Cultural studies at crossroads

The ACS conference 2010 held in Lingnan University between June 17th and 21st is full of 'discursive density' as one of the participants described.

The 'guru's that made their names even bigger during this conference are, to name a few, Meaghan Morris, Tony Bennet, Lawrence Grossberg. However, I prefer those who are actually transforming theories into praxis as Katherine Gibson that promotes ethical performance rather than cynicial critiques, PUN Ngai at Poly U working on the Nongmingong issue in China in an enthonological approach, and last but not least, Vinod Raina who spends the past two decades on the primary education in the multicultural Indian context.

 

As Gibson contends, cultural critics are coping with the STRONG theories that explain everything and the WEAK theories that tend to describe instead. While Morris also points out that these two sets are not mutually exclusive but inte-reciprocal in the discursive constitutioning of knowledge. This is what I found the most distinctive fact when I jump between panels that are either heavily theoretized or vividly descripitve. What is proposed at the end of the conference is the value-creating gestures that sees 'culture' not only as a given but rather a transformative complex.

Citizenship, public sphere, nation-branding being the hot issues, many presentation celebrate the bottom-up social movement in the Asian countries as Malaysia, Korea, Japan, and China. However, I find Prof. Pang Laikwan's paper on the cultural politics versus cultural policy in China sadly true, considering the tightened control over popular discourses and the cooptation of intellectuals.

What impresses me most is the fact that quite a few researchers are trying to make a difference in the Chinese context such as Zheng Bo's curation of independant art project called Karibu Islands with the queer community in Beijing. His presentation about the independent art and publicness in contemporary China using the Stars Exbition as a case is really articulate and thought provoking.

http://arthubasia.org/archives/situating-socially-engaged-art-in-china/%20Zheng%20Bo's%20work

I have been trying really hard not to cross the line of political correctness, yet my attempts seem to be an endless concession to my integrity. However, as Gramsci says, intellectuals shall be pessimist in thinking, but optimist in action. I think that's what keeps the cultural critics on the track.