Jessica Tsaiji LYU-HADA
＊＊1 . Introduction
This research deals with the art of ethnic Chinese who were driven to Singapore, part of the British Straits Settlements, from the 1930＇s to late 40＇s by war. The focus is on Lim Hak Tai （1893－1963）, the founder of one of the most influential art school of Southeast Asia, NAFA（Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts）. In order to discuss the issues in a broader sense, this paper also presents the artworks of one artist from the next generation, Tan Tee Chie （1928－2011）.
Like Lim Hak Tai, most of the diaspora artists became teachers of the schools founded by Chinese communities. It was through these schools that the younger generations learned the cultural values of their homeland that shaped their identity. However, the birth of Communist China in 1949 and the anti-communist stance of colonial government challenged Chinese diaspora to redefine their relation with their motherland. The concern of
＊ This article is based on the oral presentation given at AAS-in-Asia, June 26, 2017,
Seoul.
＊＊Jessica Tsaiji Lyu-Hada （羽田ジェシカ）is a 非常勤講師 of Fukuoka University.
this paper is how artists responded to the sociopolitical changes, and how they strived to localize and delocalize at the same time, that is to say, not to become marginalized either in the world or in Singapore.
This paper will first introduce the background of the study then discuss the socio-historical significance of ethnic Chinese art as demonstrated in the artworks of Lim Hak Tai and Tan Tea chie.
2 . Existing Scholarship
Regarding the art of the 1950s, there were several pioneering types of exhibitions presented by the early 2000＇s. The curators made significant contributions in discovering yet unknown artworks and introducing them to the art world, paving the road for the future examination of the context in which the artworks were made1. The exhibition Errata held in 2004
was the first one to contextualize artworks of the period and to raise the issues of national identity in art. Errata was curated by P-10 based on Koh Nguang How＇s research2. Following this line, Seng Yu Jin curated an
exhibition to view the art of 1950s in the context of Malayan Emergency3.
Malayan Emergency was the guerrilla war fought between the Malayan
1 Ushiroshoji Masahiro, Rawanchaikul Toshiko ed., The Birth of Modern Art
in Southeast Asia: Artists and Movements, Fukuoka City Museum, 1997. History Through Print: Woodblock Prints in Singapore, Singapore History Museum, Aug 20-Dec 30,1998; Fan, Joyce, Social Commentary in Prints during the 1950s and Early 1960s, unpublished Master of Arts thesis, Pratt Institute, New York, 2000; Singapore in Prints: A Historical Narrative Through Woodblock Prints, National University of Singapore Museum, Feb., 2002: Fukuoka Asian Art Museum / Rawanchaikul Toshiko ed., Nanyang 1950-65: Passage to Singaporean Art, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, 2002.
2 P 10, Errata, fi rst exhibition at P-10, 10 Perumal Road, Singapore, 2004.
3 Seng Yu Jin ed., From Words to Pictures: Art During the Emergency, Singapore:
Communist Party and the colonial government that intensified in the 1950s. Malaya was the name of the new state the colonial government proposed to build after the war. Seng Yu Jin regarded the artwork of the 1950s as the manifestations of government＇s propaganda and individual artists＇ reflections about this new sate. All the scholarship mentioned above stopped short of addressing the issues of why the works were made and how they were related to their mindsets during the period of transition. Jessica T. Lyu-Hada went on to address the issues of identity in regard to Chinese diaspora＇s local involvement and their ties to motherland4. This paper continues to explore
the relationship between the artists＇ reshaping of identity and their artistic activities.
3 .
（1952）
The painting Thian Hock Keng Temple ［FIG 1］ by Lim Hak Tai can be regarded as a milestone in the art history of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. Lim Hak Tai was an artist/educator born in Xiamen, Fujian province of China. He taught in several schools there, mostly established by Tan Kah Kee （1874－1961）. Tan Kah Kee was a Xiamen born entrepreneur based in Singapore. In 1936, Lim Hak Tai was invited to go teaching in a school founded by Tan Kah Kee in Singapore. It was through the support of Tan
4 " Ethnic Chinese Culture and Woodcut Prints of Singapore in the 1950＇s（ シ ン ガ
Kah Kee＇s group that Lim Hak Tai set up NAFA in Singapore in 1938. Thian Hock Keng was a temple established in Singapore in the 19th century by Fujianese Chinese. The temple was dedicated to Mazu, the Sea Goddess protecting worshippers＇ journey through treacherous waters. The main statue enshrined in the temple was brought from Fujian, major parts of the building materials were also shipped from there. The temple physically and psychologically connected Fujianese diaspora with their homeland. Paintings of temples normally focus on buildings, on the exterior. The architecture of Thian Hock Keng itself is historically and artistically significant in its own right, however, Lim Hak Tai chose to paint only the shrine.
Diaspora Chinese were bonded by their origin in China. Fujian Huiguan, the association for people from Fujian, was the most powerful bonding force then among the immigrants. Until 1955, Fujian Huiguan was located within Thian Hock Keng temple compound. It moved only across the street after that. The first Chinese school in Singapore was set up by Fujianese, right next to Thian Hock Keng temple. It offered free education to Fujianese children, took care of the sick and provided proper burial services for the deceased without families. In other words, Thian Hock Keng temple was not just a place for worship. By offering education and spiritual, social support, it played a critical role in maintaining a link with homeland and to provide attainable help in reality. In this sense, what Lim Hak Tai＇s painting represented was not simply a temple, but the spiritual and de-facto center in the life of ethnic Chinese.
1935 by Hu Qizao in China ［FIG 2］, it is obvious that the two works share a similarity that was unusual at the time: both of them zoom in on the shrine and the offering. This is expectable in Hu＇s print since the topic was Offering. However, when the similar approach was applied in Lim Hak Tai＇s painting to represent an old temple that carried on the lineage from China, it evidenced a deliberate choice by the artist himself.
4 . Issues Surrounding Lu Xun （1881−1936）
The link between the composition of Thian Hock Keng temple and that of the woodcut print from China is significant. Hu Qizao＇s print was in Lu Xun＇s collection, and the reproductions of the collection were well circulated among the artists of the time.
The impact of Lu Xun on the Chinese community under British colonial rule was mentioned as early as 1979 by Redsa Piyadasa （1939－2007） but was not pursued afterwards5. Lu Xun was the initiator and ardent promoter
of the woodcut movement that later prevailed in the Chinese language world. Lu Xun actively collected and introduced the art of prints from the West, focusing on the types with social connotation such as Kathe Kollwitz＇s The Sacrifice, 1922 ［FIG 3］. He started to publish selections of his own collection in late 1920＇s. In the first series published in 1929, he wrote in the preface to remind the readers that the genre of woodcut printing originated from China and was brought to Europe in the 14th century. Therefore,
re-5 Redza Piyadasa, “Introduction,” “The Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts,” Pamera
introducing woodcut to China meant to bring it back to its homeland6. In
other words, Lu Xun saw in woodcut prints the very nature of combining foreign and domestic, local and global, modern and tradition. He also noticed the grassroots power of woodcut in the pursuits of socio-political reforms. In the same preface he encouraged the woodcut artists to use the graver like a pen, to freely carve out powerful messages.
Lu Xun＇s influence on Lim Hak Tai was apparent. Lu Xun taught from 1926 to 1927 at Xiamen University, a university founded by Tan Kah Kee. At that time, Lim Hak Tai was a teacher at the middle schools attached to the university. Lim Hak Tai did a painting of the statue of Lu Xun. He actually hired a disciple of Lu Xun, Chen Puzhi, as a teacher in NAFA to teach woodcut prints7. Chen Puzhi was an active member of MK woodcut
group that was supported by Lu Xun. He was pursued in China and people believed that he was killed by the rightist Guomindang regime. However, he actually fled to Singapore, changed his identity to Chen Fuzhi, taught in Chinese schools and wrote for local Chinese newspapers under various pen names8. There were many other Chinese teachers and writers like Chen who
had significant influence on the younger generations in the British colony. As a result, woodcut flourished in the Chinese schools. Nanyang Siang Pau, a major Chinese newspaper in the Straits Settlements, dedicated a whole page to pay homage to Lu Xun one week after his death9. The page
6 Lu Xun, Lu Xun Lun Yishu（魯迅論藝術），preface written on March 10, 1929, pp.
51－52，61－62.
7 Nanyang Siang Pau （南洋商報）, July 31, 1940, p4.
8 Jessica Tsaiji Lyu-Hada,"The Woodcut Prints of Singapore: Centering on Wenmanjie
（シンガポールの木版画 —『文漫界』を巡って）," Chinese Woodcut Prints Studies （中 国版画研究）, No 5, pp. 67－87, 日中芸術研究会、東京、2007 年 2 月。
had a woodcut print of Lu Xun made by one of the leading writer artists in the colony, Dai Yinglang （1907－1985）. Contemporary newspaper and magazines show that Chinese communities regarded him as a spiritual mentor.
5 . Social Movements and Art
Like other ethnic Chinese residing in the British colony that considered themselves first and foremost Chinese, Lim Hak Tai＇s identity was challenged after the establishment of the Communist China in 1949. Amid the anti-communist fervor of the 1950s, they largely re-oriented themselves toward local adaptation. Their utmost concerns in the 1950s was to maintain their cultural roots and to gain the rights to be in the mainstream of the society. Lim Hak Tai＇s choice to depict Thian Hock Keng Temple during this critical period is significant in the sense that it was not simply a symbol of homeland but also the center of the life of Chinese diaspora, where they could turn for help in real life. It was a symbol of connecting the past and the present, bridging motherland and the new world.
Hak Tai referred to “The Declaration of Human rights” of United Nation10,
and stressed the universal right of all human beings to have independent countries of their own.
Chinese student movements were triggered by the National Service Ordinance, which was inflicted upon Chinese students in 1954. The ordinance gave the colonial government the right to draft Chinese diaspora into the army. Second World War left a generation of over-aged students who were old enough to be drafted. They pleaded to the government for postponement of the drafting. The plea was denied and the deadline for registration was set on May 12, 1954. The representatives of students requested meeting with the government but the negotiation turned into a clash with the riot squats, resulting in many injuries and arrests. Students took over one of the Chinese schools （Zhongzheng High school） in defiance. They left the school the next day, but the movement did not die out. After the failing of consequent pleas and sit-ins, the students went back to take over the school on the 2nd of June
to start a sit-in, which turned to a hunger strike from Jun 15. They did not leave until June 24th. The series of incidents shocked the island, gained wide
sympathy from Chinese community.
The composition of Lim Hak Tai＇s painting was divided into left and right, with the police on the left and the workers and students on the right. Multiple viewpoints were employed to present figures with different proportions. The size of the police to the left is much larger than the size of the workers and students to the right, creating the visual effect of the overwhelming power of the police over the workers and the students.
10 Lim Hak Tai，"Preface, " Nanyang Qingnian Meishu （ 南 洋 青 年 美 術）, Singapore：
Banners, placards and posters can be seen scattered here and there. The handbarrow students used to bring in supporting supplies lies in the lower right corner.
The painting was done in cubist style. Scholars agreed that cubism in Asia basically meant the application of multiple viewpoints and the dividing of pictorial spaces into multiple facets11. Artists＇ interest lied in using the
cubist pictorial idioms to convey messages. Tatehata Akira points out that Asian artists regarded the application of cubist idioms as the symbol of the West, a symbol of modernism12. Ushiroshoji Masahiro also reminds us
that narration played a significant role in Asian cubism due to the fact that it developed during the period of nation building, a period when art was expected to establish common ground and shared ideology among common people13. In short, scholars stressed that being the symbol of modernism, free
of historical burden, cubist idioms were ideal for Asian artists to express local subjects without falling into the trap of propaganda or isolated localism. In short, Lim Hak Tai presented to us the moment critical to the localization of the Chinese diaspora, employing the Western idiom of Cubism to tone down localism, to appeal to the outside world, and to relate the movement to the universal theme of anti-colonialism.
Tan Tee Chie＇s Strike, 1955［FIG 5］, depicts the same subject as Lim Hak Tai＇s Hock Lee Bus Incident. Tan was a student of NAFA stayed on to become a teacher after graduation. He had at least two more works dedicated to the movements: woodcut prints To Preserve and United ［FIG 6,
11 International Symposium 2005 Cubism in Asia: Unbounded Dialogues, Tokyo, The
Japan Foundation, 2005.
12 Tatehata Akira, “Why Cumism,” Ibid, pp.9－18.
FIG 7］. United has “commemorating 6.2”, referring to the incident on June 2nd of 1954 when the students took over Zhongzheng High School. Although
depicting the same subject, the works of Tan and Lim demonstrated two different approaches. Tan Tee Chie＇s painting was in the social realist style favored by the younger generation of Chinese diaspora. The artists they admired most was the social realists of Russia. With the colonial government tightening up control over Chinese education and severing the ties ethnic Chinese had with China, the younger generation could no longer expect to have a largely self-content Chinese community to live in. Chinese community shared the younger generation＇s concern and supported their art activities by publishing their woodcut prints and sponsored exhibitions organized by the graduates of Chinese schools14 ［FIG 8］. We see in those art activities
their urge to be active players in the process of nation building as well as the desire to maintain their roots.
CONCLUSION
Ethnic Chinese in the Straights Settlements underwent a drastic reorientation after the late 1940s in response to Singapore＇s changing relationship with China and neighboring countries. The subject matter of the artwork discussed above is local, however, by employing pre-existing pictorial idioms from outside world, the artists also managed to delocalize the artwork. In these artworks we witness the diaspora Chinese＇s struggle for an active role in shaping the future of a new country. The works also
14 One example is the exhibition organized by Yishu Yanjiuhui （1953 graduates of
signify their attempt to reach to their culture roots and to universal values at the same time, in order not to become isolated or marginalized in a small island far away from ancestral land. This is exactly how Lim Hak Tai and other diaspora Chinese artists of the 1950s left footprints on the sand of time in modern art history of Asia.
FIGURES
FIG 1. Lim Hak Tai, Thian Hock Keng Temple, 1952, oil on board, 96.5 x 79.5 cm, Collection of National Museum of Malaysia.
FIG 2. Hu Qizao, Offering, Modern Prints （現代版画）, V.4, 1935.
FIG 3. Kathe Kollwitz, The Sacrifice, 1922, 37 x 40 cm, opaque water color, ink on board, Collection of IFA, Stuttgart.
FIG 4. Lim Hak Tai, Hock Lee Bus Incident, 1955, oil on board, 49.5 x 89 cm, collection of National Gallery Singapore （The painting is registered as “Riot” in the collection. This paper follows the naming of Lim Hak Tai＇s family）.
FIG 5. Tan Tee Chie, Strike, 1955, oil on canvas，66 x 86.5 cm, Collection of National Gallery Singapore.
FIG 6. Tan Tee Chie, To Preserve, Genyun, No. 17, 1954, p1.
FIG 7. Tan Tee Chie, United, board, paper, 20.5 x 31 cm, 1954, Collection of National University of Singapore Museum.
［FIG 1］ ［FIG 2］
［FIG 3］
［FIG 5］
［FIG 6］ ［FIG 7］
