Inventing the Performing Arts

The dominant attention of scholars for performing arts in Indonesia associated with so-called 'traditional' performing art forms related to the courts of Java, has led to a gap in our knowledge about performing arts and popular entertainment during colonial times.Matthew Cohen, a scholar of theatre studies, has devoted much of his career to filling such gaps in our knowledge.Inventing the Performing Arts: Modernity and Tradition in Colonial Indonesia surveys chronologically the development of popular entertainment from the early nineteenth century until Indonesia's independence.The book is set up around three distinct parts, starting with a survey of various forms of entertainment from the nineteenth century in 'Common Ground for Arts and Popular Entertainments' .The second part entitled 'Maelstrom of Modernity' tells the history of the development of performing arts during the heyday of colonialism in relation to the changing world, the rise of modernity and nationalism.The third part of the book, 'Japanese Occupation and 'Greater Asian' Modernity' , discusses the impact of the Japanese occupation on the performing arts in colonial Indonesia.Cohen concludes with some reflections on significant developments in contemporary performing arts and their relation to colonial history.Cohen applies a method of archival research, combined with cultural theory.His thorough browsing of newspapers in Dutch and Indonesian yields detailed information and lays bare a colorful and lively picture of myriad forms of popular entertainment.Many of these forms were looked down upon by the elite and consequently have not received the attention they deserve in academic studies.From Cohen we learn about military music, the circus, Japanese and Chinese influences on performing arts, Parsi theatre, dog and monkey shows, social dance and jazz, to name a few, and the exchange between these forms of entertainment and the influence they had on local forms of music and entertainment.Cohen's eye for the social fabric and networks of performing arts and entertainment is interesting and refreshing.We get a sense of the links between companies, troupes, and artists in colonial Indonesia, Malaya, China, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East.The world seems to have been dynamic and highly interconnected.We discover that popular entertainment also had a dark and dangerous side.Newspaper reports show that the 'public theaters of Deli, Padang, Palembang, and Bengkulu that hosted bangsawan, Chinese opera, and related popular entertainment were rough places, associated with crime, prostitution, and vio

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Colonialism · Epistemology · Literature · Modernity · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Asian Studies and History · History · Philosophy