Topics S,SEASN

Human Rights, Censorship and the Arts in Southeast Asia

In recent years, the discourse and law of “human rights” has reshaped struggles for social justice and individual freedom.  Nearly all nations, including all Southeast Asian ones, have passed laws to comply with international “human rights” commitments.  At the same time, Southeast Asian nations continue to cite national security, respect for authority, public safety and public decency (often within some overarching assertion of “Asian” values) to justify regulating and limiting such rights.  Upon this complex legal and cultural battleground, Southeast Asian artists assert and test their “rights” to artistic expression and freedom from censorship.

This course explores the struggle for “expressive rights” within Southeast Asian performance and film practices.  We will address the mechanisms (legal and extra-legal) used to regulate and censor film and live performance, and consider whether “human rights” can be effective in challenging such mechanisms.  We will look at banned performance texts and videos of performances and films, and discuss strategies employed by artists and arts institutions to avoid censorship or to self-censor.  

Case studies will be drawn from throughout the region, including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Singapore.