http://libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/login?url=https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/657996

Georgette Chen Li Ying (1906–1993), born in Yong Chun Fujian China, was one of Singapore’s pioneer artists who established the Nanyang style of painting. Her wealthy family offered her chances to live and gain art education in the great cosmopolitan cities of Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai. She and her second husband Dr. Ho moved to Penang after her exhibition at Paris in 1950. After their divorce, Georgette came to settle in Singapore and was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1982 for her outstanding achievements and contributions to art in Singapore. Her life story spanned across cultures in different continents and crises of twentieth century. My paper revisits Georgette Chen’s drawings and culture practices after she came back to Southeast Asia from New York in the 1950s. It examines localization, structure of diaspora feelings and the sense of identity which may exist in her arts and practices when she stayed in peninsula Malaya and later Singapore. Georgette Chen was made of multiple modernities, that was internalized in her thought, her art practices and her life, through the practices of her art. Throughout her life, her drawings presented Chinese and Southeast Asia themes with Western techniques. Besides, she experienced the transitional political situation in British Malaya, later the Federation of Malaysia and the birth of Singapore. Like other Singapore’s first-generation artists who came to Singapore from China, Georgette realized the need of establishing local art style which could capture the spirit of tropics. This new style of painting was known as Nanyang Style. Singapore’s pioneering artists Georgette Chen, Chen Chong Swee, Cheong Soo Pieng, Liu Kang, Chen Wen Hsi, who were Chinese diaspora, presented their new homeland in unique tropical characters. Georgette was obsessed with objects, Singapore’s landscapes, Nanyang children and their mothers in that period. After she coming to Singapore, Georgette started teaching at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts until retired in 1980. During her staying in Singapore, she kept close relationship with intellectuals from Malaysia, HK, mainland China, Paris and USA. This chapter discusses her Nanyang Style art developments in a transnational framework and explores Georgette’s localization drawings through her cultural practices in the Singapore’s art institution where she worked as well. The following questions will be asked: How did the political transitional period spanning the dissolution of British Colonialism and the establishment of two independent nations contribute to the development of Georgette’s local art and education practices? In what ways did Georgette, who was a non-Western artist with Western art techniques, construct Asian theme drawings in the context of art histories in China, Singapore and Southeast Asia? What were overseas Chinese intellectuals’ living statues and structure of diaspora feelings during the political transitional period? Through such studies on Georgette’s art and writings, my paper aims to recover the background to the post-second World War growth of local art, art education and a pioneering generation of artists on the island of Singapore and peninsular Malaya.

Ng Wang Feng offers a few case studies on how she uses music to help with the healing of the emotionally and physically disabled. Her training in music therapy enables her to work in this specialised field. Most of all, it is her compassion and understanding of each of her individual cases that makes her special.

With reference to “Arts and Culture Nodes” strategy initiated in 2012by the National Arts Council (NAC) in Singapore, this paper outlines the study that investigated the impacts of community arts and culture events on five local housing neighborhoods and their communities.“Neighbourhood Arts and Culture Impact Assessment (NACIA)”framework was developed and applied through spatial opportunity analysis (on-site observations and mapping), surveys, focus group discussions and interviews with residents, artists and event organizers. Key findings reveal the capacities of the initiative to generate positive spatial, social and participation impacts and build stronger neighborhood arts ecology in local Singaporean neighborhoods