South of China and East of India: Teaching the Arts of Southeast Asia

The term Southeast Asia is at once highly problematic, but also very useful when identifying a region that encompasses eleven sovereign nations, over 800 native languages, and where animism, ancestor worship, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity co-exist—sometimes harmoniously but also at times with violent collisions. The nexus of such diversity was, and still is, the result of continued and sustained local and global interactions. There is no question among those who study Southeast Asian art of its global nature. Arts of the region reflect such “glocal” traditions, which often make it challenging to create a cohesive and linear narrative for the purposes of teaching. This may explain why so few universities and colleges offer survey courses related to the artistic and architectural traditions of Southeast Asia. The question of how to examine and come to a better understanding of the uniqueness of art from this region, without relying on external historical events that allow us to create a unifying narrative, is a difficult one. This talk will examine the challenges of teaching the Arts of Southeast Asia when the center is able to shift (India and the role of Indianization, China and the role of Sinocization, and Europe and America and the role of Colonization) but the countries of Southeast Asia always seem to remain on the periphery.