Terence Heng | University of Liverpool (original) (raw)
Papers by Terence Heng
OF Gods, Gifts And Ghosts
Social & Cultural Geography, 2020
When thinking about deathscapes and how they are assembled, current literature often points to th... more When thinking about deathscapes and how they are assembled,
current literature often points to the presence of material objects as
ways in which individuals evoke the absence of the dead. These
objects can be both performative and communicative, becoming
a channel of communication. But the literature has so far mostly
neglected the ability of spirits to ‘talk back’ to the living through
objects and bodies, and in doing so influence and have effect on
the latter’s actions. In this paper, I will investigate the ways in which
spirits are seen to have agency in deathscapes. I propose the
concept of material proxies of consociation, denoting objects/
bodies which act as ways for spirits to not just communicate, but
interact with the living. Using two visual ethnographic case studies,
one of the divining blocks and the other of a ritual exhumation,
I will demonstrate that spirits can indeed be seen to be active and
effective agents in the assembling of deathscapes. In doing so, this
paper offers new ways of understanding three things – the role and
importance of spirits in deathscapes, how the absent is made
present, and how the spaces in which living and dead interact are
constructed and shaped.
Learning Cities, 2018
How do individuals make sense of and learn to engage in spiritual spaces and places? This visual ... more How do individuals make sense of and learn to engage in spiritual spaces and places? This visual essay recounts the activities, rituals and everyday lives of individuals operating and worshipping with sintua (spirit altars) as they go about celebrating various events in their religious calendar. The photographs document and explore the ways in which they drape their own conceptions of the spirit world, or sacred space, over the mundane and profane everyday spaces of the city. I will argue that such actions show us the part that religion and ritual play in learning about urban spaces
The Sage Handbook of Visual Research Methods, 2019
In this chapter I discuss the various approaches social scientists can take to "write" visual soc... more In this chapter I discuss the various approaches social scientists can take to "write" visual social scientific essays. Although visual essays come in many different forms, they often take either a narrative or thematic approach, or some combination of the two. Using photographs from my own fieldwork, I will show how one can curate, arrange and develop photographs into a creative and sociological output.
Visual Ethnography, 2019
“Official” religious space in Singapore is highly regulated – organisations of recognised religio... more “Official” religious space in Singapore is highly regulated – organisations of recognised religions compete and bid for parcels of land on which they create houses of worship. Against this bureaucratic backdrop are countless other “unofficial” places of worship - operating out of industrial units, social housing and liminal spaces. From vernacular shrines to living rooms, individuals engage in a constant appropriation and re-appropriation of both private and public spaces. Using visual case studies from Chinese religion, particularly spirit medium worship, I will show how individuals navigate a complex relationship with their everyday lives, state regulations and the needs of their Gods.
Area, 2018
How do visual methods, particularly the practice of photography, help us to visualise and underst... more How do visual methods, particularly the practice of photography, help us to visualise and understand absence in deathscapes? In this paper I will argue that photographs, with their ability to freeze moments, are able to capture what I term points of praxis – moments in which practices by individuals inscribe meaning onto deathscapes, and in that intense and captured presence, evoke the feeling of absent individuals. Such points of praxis can exist in two ways – the praxis of the body and the praxis of objects – both of which I will illuminate with the use of visual ethnographic methods. To support my argument, I present work taken from a three‐year visual ethnographic study of Bukit Brown Cemetery, specifically drawing on the social and cultural documentation of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Geographical Review, 2016
Although there has been significant work done on the creation of sacred space in residential hous... more Although there has been significant work done on the creation of sacred space in residential housing, not enough attention has been paid to a particular segment of Chinese religion leadership in Singapore – spirit mediums – and the processes in which they practice within the political ideology of the modernist Singaporean state. In this paper, I will show how spirit mediums operate within " unofficially sacred " spaces, specifically house temples that subvert and resist functionalist policies of the Singapore state. Using two visually focussed, participant-observation case studies, I will argue that this subversion is sustained in two interrelated ways—one, through the visual comport-ment of the spirit medium's body through behavior and aesthetic markers and two, through the social prominence of the spirit medium when he or she is in a trance. These two factors come together to temporally displace the importance of the physical location, allowing a spirit medium to operate in any location, " official " or " unofficial. "
Sociological Review, 2015
In this paper I consider the material ways in which individuals overlay an imaginary, ethnicized ... more In this paper I consider the material ways in which individuals overlay an imaginary, ethnicized secondspace in the form of a spiritual realm onto their state-defined, lived firstspaces. Through the use of temporary roadside altars and shrines, I argue that this imaginary space is reified into transient aesthetic markers that subvert state-mandated, purpose-built structures and ethnic narratives, allowing for alternative versions of diasporic ethnic identities to be performed and consumed. Through the use of a case study of a suburban town centre in Singapore, I employ a mix of visual and sensorial observation methods and take the role of a hungry ghost during the seventh lunar month, exploring the material manifestations of ethnic imaginations.
ISA e-Symposium, Dec 2015
This visual essay is a record of the social and cultural life of Bukit Brown Cemetery, where the ... more This visual essay is a record of the social and cultural life of Bukit Brown Cemetery, where the deceased are considered diasporic subjects, even after physical death. This continuing journey was occasioned by the exhumation of about 4,000 graves to make way for an eight-lane highway, which also led to the documentation project on which the materials for this essay are based.. The photographs in this essay depict three major phases related to the diasporic afterlife. First, Seasons of Remembrance considers the annual rituals of Qing Ming and the Hungry Ghost Festival, where the living visit the cemetery to commemorate the dead. Two, Moving House looks at the process of exhumation and displacement, through the lens of both private and state-funded exhumations. Finally, Resettling charts the different ways in which an individual’s diasporic journey continues, where the process of re-interment could lead to other parts of Singapore and even beyond.
Visual Communication, May 2014
The Hungry Ghost Festival is a month-long spiritual period celebrated and observed mostly by Chin... more The Hungry Ghost Festival is a month-long spiritual period celebrated and observed mostly by Chinese individuals, where it
is believed that ancestral spirits are released from the netherworld
to roam the earth. During this festival, various rituals of
offering and burning are performed in simultaneously private
and public ways to feed and appease these hungry ghosts.
The offerings are left to the environment as ashes, wax and
burn marks that scar and mark the landscape. This visual essay
examines such activities in a particular suburban town centre
in Singapore known as Teck Ghee Court. Through the photographs, the author proposes that the rituals and material
practices are an act of material anchoring through the making
of aesthetic markers in urban spaces. Individuals appropriate
carefully planned public, commercial and residential spaces
into temporary sites of performative spirituality and ethnicity.
In doing so, they ‘anchor’ their ethnicities and identities
to these spaces.
Cultural Geographies, 2012
"This paper explores the ways in which social and economic hierarchies, drawn along ethnic lines,... more "This paper explores the ways in which social and economic hierarchies, drawn along ethnic lines, are materially inscribed onto a quotidian urban landscape. Using weddings as a lens onto everyday life, I will show how my professional practice (as a wedding photographer) and social research (as part of my PhD) have illuminated the way Chinese individuals in Singapore create their ethnic identities in the spaces they live and dwell in, and how these identities texture the social and economic hierarchies they find themselves in. This paper will also draw upon an innovative mix
of photography and semi-auto/biographical poetry to interrogate my chosen landscape, offering a variety of visual and textual aesthetic textures and spaces that invite the reader to participate in my informants’ ethnicity-making and everyday life."
Sociological Research Online, 2011
This methodological paper reviews the recent work done by photojournalists in Singapore who have ... more This methodological paper reviews the recent work done by photojournalists in Singapore who have leveraged on the use of multimedia to create meaning-rich narratives of the social situations they investigate. Using an online multimedia project recently launched by journalists and photojournalists in Singapore, I will show how photographers’/photojournalists' expertise, knowledge and combination of text and photographs serve to exemplify the opportunities that hypermedia affords to sociologists, and argue that hypermedia presentations are particularly useful in extending auto/biographical narratives, encouraging collaborative research, as well as interrogating the everyday social lives of our informants.
Church & Society in Asia Today, Aug 2011
Books by Terence Heng
The use of images, particularly photography, has been steadily gaining popularity in academia, bu... more The use of images, particularly photography, has been steadily gaining popularity in academia, but there has not yet been a book that deals with the act and process of photo-taking in the field. Drawing upon 21 years of photographic experience and sociological research, Terence Heng’s immersive and narrative style will:
1. introduce photography as a qualitative method;
2. discuss the intricacies of, challenges in and opportunities for using a camera in the field;
3. explore common themes and topics in social science research, including photographing rituals, space, people and objects;
4. advise on navigating the always evolving technological landscapes of traditional, digital and mobile photography.
Visual Methods in the Field: Photography for the Social Sciences is a photography guide written for researchers by a researcher. Using in-depth ethnographic case studies from research done in various urban environments, this book will act as a crucial bridge for students in geography, sociology, education, media studies and other social sciences to incorporate photography into their research repertoire.
It is sometimes said that by adopting the role of a quiet bystander, we can uncover the little se... more It is sometimes said that by adopting the role of a quiet bystander, we can uncover the little secrets of everyday life. From Where I'm Standing is a collection of observations, opinions and occurences, charting one writer's journey through a personal and urban landscape.
Conference Presentations by Terence Heng
In this 5th instalment of the International Visual Methods Conference, we seek papers, presentat... more In this 5th instalment of the International Visual Methods Conference, we seek papers, presentations and performances that critically examine the city through visual methods. However, we also welcome proposals for topics not directly related to urban life, but nonetheless encompass visual methods.
http://www.visualmethods.info/cfp
OF Gods, Gifts And Ghosts
Social & Cultural Geography, 2020
When thinking about deathscapes and how they are assembled, current literature often points to th... more When thinking about deathscapes and how they are assembled,
current literature often points to the presence of material objects as
ways in which individuals evoke the absence of the dead. These
objects can be both performative and communicative, becoming
a channel of communication. But the literature has so far mostly
neglected the ability of spirits to ‘talk back’ to the living through
objects and bodies, and in doing so influence and have effect on
the latter’s actions. In this paper, I will investigate the ways in which
spirits are seen to have agency in deathscapes. I propose the
concept of material proxies of consociation, denoting objects/
bodies which act as ways for spirits to not just communicate, but
interact with the living. Using two visual ethnographic case studies,
one of the divining blocks and the other of a ritual exhumation,
I will demonstrate that spirits can indeed be seen to be active and
effective agents in the assembling of deathscapes. In doing so, this
paper offers new ways of understanding three things – the role and
importance of spirits in deathscapes, how the absent is made
present, and how the spaces in which living and dead interact are
constructed and shaped.
Learning Cities, 2018
How do individuals make sense of and learn to engage in spiritual spaces and places? This visual ... more How do individuals make sense of and learn to engage in spiritual spaces and places? This visual essay recounts the activities, rituals and everyday lives of individuals operating and worshipping with sintua (spirit altars) as they go about celebrating various events in their religious calendar. The photographs document and explore the ways in which they drape their own conceptions of the spirit world, or sacred space, over the mundane and profane everyday spaces of the city. I will argue that such actions show us the part that religion and ritual play in learning about urban spaces
The Sage Handbook of Visual Research Methods, 2019
In this chapter I discuss the various approaches social scientists can take to "write" visual soc... more In this chapter I discuss the various approaches social scientists can take to "write" visual social scientific essays. Although visual essays come in many different forms, they often take either a narrative or thematic approach, or some combination of the two. Using photographs from my own fieldwork, I will show how one can curate, arrange and develop photographs into a creative and sociological output.
Visual Ethnography, 2019
“Official” religious space in Singapore is highly regulated – organisations of recognised religio... more “Official” religious space in Singapore is highly regulated – organisations of recognised religions compete and bid for parcels of land on which they create houses of worship. Against this bureaucratic backdrop are countless other “unofficial” places of worship - operating out of industrial units, social housing and liminal spaces. From vernacular shrines to living rooms, individuals engage in a constant appropriation and re-appropriation of both private and public spaces. Using visual case studies from Chinese religion, particularly spirit medium worship, I will show how individuals navigate a complex relationship with their everyday lives, state regulations and the needs of their Gods.
Area, 2018
How do visual methods, particularly the practice of photography, help us to visualise and underst... more How do visual methods, particularly the practice of photography, help us to visualise and understand absence in deathscapes? In this paper I will argue that photographs, with their ability to freeze moments, are able to capture what I term points of praxis – moments in which practices by individuals inscribe meaning onto deathscapes, and in that intense and captured presence, evoke the feeling of absent individuals. Such points of praxis can exist in two ways – the praxis of the body and the praxis of objects – both of which I will illuminate with the use of visual ethnographic methods. To support my argument, I present work taken from a three‐year visual ethnographic study of Bukit Brown Cemetery, specifically drawing on the social and cultural documentation of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Geographical Review, 2016
Although there has been significant work done on the creation of sacred space in residential hous... more Although there has been significant work done on the creation of sacred space in residential housing, not enough attention has been paid to a particular segment of Chinese religion leadership in Singapore – spirit mediums – and the processes in which they practice within the political ideology of the modernist Singaporean state. In this paper, I will show how spirit mediums operate within " unofficially sacred " spaces, specifically house temples that subvert and resist functionalist policies of the Singapore state. Using two visually focussed, participant-observation case studies, I will argue that this subversion is sustained in two interrelated ways—one, through the visual comport-ment of the spirit medium's body through behavior and aesthetic markers and two, through the social prominence of the spirit medium when he or she is in a trance. These two factors come together to temporally displace the importance of the physical location, allowing a spirit medium to operate in any location, " official " or " unofficial. "
Sociological Review, 2015
In this paper I consider the material ways in which individuals overlay an imaginary, ethnicized ... more In this paper I consider the material ways in which individuals overlay an imaginary, ethnicized secondspace in the form of a spiritual realm onto their state-defined, lived firstspaces. Through the use of temporary roadside altars and shrines, I argue that this imaginary space is reified into transient aesthetic markers that subvert state-mandated, purpose-built structures and ethnic narratives, allowing for alternative versions of diasporic ethnic identities to be performed and consumed. Through the use of a case study of a suburban town centre in Singapore, I employ a mix of visual and sensorial observation methods and take the role of a hungry ghost during the seventh lunar month, exploring the material manifestations of ethnic imaginations.
ISA e-Symposium, Dec 2015
This visual essay is a record of the social and cultural life of Bukit Brown Cemetery, where the ... more This visual essay is a record of the social and cultural life of Bukit Brown Cemetery, where the deceased are considered diasporic subjects, even after physical death. This continuing journey was occasioned by the exhumation of about 4,000 graves to make way for an eight-lane highway, which also led to the documentation project on which the materials for this essay are based.. The photographs in this essay depict three major phases related to the diasporic afterlife. First, Seasons of Remembrance considers the annual rituals of Qing Ming and the Hungry Ghost Festival, where the living visit the cemetery to commemorate the dead. Two, Moving House looks at the process of exhumation and displacement, through the lens of both private and state-funded exhumations. Finally, Resettling charts the different ways in which an individual’s diasporic journey continues, where the process of re-interment could lead to other parts of Singapore and even beyond.
Visual Communication, May 2014
The Hungry Ghost Festival is a month-long spiritual period celebrated and observed mostly by Chin... more The Hungry Ghost Festival is a month-long spiritual period celebrated and observed mostly by Chinese individuals, where it
is believed that ancestral spirits are released from the netherworld
to roam the earth. During this festival, various rituals of
offering and burning are performed in simultaneously private
and public ways to feed and appease these hungry ghosts.
The offerings are left to the environment as ashes, wax and
burn marks that scar and mark the landscape. This visual essay
examines such activities in a particular suburban town centre
in Singapore known as Teck Ghee Court. Through the photographs, the author proposes that the rituals and material
practices are an act of material anchoring through the making
of aesthetic markers in urban spaces. Individuals appropriate
carefully planned public, commercial and residential spaces
into temporary sites of performative spirituality and ethnicity.
In doing so, they ‘anchor’ their ethnicities and identities
to these spaces.
Cultural Geographies, 2012
"This paper explores the ways in which social and economic hierarchies, drawn along ethnic lines,... more "This paper explores the ways in which social and economic hierarchies, drawn along ethnic lines, are materially inscribed onto a quotidian urban landscape. Using weddings as a lens onto everyday life, I will show how my professional practice (as a wedding photographer) and social research (as part of my PhD) have illuminated the way Chinese individuals in Singapore create their ethnic identities in the spaces they live and dwell in, and how these identities texture the social and economic hierarchies they find themselves in. This paper will also draw upon an innovative mix
of photography and semi-auto/biographical poetry to interrogate my chosen landscape, offering a variety of visual and textual aesthetic textures and spaces that invite the reader to participate in my informants’ ethnicity-making and everyday life."
Sociological Research Online, 2011
This methodological paper reviews the recent work done by photojournalists in Singapore who have ... more This methodological paper reviews the recent work done by photojournalists in Singapore who have leveraged on the use of multimedia to create meaning-rich narratives of the social situations they investigate. Using an online multimedia project recently launched by journalists and photojournalists in Singapore, I will show how photographers’/photojournalists' expertise, knowledge and combination of text and photographs serve to exemplify the opportunities that hypermedia affords to sociologists, and argue that hypermedia presentations are particularly useful in extending auto/biographical narratives, encouraging collaborative research, as well as interrogating the everyday social lives of our informants.
Church & Society in Asia Today, Aug 2011
The use of images, particularly photography, has been steadily gaining popularity in academia, bu... more The use of images, particularly photography, has been steadily gaining popularity in academia, but there has not yet been a book that deals with the act and process of photo-taking in the field. Drawing upon 21 years of photographic experience and sociological research, Terence Heng’s immersive and narrative style will:
1. introduce photography as a qualitative method;
2. discuss the intricacies of, challenges in and opportunities for using a camera in the field;
3. explore common themes and topics in social science research, including photographing rituals, space, people and objects;
4. advise on navigating the always evolving technological landscapes of traditional, digital and mobile photography.
Visual Methods in the Field: Photography for the Social Sciences is a photography guide written for researchers by a researcher. Using in-depth ethnographic case studies from research done in various urban environments, this book will act as a crucial bridge for students in geography, sociology, education, media studies and other social sciences to incorporate photography into their research repertoire.
It is sometimes said that by adopting the role of a quiet bystander, we can uncover the little se... more It is sometimes said that by adopting the role of a quiet bystander, we can uncover the little secrets of everyday life. From Where I'm Standing is a collection of observations, opinions and occurences, charting one writer's journey through a personal and urban landscape.
In this 5th instalment of the International Visual Methods Conference, we seek papers, presentat... more In this 5th instalment of the International Visual Methods Conference, we seek papers, presentations and performances that critically examine the city through visual methods. However, we also welcome proposals for topics not directly related to urban life, but nonetheless encompass visual methods.
http://www.visualmethods.info/cfp
This work-in-progress paper is a study into the spiritual encounters in the everyday lives of Chi... more This work-in-progress paper is a study into the spiritual encounters in the everyday lives of Chinese individuals in Singapore. Drawing upon three visual studies into a cemetery, a town centre and a Taoist sin tua (temple group), I will show how spiritual encounters are a significant way of understanding performances of diasporic Chinese ethnicities. I propose that individuals use and experience spiritual encounters in Singapore as a way of understanding the diasporic roots and routes (Gilroy 1991) that texture their understanding of being Chinese in Singapore.
The three visual studies are focused on a common theme of Taoist ritual and material practices, including but not limited to Tang Ki, or spirit medium worship (Chan 2006). Tang Ki are spirit mediums who enter trances and “jump”, allowing themselves to be possessed by deities from the Taoist spiritualist canon, including gods and deities from both heaven and the netherworld. When possessed, Tang Ki provide spiritual healing, relationship advice, blessings, and in some cases, divinely-appropriated numbers of upcoming lotteries. Through these encounters with Tang Ki, I propose that individuals cement their connections with a geographically bounded, region-specific and class-focussed (Chan 2006) form of Chineseness.
The paper will comprise of photographs and textual observations from three concurrent projects I am photographing in urban Singapore. The first is a documentation of graveyard practices by Chinese individuals in Singapore’s last large-scale pre-war municipal Chinese cemetery – Bukit Brown Cemetery. The second is a study of transient aesthetic markers associated with Taoist practices in commercial spaces, and the third is a ethnographic participant observation of a Sin Tua, or Taoist temple group, spiritually led by 7 Tang Ki, many of whom are young men in their early 20s.
British Sociological Association Annual Conference, 2007
This paper aims to provide an introduction to researchers who are interested in using photography... more This paper aims to provide an introduction to researchers who are interested in using photography in their research, but are unfamiliar with the technology. I intend to introduce both technology (what is currently at hand for the researcher) as well as basic photographic techniques that can be used. Drawing on my work in conducting visual ethnographies of ethnic Chinese weddings in Singapore, I will consider the various factors that researchers need to take into account when capturing visual data.
This thesis addresses shortfalls in the sociological literature on diaspora, ethnicity and ethnic... more This thesis addresses shortfalls in the sociological literature on diaspora, ethnicity and ethnicity-making amongst diasporic individuals. My original contribution is an improved and
more nuanced take on diasporic individuals’ ethnicities and the mechanisms through which these ethnicities are made. I will do this by reconfiguring collectivist versions of diaspora into
an individualised transdiasporic space, and redefining ethnicity as transdiasporic ethnicity.
Transdiasporic ethnicities are made in the social intimacies and distances between individuals and between their ethnic lifestyles (sets of aesthetic markers). Such distances are affected by
individuals’ ethnic tastes – preferences for or against different lifestyles.
My arguments are based on a study of Chinese Singaporeans and their wedding rituals. Weddings are microcosms of transdiasporic space – multiple crossroads for intersecting diasporic journeys and everyday lives. I will employ a visually-focussed form of participant
observation, arguing that the use of photographs with text creates a richer space to do sociological work. I will also develop a methodological framework of photography as visual poetry, creating an emotional texture that text alone struggles to achieve.
Chinese Singaporeans engage in outward-facing taste performances which reveal their ethnic lifestyles to others. Juxtaposed taste performances often lead to aesthetic dissonance, which encourages individuals to make decisions affecting their ethnic tastes. This tends to result in social distancing between two socially prominent ethnic lifestyles which were politically defined and are now part of popular discourse – “heartlander” and “cosmopolitan”. These lifestyles are often held in tension and tend to be connected to different levels of economic
wealth. Commercial activities in weddings perpetuate such linkages, such that socioeconomic aspirations often texture ethnic tastes. I will conclude by considering what aesthetic dissonance says about concepts of ethnic hybridity and syncretism, and propose that a Chinese Singaporean’s economic life-path continues to be affected by the ethnic lifestyles she is socially intimate with.