After 5 weeks struggling with Japanese history, last Thursday we started to talk about material culture in Japanese Studies lecture. It was so interesting! The lecturer talked about how the postcards can tell use about how other countries looked at Japan during the Japan-Russia war. He showed us a lot of images of postcards in that era. Some postcards reflected how Japan was considered equal with the Western world, some others perceived Japan as nobody that needed to be taken seriously. The postcards also reminded me on Dom's lecture last semester on poster and comics and politics!!
I think studying material culture is very interesting. When we talk about material culture, it means something that we use in every day's life (eg postcard!). It's interesting how this 'little stuff' can talk a lot about history and the society in one period of time. When I took Southeast Asian studies modules, we used similar approaches with Japanese studies. As an illustration, when I took 'Urban and Cities Life of Southeast Asia', I learned how different architecture of mosque in different period of time in Malaysia can tell us about the relationship between national identity and Islam throughout the history of Malaysia. When I took 'Thai painting', I learned how mural painting can tell us about the life of the people around the temple. When I took 'Marketing Southeast Asia Heritage', I learned how the findings of various potteries around Old Parliament House and Fort Canning can prove that Singapore history is far beyond Raffles' arrival. Interesting, right?
Let's go back to postcard.
On my way to Thai class today, I grabbed some free postcards from the cafe near LT11. One of my seniors, Imma, likes to write and receive postcard. So yeah...perhaps it's time to start writing to her again :) There was one time I talked to my friend and I told him, last time life and the virtues of Saints can be traced through their letters. I guess similar thing might not happen to emails -.- (except you keep their emails!) So I told myself to keep my friends postcards and letters, just in case one day there's a canonization cause for my friends, then if I'm still alive, I can show the postcards and letters and how virtuous they are. Hehehehe...
I think studying material culture is very interesting. When we talk about material culture, it means something that we use in every day's life (eg postcard!). It's interesting how this 'little stuff' can talk a lot about history and the society in one period of time. When I took Southeast Asian studies modules, we used similar approaches with Japanese studies. As an illustration, when I took 'Urban and Cities Life of Southeast Asia', I learned how different architecture of mosque in different period of time in Malaysia can tell us about the relationship between national identity and Islam throughout the history of Malaysia. When I took 'Thai painting', I learned how mural painting can tell us about the life of the people around the temple. When I took 'Marketing Southeast Asia Heritage', I learned how the findings of various potteries around Old Parliament House and Fort Canning can prove that Singapore history is far beyond Raffles' arrival. Interesting, right?
Let's go back to postcard.
On my way to Thai class today, I grabbed some free postcards from the cafe near LT11. One of my seniors, Imma, likes to write and receive postcard. So yeah...perhaps it's time to start writing to her again :) There was one time I talked to my friend and I told him, last time life and the virtues of Saints can be traced through their letters. I guess similar thing might not happen to emails -.- (except you keep their emails!) So I told myself to keep my friends postcards and letters, just in case one day there's a canonization cause for my friends, then if I'm still alive, I can show the postcards and letters and how virtuous they are. Hehehehe...
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