• Date: November 2nd, Thursday, 2023 14:00 – 18:00 (KST) / 13:00 – 17:00 (MYT)
• Location: Youngone Hall (Room 210), SNUAC (Bldg. 101) / Online via Zoom & YouTube

2023 SNUAC Humanities Weekly Event
Dungsil-Dungsil AsIA Culture Festival: Malaysia Video Exhibition

Superdiversity: Malaysian Everyday Life

• Co-hosts: AsIA Humanities Dissemination Center, SNUAC / School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia
• Malay food will be prepared on-site
• Inquiries: snuac_hk_lhc@snu.ac.kr / 02-880-2079

Malaysia is a society known for its most representative cultural diversity. Cultural diversity has commonly been defined through diverse ethnic, linguistic, and religious practices. In Malaysia, these elements intersect, revealing a more complex dynamic of cultural diversity. Malaysia exemplifies a phenomenon called superdiversity, which intensifies due to globalization and technological advancements. This Malaysian society showcases how superdiversity manifests in urban spaces, portraying the daily lives of Malaysians through their language, religion, food, sports, and more. We aim to capture this diversity in a video and engage with the audience to discuss the socio-cultural practices contextualized in modern Malaysian everyday life.

Timetable

14:00 – 14:20

• Moderator
  Choi, Kyunghee (HK Research Professor, Seoul National University Asia Center)
• Opening speech
  Chae, Suhong Chae (Director, Seoul National University Asia Center)
• Congratulatory remarks
  Adeline Johns-Putra (Head of School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University, Malaysia)
• Welcome speech
  Kim, Ho (Principal, AsIA Knowledge Dissemination Center, Seoul National University Asia Center)

14:20 – 14:30 Photo Time

14:30 – 14:40 Coffee Break

14:40 – 15:40 Presentations

• Moderator: Jung, Hojai (SNU Asia Center Visiting Scholar)

After earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business administration from Korea University and Kyung Hee University, the journalist and later Ph.D. candidate sought to gain a deep understanding of Korea through encounters with a variety of people, including locals, foreigners, people from different backgrounds, and both established politicians and emerging talents. These experiences focused on exploring the tensions between Korea’s traditional society and the modern “New Korean”. It also explored the potential notion of “Asia” in addressing Korea’s ongoing challenges. This journey spanned several Asian 0countries, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia, and went beyond Korea, China, and Japan. Along the way, influential figures such as Thaksin (Thailand) and Mahathir (Malaysia) were interviewed. In 2023, a Ph.D. program in Comparative Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS) was successfully completed, with a focus on Asian media, particularly state-run media in Myanmar and South Korea. Then, continues to be interested in comparative studies with a special focus on Southeast and Northeast Asia, especially in the areas of media and cultural policy. Korean popular culture is a particular fascination, and several books have been written, including “The Asian Age Comes Like K-Pop (2020)” and “Seeing the K Again (2021)”.

14:40 – 15:20 Presentation 1

• Presenter 1: Kim, Tae-Sik (taesik.kim@monash.edu)
  Lecturer, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia

After graduating from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, he obtained degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Communication Studies from the State University of New York (Buffalo) and the University of Oklahoma, respectively. For the following 10 years, he taught media and communication courses at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. In 2022, he joined Monash University Malaysia, where he currently serves as the course director of its Master’s Program in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, teaching courses related to digital media communication. His primary research interests centre on discursive urban landscapes, changes in communication practices amid human mobility, and visually represented urban and media cultures. He has recently published studies analyzing the discursive urban landscapes in Daerim-dong and Seongsu-dong. Currently, he is conducting research on the changing urban landscapes in Malaysia influenced by Korean media while simultaneously exploring the topic of Korean education migration in Malaysia.

[Presentation]

The increasing cultural diversity in Malaysian Urban Spaces

This presentation aims to discuss how cultural diversity has been increasing in urban spaces in Malaysia due to human, cultural, and technological mobilities. This diversity, layered in the urban landscapes, reveals both cultural tensions and coexistence within the urban environment. The presentation will explore the cultural discourses represented by the diversity in Malaysian society and discuss whether it can contribute to a deeper understanding of Asia through the lens of Malaysia.

[Video]

The increasing cultural diversity in Malaysian Urban Spaces

• Focus 1: An Ordinary Day In The Life Of Young Malaysians
• Focus 2: Urban Landscapes
• Focus 3:  Commerce

A young adult’s working day, Weekend day with typical leisure activities, Student’s day, Super Diversity’s subtopics : language, religion, food, sports, ethnicity, Urban landscapes, Traditional pockets such as Kampung Baru, Nature: Bukit Nanas, Lake Gardens area, the KLCC park area, Highways, Commercial spaces and practices, Tiny newspaper stands, Traditional markets, Various mobile vendors, Shop houses, Malls, Digital businesses and so on.

15:30 – 16:10 Presentation 2

• Presenter 2: Chrishandra Sebastiampillai (Lecturer, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia)

Chrishandra Sebastiampillai is Lecturer in Film, Television and Screen Studies (FTVSS) at Monash University Malaysia. Her research interests include stardom and celebrity, the romance genre and its film couples, and Southeast Asian cinema. Her recent publications include works on Henry Golding’s Eurasian stardom, an upcoming book on the ‘love teams’ or film couples of popular Philippine cinema, and Philippine stardom. She is currently working on projects that examine the representation of Malaysian heritage houses onscreen and the precarious state of heritage cinema buildings in Malaysia. Her teaching reflects a growing interest in South Korean stardom and media, incorporating both into a foundational unit within the FTVSS major that is popular among students within and outside the School of Arts and Social Sciences.

[Presentation]

Visualising Heritage in Penang

This presentation offers an overview of the video project, with a particular focus on the historical and cultural heritage of Penang. Rooted in the visualization project, it explores how various cultural heritages, each stemming from distinct historical experiences in Malaysia, are embedded in the everyday spaces of the historic city of Penang. Additionally, it introduces the diverse daily practices observed among multiple ethnic and religious groups in Malaysia.

[Video]

Visualising Heritage in Penang

Focus 1: A Weekend in Penang

Visualization of cultural heritage documented by a young Malaysian film professor during a weekend spent in Penang where the Malaysian superdiversity is captured

16:10 – 16:20 Coffee Break

16:20 – 17:40 Discussion

Designated discussion for 15-20 min., then Q&A session

• Discussant 1: Kenny Kihyung Bae (kihyungbae@gmail.com)

Senior Producer, Korean Broadcasting System

Kenny Kihyung Bae is a renowned TV Producer at KBS, Korea. He has produced a lot of cultural & entertainment programs. He worked as a Head of international relations at KBS. Currently he is producing Global Hallyu program <Quiz on Korea>. He worked at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union in Malaysia as an international project expert. He has served as a keynote speaker and jury at the International Emmy Awards, Banff Awards, Asia TV Awards, and Malaysian Walk the Dog Documentary Festival. As a Korean Wave content expert, he has conducted Master classes in Malaysia, the Netherlands, China, Argentina, and Tanzania, etc. His publications include 『Content Will Set You Free』, 『MCN』, 『International Co-production』, 『Understanding OTT Services』, 『Documentary Pitching』, 『Television Content Market and Global Producing』, 『Borderless TV, Competing Programs』etc.

• Discussant 2: Choi ,Seoyeon (Seoyeonc1@gmail.com)

Editor of Diversity+Asia, an web magazine issued by SNUAC

She obtained a doctoral degree in anthropology at University of Virginia. Her doctoral dissertation discusses the influence of (post)colonialism and nationalism on Malaysian education policies, and how they frame class, ethnic and gender divisions in the society. She has been teaching introductory courses about Southeast Asian histories and societies at Seoul National University. She is currently conducting research regarding gender, labor, environment, and popular culture in Southeast Asia, focusing on Malaysia and Indonesia.

• Discussant 3: Bae, Yoonho (yoonho8473@hanmail.net)

Professor, Dept. of Performance and Video Creation, College of Arts, Chung-Ang University

He majored in industrial design at Hongik University and received a diploma in production design (master’s degree in practice) from Konald Wolff, Babelsberg, Germany. He is currently a professor in the Department of Performance and Video Creation at Chung-Ang University’s College of Arts, and his main areas of activity include film production, space directing, and space/exhibition planning, planning various cultural and artistic projects.