• Wayang Kulit di Sini dan Sekarang: Community Building in Southeast Asian Theatre as a Response to the ‘Contemporary’

Southeast Asia has yet to establish its own socio-cultural identity and distinct art style since its inception as a geo-political region during the days of European colonisation. In this essay, I historicise the development of a Malaysian shadow puppetry practice (Wayang Kulit Kelantan) in an attempt to define "Contemporary Southeast Asian Theatre" as an art style and art period. I show that Wayang Kulit Kelantan evolves from a folk theatre tradition that criticises royal and religious morality into a proponent of Islamic values and finally into an alternative art style that syncretises Western and Southeast Asian narratives. In doing so, I propose that the term of the "contemporary" is more so an embodied spirit amongst Southeast Asian theatre practitioners to adapt and react to the region's plunge into modernisation and nationalism. My work thus furthers an ongoing discourse that aims at promoting regionalism so that Southeast Asian art and culture may be respected on the global stage.