Chuah Chun Sum, Kelvin;
(2024)
‘Malaysia will have come to London’: discovering and activating twentieth century exhibitions of Malaya-Malaysia in London.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
In this PhD dissertation, I research a selection of primarily unknown and nearly forgotten twentieth century transnational Malaya-Malaysian exhibitions in London. The materials relating to these exhibitions remain largely hidden, are lost, or dispersed, making this academic research more challenging and urgent. I do this then, as an effort to reclaim these exhibitions per se, but also to foreground their potential as exhibitions to delineate, particularise and cultivate stories connecting the long relationship between the British Empire and Malaya, the Commonwealth and Malaysia, the politics of colonial exhibitions as they turn into nation-state exhibitions, and the silent role of such exhibitions in international relations. Informed by predominantly English archival resources, I aim to (1) unearth these overlooked exhibitions and to embody the presentations with fuller stories, (2) rethink their objectives and function to develop critical and politically-induced encounters with them, and (3) by extension, to position exhibitions and exhibition-making as exercises in transnational nation-building. To these ends, I dive into entrenched political intimations of the exhibitions’ organisers: the British Empire and their inheritor, the later Commonwealth of Nations (known as the Commonwealth or the Association) and the Malaysian government. Explaining transnational exhibitions becomes part of my research endeavour - correlating an understanding of Malaya-Malaysia through unexplored exhibition connections (which are often lateral) with the Empire-Commonwealth. This dissertation is not about asking what I want from transnational exhibitions but rather focuses on what transnational exhibitions mean and what they do. Such an ambition/direction stems from my wish to discuss politics and exhibitions, and, by way of such research, thinking, and questioning, as a chance to open a relatively new path: Exhibition Studies. It is my intention to nurture this less-trodden field to study by way of exhibitions of/on Malaya-Malaysia in London in the twentieth century, a field of study that might also be offered as a model for others in the future looking to research transnational exhibitions.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | ‘Malaysia will have come to London’: discovering and activating twentieth century exhibitions of Malaya-Malaysia in London |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10194062 |
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