176
imaginings of more global others. The imaginary China which is depicted in writings and videos made by overseas Hmong is of course quite different from the China of actuality which some of them may visit, and yet these imagined recreations of place and locality are in some cases supported and reproduced through the cultural productions of local artistes and performers within China, as Schein (2000) has recently shown.
I should like to present these kinds of returns as importantly powered by a nostalgia born in general from separation (a kind of metaphysics of place, rather than a metaphysics of absence), and these reconstructions of an often idyllic past as part of an attempt to re-appropriate, to forge new identities in the face of globalising dislocations from place; a kind of resistance, if you like. And, as communities have dispersed, and become transnational and cosmopolitan, so anthropology has had to change, from the older near-exclusive focus on local communities, to a discipline concerned with the wide-reaching effects of global capitalism, international tourism, and the production of media images which travel far and fast across cultural boundaries.
My own very first work on the Hmong was concerned with the rapid adoption by Hmong resettled as refugees in the United States of long-distance telephone calls to keep in touch with lineage relatives, and the recourse to telephone directories to find lineage members of the same surname with whom they could stay and from whom traditional lineage hospitality could be expected when they visited other cities. I saw this very rapid adoption of modern communications technology by a people who were still largely without writing skills (although they could read surnames in telephone directories!) as a striking instance of the power of a lineage society to reconstitute itself in a new global setting (a little like the Man lineage of Hong Kong did), and of the capacity of the still largely oral traditions of the Hmong to leapfrog entirely the stage of literacy which Marshall McLuhan had seen as the inevitable precursor to a new age of oral and visual communications (Tapp 1982).
Anthropologists, and social scientists in general, can perhaps be criticised for being totally unable to provide any simple or easy answers to questions about whether the use of modern telecommunications is necessarily liberating and empowering for the individual, or
176
imaginings of more global others. The imaginary China which is de- picted in writings and videos made by overseas Hmong is of course quite different from the China of actuality which some of them may visit, and yet these imagined recreations of place and locality are in some cases supported and reproduced through the cultural productions of local artistes and performers within China, as Schein (2000) has recently shown.
I should like to present these kinds of returns as importantly pow- ered by a nostalgia born in general from separation (a kind of meta- physics of place, rather than a metaphysics of absence), and these re- constructions of an often idyllic past as part of an attempt to re- appropriate, to forge new identities in the face of globalising disloca- tions from place; a kind of resistance, if you like. And, as communities have dispersed, and become transnational and cosmopolitan, so an- thropology has had to change, from the older near-exclusive focus on local communities, to a discipline concerned with the wide-reaching effects of global capitalism, international tourism, and the production of media images which travel far and fast across cultural boundaries.
My own very first work on the Hmong was concerned with the rapid adoption by Hmong resettled as refugees in the United States of long-distance telephone calls to keep in touch with lineage relatives, and the recourse to telephone directories to find lineage members of the same surname with whom they could stay and from whom tradi- tional lineage hospitality could be expected when they visited other cities. I saw this very rapid adoption of modern communications tech- nology by a people who were still largely without writing skills (although they could read surnames in telephone directories!) as a strik- ing instance of the power of a lineage society to reconstitute itself in a new global setting (a little like the Man lineage of Hong Kong did), and of the capacity of the still largely oral traditions of the Hmong to leapfrog entirely the stage of literacy which Marshall McLuhan had seen as the inevitable precursor to a new age of oral and visual com- munications (Tapp 1982).
Anthropologists, and social scientists in general, can perhaps be criticised for being totally unable to provide any simple or easy an- swers to questions about whether the use of modern telecommunica- tions is necessarily liberating and empowering for the individual, or
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.