The Peranakan Chinese is a Chinese diasporic community with a unique hybrid culture of Chinese, Malay, and European influences concentrated in the Straits Settlements (Malacca, Penang, and Singapore) of Malaya (before the independence of Singapore). It has inherited the Chinese patrilineal system but Nonyas within the Peranakan Chinese (also known as Baba-Nonya) culture fill an interesting space in Chinese patriarchy. This article explores the world of the Nonyas and identifies three cultural constructions of the Nonya: garang/li hai (feisty/crafty and manipulative), poonsu (resourceful), and toh tiap (victimized), specifically drawn out from the television serial, The Little Nonya; but these constructions have also been widely represented and documented in the arts and cultural expressions, particularly through the existing literature and portrayal of Nonyas in popular culture. We explore the cultural meanings of the Nonya through gendered patterns and identities which come out of a specific historical context of the Straits Settlements at the turn of the 20th century—the Peranakan Golden Age, where colonialism, wealth, and education shaped its matrifocal Peranakan culture. We employ Sylvia Walby’s theoretical framework of private and public patriarchy, specifically through the structures of household production and culture to analyze the situation of the Nonyas, arguing that Nonyas were not so much oppressed by men but by women; and yet, they were also privileged and valued in the Peranakan culture. Their privileged position allowed them to negotiate and challenge Chinese patriarchy.
The contemporary Korean films and dramas that featuring a body of new representation of pretty boys or what are popularly known as metrosexuality have challenged the conventional association of Korean masculinity to the prevalent macho images. This article intends to focus on the soft-spoken, delicate and neat man featured in The King and the Clown ( 2005) by examining the cinematic figuration of such masculinity in order to reveal the underpinning ideology of capitalism within the film through the mechanism of representation. It is argued that the construction of pretty boy in this film serves to promote a non-conformative male identity and yet subjects itself to a manipulative consumerist gaze which embedding the ideological position of selling 'prettiness' as commodification of masculinity.
Namewee, a contemporary filmmaker in Malaysia, has made himself increasingly popular since 2007 by criticising the government and posting racist remarks in social media. In 2011, Namewee produced and directed a controversial film: Nasi Lemak 2.0. Given the highly racialised and politicised backdrop of this work, this article intends to examine the subtext of the film as a significant cultural artefact used to reconstruct meaning and identity in the context of a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysian society. The main argument presented here is that the subtext of Nasi Lemak 2.0 offers a spectatorial position strongly linked to the Chinese male protagonist. This ethnicised spectatorship provides a symptomatic field with which to reconstruct and reinforce Malaysia's long held racial ideology which is rooted in the country's colonial past.
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