The South-east Asian ’Living Museum’ and its Antecedents
Author(s)
Hitchcock, Michael; Stanley, Nick; Siu, King Chung
Abstract
Ethnographic cultural village museums can now be found throughout many Asia-Pacific countries. Although based on western museums, they often have differing underlying principles to their western counterparts, with national politics playing a leading role. In South-east Asian, tow significant examples of this form of museum are located in China (under the China Folk Culture Villages) and Indonesia (The Tamin Mini Museum). A major part of this chapter is given over the discussions on key issues, such as architectural representation, use of costume, and the integration of performance and traditional cultural expressions. Some relate to the training and management of the human resources, whilst others are associated with the actual selection of the minority nationalities that are included. Finally, there are those linked to visitor profiles, the expectations of these visitors and how they interact with the displays.
