Staffing Industry Analysts. (2014, March 7). Singapore Foreign Workers are Generally Happy Despite the Riot!. Retrieved from Staffing Insutry Analysts website: http://www.staffingindustry.com/row/Research-Publications/Daily-News/Singapore-Foreignworkers-are-generally-happy-despite-the-riot!-29254. Tiong, S. (2013, February 21). New talent groups, more volunteer performers at this year's Chingay Parade. Retrieved from The Straits Times website: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/new-talent-groups-more-volunteerperformers-years-chingay-parade-20130. Vasil, R.K. (2004). A Citizen's Guide to Government and Politics in Singapore. Talisman Publishing. Yeoh, B. & Kong, L. (1997). The Notion of Place in the Construction of History, Nostalgia and Heritage in Singapore. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol 17: 1, pp 52-65.

22 Â

The Journal of Theatrex Asia, Vol. 1:1

Cultural and art development in industrial areas in Hong Kong By Lee Siu-Lun1 Keywords

Abstract

Art Space,

Space is notoriously costly in Hong Kong but space is

Industrial Clustering, Cultural Policy in Hong Kong,

important for young artists to create their artwork and display their art piece to the public in any city.

Artists

groups and cultural workers in Hong Kong have made use of the relatively lower rent of unused industrial building spaces after the industrial relocation since 1990s.

A unique cultural habitat has been formed

because of the clustering of young local artists in various industrial advantage

areas. and

The

artists

synergy

enjoyed

because

competitive geographic

agglomeration. Some areas already formed

identity

recognition through collaboration projects among the artists in some areas where cultural events are held constantly to represent the cultural groups, such as annual Open House event of the “Fotanians” in Fo Tan area.

The role of government policy was undefined

towards the cultural occupants in industrial areas in Hong Kong until the government started to discuss and tried to implement some “revitalization policies” to the industrial areas around 2010.

Although government claimed that

the “revitalization policies” had an aim to assist art and cultural development in Hong Kong, some artists and cultural workers in fact suffered from the implementation of this policy.

This paper presents an account of the

cultural development in industrial areas in Hong Kong in recent 10 years and discusses the impact of related government policies with a case study.

Lee Siu-Lun completed his MA in Cultural Management in the Chinese University of Hong Kong in June 2014.

Lee Siu-Lun

Prologue: From industrial premises to cradle of art and culture “Made in Hong Kong” was a famous term coined during the manufacturing bloom in Hong Kong after 1970. “Made in Hong Kong” guaranteed high quality and affordable products and the term refers to the process in which all power, resources, labor, capital, design and management occur in Hong Kong, and the products are either sold locally or exported overseas. However, there is a second term, 'Made by Hong Kong', refers to the process in which capital, design, management and office occur in Hong Kong. However, the power and labor are supplied from Mainland China where the factories are located. Raw materials are transported to Mainland China via Hong Kong. The products are then shipped to overseas countries. The first system, “Made in Hong Kong” is a pre-relocation manufacturing system during late 60s to early 80s. The second system, “Made by Hong Kong”, describes the system that the relocation of factories follow. “Made in Hong Kong”: Manufacturing industry in Hong Kong and factory relocation The manufacturing industry in Hong Kong started in the 19th century. Hong Kong, enjoying a status of an entrepôt, had limited manufacturing development until after the Second World War, when the whole city’s development was paralyzed due to the Japanese occupation. The manufacturing industry of the city developed along with the recovery of the city after the Second World War. In the 1950s, the city was in a transition from an entrepôt to a manufacturing-based economy. The city's manufacturing industry grew rapidly in the 60s with the large influx of labor force from Mainland China due to the various political reasons. The industries were then diversified in different aspects in the 1970s because of the worldwide oil crisis. The industrialization of Hong Kong was rapidly growing from 1963 through 1970. Manufacturing in Hong Kong consists of mainly light and labour-intensive industries. Pre-existing industries continued to prosper, while new industries emerged and blossomed as well. The number of factories increased 1.67 times and the number of workers increased by 1.15 times. The number of factories and workers in 1970 were 16,507 and 549,000 respectively. The population of factory workers took up over 40% of the city's employment structure. The value of domestic exports continued to rise, and in just two years, rose by 2.72 times to HK$12,347,000,000. Hong Kong was no longer reliant on re-exportation and became an industrialized city (封, 龔 1997, p.29).

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In the 1980s, the land rent and labor costs in Hong Kong had increased rapidly due to rapid economic growth (封, 龔 1997, p.34) and bid up the product cost as compare to the major competitors, such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Factories and industrial plants in the city have been relocated to places with lower land rental rates and labour costs, mostly around the Pearl River Delta, where factory plants can enjoy lower labor & land cost and with looser pollution control than Hong Kong. Therefore, Hong Kong industrialists took advantage of Mainland China's pull factors by relocating their factories in Mainland China. Since the first factories were relocated to Mainland China in the late 1970s. The relocation trend reached its peak in the mid-1980s. By the 1990s, over 80% of the factories had been relocated to Mainland China. The value of domestic exports continued to decrease while that of re-exportation from Mainland China increased drastically. In the toy industry, only 7% of the value of exports was gained by domestic exports, while 93% was re-exported from Mainland China. From 1989 to 1994, the value of re-exportation from Mainland China increased by 25.6% annually on average (封, 龔 1997, p.35). In the 1990s, the jewelry industry moved most of their manufacturing process to Mainland with the exception of the most valuable jewelry production (何 2009, p.884).

The result of factory relocation has two folds. On one hand, the injection of capital, entrepreneurship and technology into the Pearl River Delta areas increased employment opportunities for people in Mainland China and speeded up the development of the infrastructure, such as roads, ports and communication networks, as well as the economic development of the areas. On the other hand, this caused a severe drop in Hong Kong’s manufacturing industry's share of the value of domestic imports and led to the rise of the tertiary industry and this caused unemployment problems and reliance on the service sector which has a far-reaching effect until today. The government attempted to solve this through various means, including the development of high-technology manufacturing industries as stated in the Policy Address papers from the HKSAR Chief Executive office. Another consequence is that there is a large number of factory plants, industrial buildings and government built industrial estates were abandoned. Occupancy of industrial areas in Hong Kong by cultural workers and artists The HKSAR government aided, the manufacturing workers who are unskilled in other areas are unemployed as a result of industrial relocation (何 2009, p.99), by providing retraining programmes, allowing them, especially those in the tertiary industry, to get new jobs. However, concerning the abandoned factory plants, building and estate,

Lee Siu-Lun

government’s policy is undefined at the beginning of factory relocation. The rent of the factory building was dropped drastically in the 1980s since there was an immense supply of industrial premises due to the relocation phenomenon. Artists and cultural workers moved in some factory buildings and the factory buildings became a cradle for nurturing young artists shortly after the factory relocation because young artists and local cultural workers can enjoy relatively lower rent with ample space for work. This cradle gave new hope to local young artists and such hope echoes with a verse in a local movie Director’s movie named Made in Hong Kong screened in 1997.

“只要自己有料到, 何愁無出路.” 陳果 (1997), <香港製造> (Movie) “As long as one is outstanding, no need to worry that there is no way out.” Fruit Chan (1997), Made in Hong Kong. (Movie). Importance of space and “industrial cluster” for cultural workers and artists There are discussions in the literature about the importance of physical space for artists and for cultural workers (Stanistreet 2008, Rohloff 2009, Schwartz 2014). An interview of an artist quoted in Schwartz (2014) mentioned space is an important element in art & culture and stressed that “space is a living substance, not an empty chamber that God and ideas inhabit. … When I’m inside the space, I’m part of it; it’s part of me. It’s trippy and physical.” (Schwartz 2014, p.5) Physical spaces are important for visual artists to work in, to interact with and, practically, to hold exhibitions (Tzortzi 2007, Rohloff 2009), for performing artists to rehearse their performance and to hold the performing events (Goldberg R 1988, Petri 2013). In most cities, spaces are valuable assets which are not easily affordable for artists and cultural workers, especially for young artists.

Some

cities, such as Singapore (Singapore Art Council 2012) and London (Johnson 2012), have considered art developments and plans to nurture young artists when they are working on the urban planning or urban renewal plans. In Indonesia and United States, government also considered art and cultural development together with urban renewal or revitalization plans (Landry, et al 1996, Sutton 2008).

The Singapore experience

shows that integrating urban renewal plans with art and cultural developments can “develop more spaces for artists and arts groups to better support the growing and diverse arts sector”, “feature a better mix of shared facilities that are suitably fitted out”, and “enable amateur/community artists and arts groups to lower overall cost by taking up tenancy for a smaller administrative space and booking the shared facilities only for their classes, meetings, practice or rehearsals” (Singapore Art Council 2012, p. 12). In some cities, there are “artist-run space” or “artist-run initiative” (Colon 2006). “Artist-

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run initiative” was initially started by visual artists to present their and other artists’ projects and the term later developed to mark different approach in artist-run collaborations and became an umbrella term for many types of artist generated activities. “Artist-run means initiating exchange; emphasizing cross and inter-disciplinary approaches to making art’ developing networks; through curation, putting creative ideas and arguments into action.” (Catalyst Arts 1996, p.45) Hong Kong artists and cultural workers occupied and clustered in unused industrial buildings after the factory relocation happened in Hong Kong initially because of relatively low rents.

Chin Wan’s (2014) (陳雲 2014) cultural critique applied Porter’s

(1990) “industrial cluster” (產業集群) to discuss the competitive advantage and synergy of the artists and cultural workers in the industrial areas in Hong Kong. Industrial cluster, also known as “business cluster” is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. It is a business management strategy. In geography and urban studies, it is called agglomeration. Industrial clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete nationally and globally. The geographical location develops with enough resources and reaches a critical threshold. It grows with a sustainable competitive advantage over other places, or even reaches world supremacy in the field; famous examples are Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Chin Wan (2014) (陳雲 2014) stated that the gathering or clustering of cultural workers is important in Hong Kong’s cultural development. Cultural workers have settled down in various industrial areas in Hong Kong since early 90s, there are various “workshop clusters” (作坊群落) developed in different parts of Hong Kong. Visual artists gathered in Fo Tan. Musicians and movie workers settled down in Kwun Tong. Performing artists are clustered in San Po Kong. Fashion designers are in Cheung Sha Wan area. Some areas already formed identity recognition through collaboration projects (Le Gal de Kerangal 2004) among the artists in the area and constantly held cultural events to represent the cultural groups, such as annual Open House event of the “Fotanians” (伙炭人) in Fo Tan area. The occupancy and clustering of cultural workers and artists in industrial areas is not a phenomenon merely happened in Hong Kong, but common in some developed cities (Kwok & Low 2002, Behar 2003, Grenzfurthner & Bllhausen 2010, Harris & Williams 2011). The occupancy and clustering of cultural workers and artists in the industrial areas, in fact, helped rehabilitation of older urban districts, enriched cultural life in urban areas, and helped development of creative industries.

Lee Siu-Lun

Policies concerning cultural and art development in Hong Kong In terms of government policy, Hong Kong has been adopting the general policy of laissez faire established by the British colonial government since 1842 when Hong Kong was colonized. In relation to cultural policies in Hong Kong, Ooi (1995) pointed out that Hong Kong continued its development economically and culturally and became more than a trading centre or a “bazaar”. Ooi (1995) stated that the “rise in cultural affairs was inevitably and inextricably linked with the growth of the economy of Hong Kong” (p. 273) and advocated that Hong Kong should declare an official cultural policy to foster sustainable growth. Ooi’s (1995), especially discussed the “rise in cultural affairs” and suggested that in relation to the increasing importance of cultural affairs in Hong Kong “there would be a policy which is designed for Hong Kong itself.” (p. 289). Tung Chee Hwa, the first HKSAR Chief Executive, in his Policy Address in 1998 articulated that Hong Kong should maximize its human capital, as developed economies move from industrial production to the provision of services, especially in the field of information and communication and Hong Kong should be a cultural and economic gateway between East and West. Everitt (1998) studied the development of cultural policies in Hong Kong and pointed out the word “culture” has a hierarchy of meaning in the 1998 Policy Address. Firstly, it represents the overall values of a society and the institutions, which express them. Secondly, it contains a full range of creative activities, including arts, design, creative industries, mass culture and amateur participation. Thirdly, it represents the “high” arts. Everitt (1998) pointed out that these definitions are equally important and that they interact with one another and play an invaluable role by which a community reflects on itself.

He observed and pointed out that the art policy in Hong Kong “has

tended to over-emphasise the high arts” (Everitt 1998, p. 5). He recommended and urged the government to declare an explicit cultural policy and set out a number of basic principles and policy aims reflecting the three definitions stated above. Although nowadays there are funding schemes for artists and other developmental schemes, such as the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme (ACDFS), and Contestable Funding Pilot Scheme for the Major Performing Arts Group, etc implemented by the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong government, the press Wen Wei Po on 15 January, 2014 pointed out that most of the official funding scheme only favor established cultural organizations, however small or young cultural organizations always face many problems.

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“九大藝團每年的資助高達 3.04 億，但本港中小藝團加起來總資助只有四千萬（藝發局資助項目），被質疑漠視中小藝團發展。” (伍麗微, 文匯報, 15/1/2014)

“The nine big cultural organizations have annual funding as high as 304 millions, but the total sum of funding of all local Hong Kong medium and small cultural groups is only 40 millions (ADC funded projects), it has been doubted that the development of medium and small cultural organizations is neglected.” (Ng Lai Mei, Wen Wei Po, 15/1/2014) In Hong Kong, there is a public claim that “the government does not accord a high priority to culture. Although the city plays host to some world-renowned arts festivals each year, there is arguably no policy on culture” (South China Morning Post, 24 May, 2012). There are criticisms pointed out that cultural policies in Hong Kong are in favor of the elites and developed artists, but very little has been done to nurture young artists and develop local artists. Concerning physical work space for local cultural workers and artists, Everitt (1998) suggested to revise planning and regulations about transformation of disused offices, warehouses and heritage buildings to be converted for nonmainstream arts uses (Everitt 1998, p.13). Everitt (1998)’s suggestions echoed with scholars studying urban development in other areas of the world (Evan 2001, Bille & Schulze 2006,). Bille & Schulze (2006) pointed out the concepts of “cultural planning”, “urban planning” and the importance of these ideas with the aim of revitalizing cities, especially inner cities and old industrial areas and waterfronts can be emphasized in cultural policy making in order to foster the development of “creative cities” (Landry & Bianchini 1995, Landry 2000) as well as to attract and to nurture “creative class” (Florida 2002). Bille & Schulze (2006) mentioned, “examples of cities that used such concepts in Europe include Glasgow, Newcastle, Barcelona and Bilbao” (p. 1069). This kind of planning and policy making need to extend the scope of policy design from the cultural dimensions to other different dimensions of government and public concerns, such as transportation infrastructure and regional urban renewal plans. Unlike some cities in U.S. & in Europe and Singapore, Hong Kong’s official policy concerning “adaptive reuse” of unused premises to build “art hub” to provide subsidized rates for cultural and art development was laid down in the 2009-2010 Policy Address, which “aim at providing more floor space for suitable uses to meet Hong Kong’s changing social and economic needs”, were criticized by artists and cultural commentators that the “revitalization projects” put forward in the Policy Address have pushed up the rental price of the industrial buildings since 2010 (Dai 2013).

Lee Siu-Lun

“Once the new policy was implemented back in 2010, the market reacted quickly. Not many years ago, with the city's industrial base having flown across the border, nobody was interested in industrial properties. Now industrial properties are listed among the hottest assets.” (Dai 2013) Although the “revitalization” policies has gone through some refinements in 2011 and in 2013, the criticisms and critiques continued.

The comments were mainly focused on

that the cultural policies in Hong Kong should be designed and should taken into account the peculiar political economic conditions and development paths of particular areas in the city. In recent years the cultural habitat in the industrial areas in Hong Kong changed when the rental price of the factory building was rising due to the bloom in the housing market and the rising land rent. It is observed that the occupancy of the factory buildings by artists and cultural workers is changing throughout the recent years and affecting by different external factors, such as government policies, new regulations concerning the use of industrial buildings and the increasing land rent. Some artists and cultural workers face various difficulties to survive in the industrial areas, such as in Kwun Tong and Fo Tan areas, where they moved in at the beginning of the factory relocation period. Crisis of cultural workers and artists working in the industrial areas: A case study The habitat in the industrial areas in Hong Kong is an interesting because it shows that cultural opportunities were aroused when there was economic crisis. The economic crisis and the drop of rents in industrial areas, by accident, provided lots of affordable spaces for local young artists to survive, to develop and to work together. Cultural workers and artists are interested to see how government policies react to this particular habitat and cultural development mode. Are government policies supporting the cultural interest in this sense? Or does the government adopt a “laisse faire” policy in this respect? Or does the government have other plans going in different directions? These questions interest most cultural workers and local artists. A case study of a private cultural organization called “Hidden Agenda” can help answering some of the above questions. “Hidden Agenda”, a music live house, is chosen for the case study in the paper because the experience encountered by “Hidden Agenda” and its reaction towards government policies and related regulations was widely reported in Hong Kong local mass media and in international media, such as Time Out Magazine (Hong Kong) and CNN Travel.

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Some post-80 music lovers started hidden Agenda in 2009. Hidden Agenda began with a thought of transforming a band practice room, which was situated in a Kwun Tong industrial building, into a live house for independent music (indie). A year went by, it became a local band scene’s hot spot, and a nice venue for foreign musicians as they performing on their Asia tour. The music events organized were reported by magazines and online channels like Time Out Magazine (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Magazine and CNN Travel. Hidden Agenda was picked by Time Out Magazine (Hong Kong) as the best venue in Hong Kong in 2010. However, the “Industrial Building Revitalization” act by the government affected its operation when the organizers were forced to terminate the venue because the premise was bought by land developers as encouraged by the government “revitalization” project to redevelop the Kwun Tong industrial areas. In 2010, Hidden Agenda was then needed to move because land developers bought the industrial building and dismissed tenants. The intrusion of land development was because of the government’s “Industrial Building Revitalization Project”. Hidden Agenda Live House was moved to a nearby industrial building. In the telephone interview, the spokesperson said that after a few discussions among the seven Board of Directors. “We have a final music event on the last day until 3:00am and return the key of the premise in 9:00am on the same day”. People wrote their names and words on the main door of Hidden Agenda, and the door was given to the Art Development Council as an artwork after an artists’ parade protest against industrial revitalization. Not long after the first move, in 2011, the District Lands Office/Kowloon East received a complaint about unauthorized use at some industrial premises. After the “official investigation”, the “official report” found out that the premise used by Hidden Agenda had been mainly used for musical performance and live music venue purposes and the uses in music performances are in contravention of the lease conditions since the premise is restricted to industrial or warehouse purposes. Hidden Agenda was required to remedy this breach by 21 June, 2011. The Land Department acted as the landlord to “regularize” the breach requiring that the venue to seek permission from the Town Planning Board and apply for a waiver as well as paying a fee of about HK$120,000 per year. Hidden Agenda immediately announced an official statement stating that “people come for the music, music IS the very purpose. We suffer from the lack of sufficient income from the very first day, the reality is many friends support and help out for free. We

Lee Siu-Lun

believe that this Live Hose belongs to everyone, we treasure the band sound loves we have priors to everything else” and asked for supporters. Hidden Agenda reacted in social media, such as facebook, press releases, and public forums. Time Out Magazine (Hong Kong) used the subtitle “Bureaucracy and government policy may lead to the demise of one of Hong Kong’s most-loved music venues” to report the issue on, 6 Jun 2011. Hidden Agenda Live House together with other musicians and artists in Kwun Tong formed a concern group, called the Revitalization Internalize Partnership, to continue negotiating with the government and protecting the rights of artists in the industrial area. The Revitalization Internalize Partnership group argued that an artist “has to do artistic work or performance. So, doing painting, busking, music performances are our art culture. Industrial buildings are the last resorts for us to keep this culture survive. If we have to move out, the culture will be shattered” (Khpyotha, 2010). The group called for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council to survey the needs of industrial-art tenants and insisted to help artists and raise the public awareness on hardships they face. The group blamed the lack of government’s care in cultural development in social media. “Our government cares for rich people, not us. This policy doesn’t give a damn to any kind of artists working or living in industrial buildings. We artists are like grasses under a big stone – struggle a lot to survive. Now the government is trying to step them down. Make no mistake, this revitalization policy will lose Hong Kong its art development.” (Khpyotha 2010) Epilogue The case study of Hidden Agenda shows that the industrial revitalization project initiated by the HKSAR Policy Address in 2010 caused some difficulties to small/young or nonmainstream cultural organizations. Even though the initial intention of the government policy is good, the positive result may not be achieved because of many factors, such as the external socio-economic factors, the inter-relationship of related policies and regulations in different dimensions.

The related regulations governing the land use of

industrial premises also gave such organizations hard times. The case study shows the industrial revitalization government policy, on one hand, increases the costs of artists and cultural workers already working or planning to work in the industrial areas; and the “regulations and law” concerning the use of industrial buildings, on the other hand, create restrictions and barriers for artists and cultural workers. Some “regulations and law” complicated that involve fire regulations, land use regulations, etc. and are not

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made explicit to cultural workers and artists, who are not familiar with law and legal matters.

Artists and cultural workers working in industrial areas argue that the

“revitalization policy” is intervening the “natural habitat” of the art and cultural development in industrial areas. The case study of Hidden Agenda also shows that government policies can influence cultural development and other dimensions in a community as well.

It is suggested that the government should have a thorough

planning on cultural development and about its relating policies, such as infrastructure planning, urban planning, etc. in order that small or young cultural workers can have spaces, both physical and non-physical, to nurture and develop their specialties.

References Behar, C. S. (2003). Reconstructing memories: An investigation of the relationship between mental and real space in art and architecture. Unpublished M.F.A. Thesis, The University of Texas, U.S.A. Bille, T. & Schulze, G. G. (2006). Culture in urban and regional development, in Ginsburgh V. A. & Throsby, D. (eds.) Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, Volume 1. Elsevier. Oxford: U.K. Catalyst Arts. (1996). Life/Live, Paris: Musée d’Art Moderne, p. 45 Colon, Lorne. (2006). Artist-run Manhattan Graphics Center celebrates 20 years. Downtown Express, Vol 18, Issue 52, May 12–18, 2006. Dai, Emma. (2013). A new heart for the industrial heartland, China Daily (HK edition), 15 November, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hkedition/201311/15/content_17106885.htm Evans, G. (2001). Cultural Planning. An Urban Renaissance? Routledge, London: U.K. Everitt, A. (1998). Arts policy, its implementation and sustainable arts funding: A report for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Hong Kong Arts Development Council: Hong Kong. Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class – and How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everday Life. Basic Books, New York: U.S.A. Goldberg R., (1988). Performance Art- From Futurism to the Present. Thames and Hudson. London: U.K. Grenzfurthner, J. & Bllhausen, T. (2010). Urban hacking: cultural jamming strategies in the spaces of modernity. Bielefeld: Transcript c2010. Harris, J. P. & Williams, R. J. (2011). Regenerating culture and society: architecture, art and urban style within the global politics of city-branding. Liverpool University Press. Liverpool: U.K. Johnson, Boris (2012). Cultural Metropolis: The Mayor’s cultural strategy-2012 and beyond. London UK Government. Retrieved from http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/CulturalMetropolis.pdf Khpyotha (2010). Artists to Lose Their Grounds When Policy Favors Developers. Posted in Dispatches from Hong Kong on May 11, 2010. Retrieved from http://khpyotha.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/artists-to-lose-their-grounds-when-policy-favorsdevelopers/ Kwok, Kian Woon and Low, K. H. (2002). Cultural Policy and the City-State: Singapore and the “New Asian Renaissance”. In Diana Crane, Nobuko Kawashima, and Ken’ichi Kawasaki (Ed), Global Culture: Media, Arts, Policy, and Globalization. Routledge, New York: U.S.A. pp. 151-168.

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Landry, C. (2000). The Creative City. A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. Commedia, Eathscan Publications Ltd., London: U.K. Landry, C. & Bianchni, F. (1995). The Creative City. Demos, London: U.K. Landry, Charles et al. (1996). The art of regeneration: Urban renewal through cultural activity. Comedia. London: U.K. Le Gal de Kerangal, P. (2004). Artistic collaboration and players’ identity in Web space and time. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. New York University, U.S.A. Ooi, V. (1995). The best cultural policy is no cultural policy: cultural policy in Hong Kong. Cultural Policy, Vol. 1, No.2, p. 273-287. Petri, Inga. (2013). The value of presenting: A study of performing arts presentation in Canada. Canadian Arts Presenting Association. Retrieved from http://www.capacoa.ca/valueofpresentingdoc/ValueofPresenting_Final.pdf Porter, M.E. (1990). The Competitive Advantage of Nations. New York: The Free Press. Rohloff, Ipek Kaynar. (2009). Museum Gallery Layouts and Their Interactions with Exhibition Narratives and Space Use Patterns: An Investigation of the YCBA, the MoMA and the HMA Galleries. Unpublished PhD thesis, The University of Michigan. U.S.A. Schwartz, Madelenine. (2014). The Art of Gentrification, Dissent, Winter 2014, p.5-8. Singapore Art Council (2012). Review of National Arts Council’s Arts Housing Scheme. Updated: 29 June 2012. retrieved from: http://www.nac.gov.sg/docs/default-documentlibrary/new_review_of_nac_s_arts_housing_scheme_public_report_dated_17122010__amd_2412 2010_.pdf South China Morning Post. (2012). Raising the bar on cultural affairs. 24 May, 2012. Stanistreet, Paul. (2008). A rare vocation, Adult learning, Dec 2008, Vol 20, issue 4, p.20-21. Sutton, Stacey A. (2008). Urban Revitalization in the United States: Policies and Practices. United States Urban Revitalization Research Project. Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/c2arl/pdf_files/USURRP_Phase_I_Final_Report.pdf Tzortzi, Kali (2007). Museum building design and exhibition layout: patterns of interaction, Proceedings of 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, Istanbul, 2007. Retrieved from http://www3.eng.cam.ac.uk/DesignOffice/cmt/resources/pdf/Tzortzi.pdf 陳雲 (2014) ，《香港城邦論 II: 光復本土》，香港：天窗出版。封小雲; 龔唯平 (1997) ，《香港工業 2000》，Joint Publishing. 何耀生 (2009)，《香港製造‧製造香港》，明報出版社有限公司. pp. 1 – 153. 伍麗微 (2014)，〈文化發展欠遠見政府施政捉錯用神〉，《文匯報》，[2014-01-15] Retrieved from http://paper.wenweipo.com/2014/01/15/OT1401150022.htm

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Cultural and art development in industrial areas in Hong Kong By Selene Zhang /章詩雯1

Keywords

Abstract

性別平等

本課題以台灣女性的儀式抵抗為研究主題，研究對象以台灣女性藝術的本質、現象與表徵，從而歸納出其儀式化的基本

女性主義

女性身份認同

文化特徵，進而前瞻台灣女性藝術發展走勢。在台灣藝術譜系當中，「女性藝術儀式抵抗」是以「女性身份」為文化核心，以「藝術」為表達而實施的儀式抵抗。女性藝術本身在

文化認同

父權文化

台灣在以「儀式抵抗」的各種方式，來對「主流文化」、「男權文化」、「父輩文化」及其各種文化權力進行積極的抵抗，本土化的「女性藝術儀式抵抗」在風格形式與符號表

女性藝術管理

達上，變得愈來愈多樣與豐富。然而，「性別意識」的突顯，使其在多元復雜的文化共同體開拓出自己的文化領域、贏得了文化話語權的同時，卻也不斷被政治文化所「收編」、為男權文化所排擠、為父輩文化所壓制，其抵抗儀式與「支配性意識形態」、「男權中心主義」、「傳統家庭倫理」與「消費文化」之間，形成緊張的張力關係。

台灣女性藝術的興起

一九八六年戒嚴法取消之後，台灣政府不斷以性別平等為中心修法、立法、成立婦女權益機構，同時，女性社會運動湧現，婦女團體成立，使台灣成為亞洲婦女運動的活躍地。女性藝術是婦女運動在藝術層面的文化表達，隨著「藝術創作」普及，女性藝術家與女性主義藝術家的數量與質量都在增加，在女性藝術形成自身風格并逐步被寫入藝術史的過程當中，台灣的女性主義藝術家也在不斷通過藝術與周圍世界發生關聯，叩問自身身份與現實。這些女性主義藝術與台灣的婦女運動發生呼應，代表著台灣女性的文化特徵，在逐漸明確身份的同時，在作品與展覽 1

Selene Zhang completed her MA in Cultural Management in the Chinese University of Hong Kong in June 2014.

Selene Zhang

/章詩雯

中不斷為女性發聲，傳播著性別平等和獨立的觀念；與此同時，「藝術教育」的普及，使台灣美術館中的女性觀眾數量與藝術愛好者大大增多，也使針對女性審美的藝術欣賞與管理方式愈發增多。

儘管爭論不下，在本研究中對於女性藝術的定義，仍將採用在台灣普遍被接受的，以生理層面為劃分的、女性從事的藝術創作，幷包括以女性身份認同（Female Identity）與文化認同（Cultural Identity）。

在台灣，女性藝術关注的長期缺席與關注的失卻，使女性藝術在發展的過程當中失去了關注的、焦點式的、獨具特色的管理與培育，難以通過整合市場、媒介等多重資源敦促或推進藝術發展。在時代、觀眾、環境都頗為積極的看重「藝術」的狀態下，台灣為何沒有偉大的女性藝術？近幾十年來，女性藝術在公眾視野中的缺席，歸結為其明顯的脆弱特徵：藝術家與女性藝術的地位與特點不夠明顯、獨立，其文化內涵更容易被男性文化建構所收編，被大批量的消費文化所收買，被父權文化壓制。在女性藝術家與男性藝術家競爭并受到市場衝擊的同時，女性觀賞者不斷湧入美術館購買衍生品、成為忠實會員，然而她們消費的，仍是男性的文化架構。同時，外部環境如政策、教育等忽視的重點培育也在一定程度上影響了台灣女性藝術發展。所以，儘管台灣各個畫展與聯展之中不斷出現了女性藝術家的身影，也不乏女性藝術家嘗試用男性的方式進入主體藝術的視野，女性藝術家仍然在藝術生態的邊緣和底層，她們得到的展覽機會多屬聯展，多以集體的形式發聲，缺乏獨立女性藝術家出現的機會和平台。這些都導致了女性藝術家本身對於「女性藝術家」這一名詞的拒絕和放棄。

本文將簡要闡述台灣女性藝術，對女性藝術進行初步研究與歸納定義，從而將台灣女性藝術引入學界與大眾視野。通過女性主義研究、亞文化研究的理論基礎，以文化產業生態學與文化管理為應用理論依據，將女性藝術從性別及普遍的藝術門類當中分離出來，更精確地劃分與定義，試圖梳理台灣女性藝術的發展脈絡以及女性藝術的明顯特徵。更重要的是，由於此前的各種研究基本上都是從「男性視角」出發的，而女性藝術當中的「性別意識」較其他藝術更為明顯，所以本研究將力求從「女性主義」的視角出來，從女性的角度審視女性藝術。

在本研究中，將歸納台灣女性文化特徵，討論其女性文化特徵的普遍性與在台灣文化中生存的獨特性，以從文化層面明確闡釋台灣女性藝術的對象；其次，需要對台灣女性藝術的發展本身進行梳理，以定義台灣女性藝術的對象。判定其目前藝術特徵、生存環境（包括政治、市場、消費、社會文化、人員等因素），確定台灣女性藝術發展與出現的必要性。再次，由於台灣的女性藝術在此前並未曾脫離其他藝術領域被加以討論，我們需要找到女性藝術的特徵、形態、

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方式與意義所在。最後，女性藝術發生的過程中，明確的對象、表達方式與行動等是特定藝術形成的必然條件。以西方的女性藝術理論與台灣當地女性文化反觀、評估台灣的女性藝術的文化特徵與儀式內涵。

在研究的過程當中，通過文獻探討女性的文化特徵、定義與回顧台灣女性藝術，進行女性藝術文化研究，女性主義、意識形態研究與性別研究方法觀察台灣女性藝術的對象的文化層面。以「儀式抵抗」（resistance through ritual）的「文化社會學」（Cultural Sociology）視角，深入研究台灣的「女性藝術」趨勢在整個台灣藝術生態中所處的地位，既包括女性藝術在台灣的出場、演變與未來的歷史考察，也包括其中女性亞文化的本質、特徵與結構的文化探討。在採取伯明翰學派的“亞文化”的研究方法的同時，適度借鑒芝加哥學派的社會學研究方法，女性主義的研究方法。從女性主義美學出發，本課題強調對於男性中心主義的翻轉，認定“女性儀式抵抗”已成為一種非確定性的美學。同時採取結構主義符號學與精神分析的研究方法，不僅關注“女性儀式抵抗”的內容方面，而且也關注抵抗共同體與儀式文化的符號呈現；不僅關注 “女性儀式抵抗”顯在的觀念與意識層面，同時也關注抵抗共同體與儀式文化的“潛意識”層面，試圖闡釋其得以形成與發展的深層原因。利用調研、個案分析、策展人與藝術家的深度訪談與調查問卷等形式，從文化研究角度入手，應用統計、體制研究方法，考察台灣的女性藝術特徵。

本研究仍存在諸多限制和不足，需要更進一步探討。首先，在台灣當代女性藝術的發展過程當中，由於經濟與政治環境的大不相同，其面對的女性藝術管理方式與西方仍存有距離，在不能完全挪用西方的性別文化管理的前提下，如何找到最為適恰的方式，成為研究的難點；其次，以非營利組織為原點進行的女性藝術管理過程中，政府政策、資金支持、甚至對管理的影響是不可小覷的，但由於其對於樣本的支持僅停留在資金方面，在本文中沒有具體考察；再次，台灣女性藝術協會只針對台灣當地女性藝術家進行管理，放棄了另一部份從事女性主義藝術的其他性別藝術家，所以，針對這部份藝術從業者的管理，本文並無涉及；最後，台灣女性藝術協會是台灣唯一一個女性藝術管理的組織，其管理特徵是否具有普遍性、應用性，仍需在特定環境下進一步討論。

台灣女性藝術概念、風格與發展脈絡

台灣女性藝術自一九八六年戒嚴法取消之後，在婦女運動的文化層面開始發展，女性藝術家與女性藝術在不斷形成自身的風格的同時，也尋求群體的力量，并在文化層面貼切反映了台灣婦女運動的情況，呈現台灣女性亞文化的審美與其他“反抗”的特性。

Selene Zhang

/章詩雯

宛如 1994 年編輯出版的「燃亮半邊天：港臺新女性潮」（ liang ban bian tian : Gang Tai xin nü xing chao / Wan Ru bian zhu）中從側面刻畫了台灣女性亞文化的身份認同問題，其中分多個層次介紹了台灣新女性在男性主導的文化當中的出現，第三篇“女人．藝術．情愛”收錄了大量世紀之交的女性身份與藝術身份問題，展現了台灣女性逐步在男權社會當中自我認知的脈絡。於是，我們可以看到，在上世紀八〇年代的“激情”與“戰鬥”等強烈的抵抗形象之後，女性藝術發展出了自成一格的風格。這種風格在賴幸琴于 2004 年發表的「一九九零年代台灣女性藝術研究」當中首次得以正視和總結。爾後，台灣女性藝術開始摸索其全新的方向，形成一種獨特的「她的藝術」，并愈發希求集體性的發聲：林佩淳上世紀末出版的「女藝論 : 台灣女性藝術文化現象」（Nü yi lun : Taiwan nü xing yi shu wen hua xian xiang / zhu bian Lin Peichun）中能夠發現大量整個台灣現代女性藝術家集體發聲的寶貴紀錄：通過收集大量女性藝術工作者的論文，紀錄了自上世紀七〇年代第一波婦女運動開始，到當代的多重領域、大量湧現的女性藝術家與其作品，遍及美術、劇場、舞蹈等各個方面的女性藝術活動。

1998 年，台北市立美術館主辦了「意象與美學：台灣女性藝術展」（4.18﹣9.09，1998），成為台灣美術史上第一次女性藝術作品展覽，確定了女性藝術在台灣美術界的地位，也試圖定義台灣女性藝術。盛鎧的「非同一性的她者？－由『台灣女性藝術展』所引發的一些思考」重點論述了女性藝術與女性主義的差異與同一性，以及其概念的非獨立與不確定性。

在台灣女性藝術的定義、內涵與外延發展變更的過程中，我們可以看到其中女性藝術與文化、與性別之間不斷產生的張力。林佳錚 2013 年初的論文「以酷兒精神再閱讀台灣當代藝術表現─從女性藝術發展開始」（The Expression of Contemporary Taiwanese Artunder the “Queer spirit” View Point： from the Development of Feminism Art）中提到台灣女性藝術當中的一個重要論題，即“性別意識”。結合酷兒精神的獨特內涵，描述了八〇年代婦女運動后的女性藝術發展歷程，涉及了反抗、抵抗意識以及「性別操演」等領域；與此同時，許如婷(Ju-Ting Hsu)「台灣當代女性藝術的性別覺醒與創作蘊意」、「台灣當代女性藝術的覺醒：藝術體制中的性別問題批判」（The Awakening of Contemporary Women's Q in Taiwan: A Critical Analysis of Gender Issues within the Art Structure）從性別角度探討了台灣女性藝術創作者的創作風格與台灣女性藝術的意義。在經歷了婦女解放、性別意識覺醒的過程之後，開始以「生命經驗」的創作方式表達情感、挑戰傳統藝術史的漠視。在這種情況下，「台灣女性主義藝術，性別文化與藝術表現——試論世紀之交台灣女性藝術的性別視野」（朱云霞 ; 王玉珏，艺苑, 2011, Issue 1, pp.88-91）論述了台灣女性藝術在世紀之

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交的身份、性別與文化視野；簡瑛瑛的「女兒的儀典 : 台灣女性心靈與文學, 藝術表現」（Nü er de yi dian : Taiwan nü xing xin ling yu wen xue, yi shu biao xian / Jian Yingying zhu）一書從女性主義闡述了第三世界的文學、文化及跨藝術等理論，雖然主要從文學領域出發，卻能夠從跨文化、跨學科的角度給予台灣女性藝術一定的啟發。呈現女性藝術創作者的階級、種族、年齡等相互糾葛的重要議題。相似地，在「女性特質與視覺設計之關係研究 ─ 以台灣女性設計師為例」莊舒婷 Shu-Ting Chuang （ A Research of the Relation between Feminine and Visual Communication Design—Female Designers in Taiwan as Illustrations）中，也從「女性經驗」的角度，探討「女性特質」，雖然對象皆屬台灣的視覺設計領域，卻能夠從女性藝術從業者的性格、特質、與作品關係等方面給予啟發。

女性文化理論

女性主義是研究的根源，但應當放在台灣語境下研究。楊美惠在 1988 年出版的「女性，女性主義，性革命」，應“婦女運動”而生，提出了台灣的女性主義。王雅各在 2001 年出版的「台灣婦女解放運動史」，則系統性梳理了台灣自八〇年代開始的婦女運動，涵蓋了女性主義理論、婦女性別研究和婦女運動，以說明台灣女性主義的發展。在台灣大學婦女研究室出版的「女學學誌──婦女與性別研究」（Journal of Women's and Gender Studies）系列學刊中，大量集結了台灣婦女研究與性別研究的論文，如「台灣當代女性藝術的性別覺醒與創作蘊意」、「身體、性別與性教育：女性主義的觀點」等。

與此同時，我們特別要採取「女性主義美學」（Feminist Aesthetics）的研究成果。目前女性主義美學最重要的兩個選本，一個是由 Hilde S. Hein 與 Carolyn Korsmeyer 合編的《女性視角當中的美學》（ Aesthetics in Feminist Perspective,Bloomington & Indianapolis:Indiana University Press, 1993)，另一個則是由 Peggy Z. Brand 與 Carolyn Korsmeyer 合編的《美學當中的女性主義與傳統》（Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995）。此外，還有 Janet Wolff 新近出版的《非確定的美學》（The Aesthetics of Uncertainty, New York: Columbia University Press, 2008）也屬於重要參考文獻。女性主義美學強調，女性藝術與文化並不是由男權主流文化所規定的，但女性文化所謂的「女性特質」也不過是文化及社會對女性長期塑造的結果，女性文化的「不確定美學」本身就是對於男權中心主義的拒絕與否定。「性別學與婦女硏究 : 華人社會的探索」（Xing bie xue yu fu nü yan jiu : Hua ren she hui de tan suo / Zhang Miaoqing, Ye Hanming, Guo Beilan he bian，

Selene Zhang

/章詩雯

Fanny M Cheung; Hon-ming Yip; Pui-lan Kwok 香港 : 中文大學出版社; Xianggang : Zhong wen da xue chu ban she 1995）一書中系統梳理了台灣婦女研究的蛻變與發展，從婦女解放、性別研究、女性主義歷史等角度進行重要闡述與多地域的跨界研究。

女性藝術，是亞文化的一種藝術表現，女性主義，也是亞文化當中的一個重要論題。所以在理論方面，也應當多從亞文化角度著手。西方的「亞文化」（subculture）研究，是難以窮盡當代香港女性文化藝術的各種形態的。原因在於，西方意義上的「亞文化」，在台灣還沒有獨立出整一的結構，沒有形成為統一的風格。當代台灣女性文化發展的特點就是多元化與游移性，難以用某種簡單化的亞文化結構來概括與總結，而且它已超出了「要么抵抗、要么妥協」的非此即彼模式，它更接近於「後亞文化」研究的那種折中主義。

「後亞文化」時代的女性文化研究，我們研究的主要文獻是《亞文化讀本》（ The subcultures reader ， edited by Ken Gelder and Sarah Thornton ， London : Routledge 1997），以及由安迪·班尼特（ Andy Bennett）與基思·哈恩—哈里斯（Keith Kahn-Harris）合編的《亞文化之後：對於當代青年文化的批判研究》（After Subculture: Critical Studies in Contemporary Youth Culture, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004）、保羅·霍德金斯（Paul Hodkinson）與沃爾夫岡·戴克（Wolfgang Deicke）合編的《青年文化：圖景、亞文化與族群》（Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes, London : Routledge, 2007）。在台灣女性藝術的後亞文化現象當中，活動場所更加流動化、室內化、碎片化，酒吧、夜總會、旅行、網絡等，多為娛樂消費場景；身份認同上流動性、混雜性、虛擬性，碎片化、小眾化、社群化、多元化的展現，促成身份表演與趣味區隔。最新的後亞文化讀本，我們參閱了 David Muggleton 與 Rupert Weinzierl 合編的《後亞文化讀本》（The Post-Subcultures Reader, Bloomsbury Academic, 2003）。

同樣，叛逆在西方的「反文化」（counterculture）理論，更不能深入適用於台灣，因為反文化一定要明顯具有取代主流價值的政治色彩，而台灣女性藝術在當代多以一種“她者”的平和身份出現。

Peter

Worsley

撰寫的《知識：文化，反文化，亞文化》

（Knowledges: culture, counterculture, subculture, New York: New Press, 1997）這本專著，對於反文化與亞文化的區分、交叉與關聯，進行了明確解析。大多台灣女性文化並不具有這類「反」的特質。由於主流意識形態的壓制與一統文化傳統的積澱，還有「父輩文化」的壓抑，目前尚待成熟的極端化的台灣女性藝術，往往將其中的女性亞文化表現為一種介於「反與不反」之間的內在張力，特別是市場的吞噬功能，使得台灣女性藝術的「反抗意識」在一定意義上被市場所贖買了。事實上，隨著政治理想的模糊化，大規模的反叛群體在逐步消失，

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特別是女性文化群體沒有了可依託的基礎，那種街頭展現方式也變得衰微，轉而走向及「性別操演」，從而潛入到了各種小眾藝術領域與小型的娛樂消費場景之中，這也是台灣女性藝術當中的獨特性所在。

由於儀式抵抗多採取審美化的形式呈現「女性主義」的內涵，我們特別要採取「女性主義美學」（Feminist Aesthetics）的研究成果。由 Hilde S. Hein 與 Carolyn Korsmeyer 合編的《女性視角當中的美學》（ Aesthetics in Feminist Perspective,Bloomington & Indianapolis:Indiana University Press, 1993)，與由 Peggy Z. Brand 與 Carolyn Korsmeyer 合編的《美學當中的女性主義與傳統》（ Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995）闡釋了目前女性主義美學的發展方向。同時， Janet Wolff 新近出版的《非確定的美學》（ The Aesthetics of Uncertainty, New York: Columbia University Press, 2008）也屬於重要參考文獻。女性主義美學著述中強調，女性藝術與文化並不是由男權主流文化所規定的，但女性文化所謂的「女性特質」也不過是文化及社會對女性長期塑造的結果，女性文化的「不確定美學」本身就是對於男權中心主義的拒絕與否定。

「女性儀式抵抗」的文化特徵

台灣女性藝術當中的主體（subject）的身份，以及其中「儀式抵抗」的女性文化所顯示的承諾（Commitment）、表象（Appearance）與自我（Self），不斷顯示出抵抗、收編與本真性（Authenticity）。這種自我的身份，就是在台灣女性藝術的儀式化的過程當中得以保存的，而身份又決定其所採取的儀式化行為，從而形成了一種內在互動的關聯。女性儀式抵抗對於主流文化與大眾文化都有一定的影響，但是這種影響往往是以對體制的渴望和政治投合形式出現，當然，在主流文化進行收編與大眾文化進行收買之後，被改編的女性亞文化又對其原本的分享者起到了一定的反作用力。

台灣女性藝術與「支配性意識形態」彼此的互動抵抗自上世紀中期開始勃興。台灣八〇年代末期政治解嚴，婦女思潮傳播廣泛，以“與男性平起平坐”的思想為主要目標，影響著婦女運動和女性藝術潮流的發展。S．霍爾認為亞文化是「對一種前革命的社會、政治和組織問題的後革命的文化反應。」我們可以看到，在早期，台灣女性有一部份非常激進前衛的群體，也採取了傳統的「政治抵抗儀式」。與此同時，具有女性的獨特氣質，特別善於利用女性的身體表達。這皆說明，在「政治抵抗儀式」當中，女性藝術家更善於使用自己的女性身體來對抗政治。

Selene Zhang

/章詩雯

爾後，在一部份女性藝術家仍堅持閨閣創作的同時，另一部份女性藝術家得以脫離舊體制和三從四德的價值觀影響：至九〇年代，是台灣女性藝術從性別自覺到文化自覺、從潛意識場景到歷史性場景、從菁英意識到底層儀式、從差異性苦惱到差異性維護，即從藝術主題的女性自覺到藝術語言的女性自覺之傳播過程，致使女性地位有了提升的機會。2 這時，具有較強的操縱性和可操作性的「個人主義」的成功學變得流行與普及，消費享樂的休閒愉悅追求正在成為主導，其中傳媒影響、名星崇拜、個人成功、隱私空間擴張、自戀式懷舊等風格與符號成為主流，這就在一定意義上消解了女性藝術當中的抵抗意識。在這個意義上，主流政治意識形態與商業化的社會認同之間，形成了某種「同謀關係」，從而共同作用於台灣的女性藝術，使其出現了「去政治化」的趨勢。然而，逃避政治也是一種政治態度，甚至就是一種深層的反政治化（Anti-politicalization）。所以，實際上，台灣女性藝術是以另一種更為隱蔽的方式來進行「政治反抗」，這也不斷呼應著女權主義運動在台灣的深入和展開，女性藝術也可以成為滋生女權主義的溫床。

當然，女性亞文化不同於男性文化的最重要特徵，就在於他們更趨向於消費與享樂，對政治採取了模糊與曖昧態度，對男權也採取了順從和逃避的姿態，但是女性抵抗仍以多元化的姿態而無所不在。「大眾文化」與「消費文化」構成了影響台灣女性藝術的重要因素。

女性藝術在婦女運動的影響下逐漸出現自己的輪廓，通過身體、性來大膽表達自身，以一種凝視與反凝視的姿態奠定自己的發言權力。在塑造女性身體、再現自我軀體的過程中呈現政治的、文化的、個人陳述式的或生活化的女性。雖然以這樣張揚的姿態自我表達，但是，仍有台灣的女性藝術家們更願意被人稱為「藝術家」而非「女性藝術家」，她們也會自覺地將自己與其他弱勢社群自然地連接，將其作為自己的同盟者或友伴關係探討。女性藝術家也在驕傲著、不斷表達和闡釋自我身份，向外界宣稱女性立場：「作為一個女性藝術創作者，是值得驕傲的。當所有主流都在歷史上錦上添花的時候，Her story 正在等待著滋潤。」 3 如吳瑪俐教授自 1999 年開始「心靈被單」與「玩布工作坊」、「心靈被單」項目，將婦女與社群聯繫起來，認為女性藝術也屬於社會中「弱勢群體」。

消費時代的來臨還伴隨著新媒介的誕生，台灣女性藝術正是不斷追溯新技術浪潮的一種新文化，其文化群體非常善於利用新媒體技術來進行創作和表達，技術本身也早就了一種文化儀式。這 2

許如婷：《跨藝術論述：⼥女性身體的書寫、再現之多元面向》，見《2009 第⼀一節台灣⼥女性藝術協會跨藝術研討會》 3

見附錄「台灣⼥女性藝術家訪談」

The Journal of Theatrex Asia, Vol. 1:1

種技術在某種層面上幫助台灣女性藝術更快地普及，應用社交網絡不斷普及，而同時給更多人以參與到藝術創作中的機會和接觸藝術家的渠道。所以，超文本、多媒體、Flash、在線遊戲、搜索技術、SNS 社會化媒體等手段，都成為了該亞文化群體駕輕就熟的武器，他們通過社交網絡、視頻分享站點、在線遊戲、 iPod 、手機形成了嶄新的「文化共同體」（ cultural community）。

對於當今追逐的支配性的意識形態觀念、知識生產方式、參與社會勞動的途徑、衣食住行的消費方式等日常生活層面的深入研究，這就是著名文化研究者雷蒙 · 威廉斯（ Ramond Williams）所指出的——「文化是日常生活」。「抵抗儀式」本身，已經成為了女性藝術共同體的基本「生活方式」（way of life）。台灣的女性藝術家在為自我立言的時候，口徑非常統一，無一不認為是複雜的政治、社會與文化問題，認為女性藝術應當以一種包容的生活形態，與其他藝術形式共存于廣闊的社會體制當中、出現在公眾的生活之中。如藝術家謝鴻鈞認為，「我們不需要跟隨男性的步伐、要超越他們。因為再怎麼超越，我們都有一個 authority，有一個制度。但是身為一個女性藝術創作者，基本上就是要對抗整個制度，但這個制度也不應該存在在女性自己的生命歷程當中，而是把這個制度磨成粉撒開來，每個人都有一個能接受的層面。」吳瑪俐認為藝術系統本身的奠定需要再做定奪，「藝術系統應該不僅停留在西方、教科書、男權當中，而這種改變“涉及到教育、權利、階級權利，或者有些人很喜歡談論的’文化公民權’。”因此在我後來的大部份工作中，我會將藝術變成一種媒介，通過這種媒介能夠把不同的社群能夠找到他們自己的聲音。」賴瑛瑛認為女性藝術應該關注的是「全人類的關懷」，是「在體制內的運作，不論是策展，還是對不同族群的文化的了解、尊重。」這種介入式的看法，即波洛克所主張的「女性主義介入歷史」並不是要製造一個「女性主義藝術」的類別，而是要拆解藝術實踐所深植、藝術家生活于其中的社會上不公平的性別、社會、政治、文化和意識形態結構。4

這種渴求在實踐中的顯示即女性藝術家在展覽中所佔的比重。這似乎成為一種身份的證明。賴瑛瑛在談到女性藝術家參與的展覽，「希望能夠有女性藝術家占 1/3 甚至一半。」。同時，她們渴望被收藏界承認、被家庭鼓勵、得到世界的認可。

陳香君著，周靈芝，項幼榕譯：《紀念之外：⼆二⼆二⼋八事件．創傷與性別差異的美學》初版. 臺北市：臺北⼥女性藝術協會，典藏藝術家庭, 2014.01. p42

Selene Zhang

/章詩雯

「女性反抗儀式」的文化存在層面

從筆者的初步研究來看，台灣女性藝術的「反抗儀式」的文化存在層面還可以大致進行劃分。我們大致將之分為「消費化」（consumerization）、「藝術化」（artification）與「政治化」（ politicalization ）三個層面，這些層面逐漸變成作為動態過程的「儀式化」（ritulization），而且共同的趨勢便是，逐漸從內在充滿意義的東西而正在演化為某種空洞的形式。這種形式在儀式化的形態中得以保存，又同時決定其所採取的儀式化行為，從而形成了一種內在互動的關聯。台灣的女性儀式抵抗對於主流文化與大眾文化都有一定的影響，但是這種影響往往是以政治投合和參與商業的形式出現，當然，在主流文化進行收編與大眾文化進行收買之後，被改編的女性亞文化又對其原本的分享者起到了一定的反作用力。

在對「儀式抵抗」的分析當中，我們關注女性藝術中的身份、「選擇符號學」的問題、「風格分化」的基礎問題、風格與群體認同的問題，如此等等，試圖將抵抗的女性風格一一加以呈現出來。當然，這些分析都是建基在詳實的文化事實研究的基礎之上的，這種研究並不是僅從理論出發的，而是以台灣女性亞文化的現實發展作為基礎，通過「自下而上」的方法的進行現象梳理、解析闡釋與理論總結。

首先，在「消費化」層面，自九十年代之後開始的後現代情景使女性藝術的反抗呈現出矛盾的形態：既要反抗大眾文化的潮流，又對其充滿了順從。儘管女性藝術家多以小眾、平和的形式進行小範圍內的交流與活動，但她們仍在積極進行群體聯展。在申述自身價值與女性藝術身份的同時，女性本身卻已在某種程度上為市場所驅動，從而融入了「收買」女性亞文化的「市場機制」當中。女性藝術創作的群體，雖然從表面上看是遠離乃至拒絕了商業化的通俗主潮，但是卻以購買的方式仍然被納入到市場邏輯當中，並逐漸形成了其自身的「消費決定生產」的模式。

其次，在「藝術化」層面，台灣女性藝術家的身份認同與不斷舉辦的巡展，對於男性中心主義進行了反抗，她們所開展的工作坊也對西式的男權教育體系提出了挑戰，將女性本身的身份認同融入到了藝術層面，對於傳統主義進行了嫁接。這種藝術語言在當今的女性藝術家當中變成了「通用儀式」。

再次，從「政治化」的層面來看，台灣女性藝術的創作與引導者，他們更傾向於去做反抗中的一個標誌性的形象，然而，在被「標誌化」之後卻往往只能依循前面的成功模式，而去投合喜愛他們的受眾的喜好，而難有新的創造並使得反抗在「儀式化」之後變得重複而無力。女性藝

The Journal of Theatrex Asia, Vol. 1:1

術所呈現的亞文化，相對男性化文化而言，面對政治採取了更為價值中立的態度，明顯缺乏意識形態的相關訴求，往往以消費來取替政治。如此種種，恰恰說明了，當今台灣女性藝術是一種矛盾的存在，亟待對於這類文化進行深入的解讀、闡釋與定性。