Soon, Simon (2020) Descending into foreignness: Datuk Fatimah and the home of thependatang. South East Asia Research, 28 (2). pp. 140-163. ISSN 0967-828X, DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/0967828X.2020.1771200.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
In the worship ofkeramatsamongst the Chinese community of Malaysia, Datuk Fatimah bears some unique characteristics: she is identifiable as a female figure who wears the hijab and conforms to the ideals of a pious Muslim woman, even as she is invested with a crown that signifies her temporal sovereignty. This essay frames the history of the architecture of the temple devoted to her and the surrounding village in relation to a 1958 essay on `Odd Houses' by German architecture historian Julius Posener, the founder of the first architecture programme in Kuala Lumpur. `Odd Houses' offers a mode of seeing that embraces the permutative and playful idioms of modernism. Rather than seeing modernity as a set of predetermined characteristics and conditions, the essay explores the modern as a practice of elective affinity, through which we may explore the heterochrony of migration and its art history. The accounting of time is premised on the mytho-poetic language of ritual possession, which offers a reading of temple as a historical record. This record communicates a relayed cultural bond between two working class migrant communities (Chinese and Javanese) across the twentieth century.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | None |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Chinese temple; Race relations; Julius Posener; Keramat; Modern architecture; Malaysia |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Creative Arts (formerly known as the Cultural Centre) |
| Depositing User: | Ms Zaharah Ramly |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Nov 2025 06:59 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Nov 2025 06:59 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/36767 |
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