Lawrence Chua | Syracuse University (original) (raw)

Papers by Lawrence Chua

Research paper thumbnail of Life in Marvelous Times": Hip-hop, Housing, and Utopia

Research paper thumbnail of Honey, I Shrunk the Nation-State: The Scales of Global History in the Thai Nationalist Theme Park

Research paper thumbnail of The Aesthetic Citizen

Southeast Asia's Modern Architecture, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of The Garden of Liberation

The Routledge Companion to Architecture and Social Engagement, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Building Siam: leisure, race, and nationalism in modern Thai architecture, 1910-1973

Research paper thumbnail of Imperial Negotiations: Introducing Comprador Networks and Comparative Modernities

Architectural Histories, 2020

The comprador classes of the 19th-and early 20th-centuries were critical agents of global capital... more The comprador classes of the 19th-and early 20th-centuries were critical agents of global capitalism. As 'middle men' in the colonial enterprise, they enabled the development of imperial trade networks, negotiated the supply of labor that extracted profit from the local landscape, established new patterns of consumption and taste, and facilitated cultural as well as economic exchanges that were critical to the growth of Asian cities. In diverse treaty ports and colonial entrepôts like Singapore, Batavia, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, compradors drew on a diverse vocabulary of intra-and trans-regional architectural forms, labor, materials, and construction techniques to build homes, offices, godowns, factories, and infrastructural networks that were legible to both European corporations and local populations. The travelling, sojourning perspective of the comprador allows historians to critically examine the fractured, multi-scaled geographies at play across global networks as well as what Raymond Williams has described as 'the metropolitan interpretation of its own processes as universals'. This special collection examines the role of comprador patrons and architects as active participants in the production of the global modern built environment in the 19th and 20th centuries. The articles aim to create an understanding of treaty ports, colonial cities, and free trade zones not only as sites of local and foreign interactions but as incubators of new ideas about architecture and modernity in the global capitalist economy.

Research paper thumbnail of Thailand. Monastery, monument, museum: Sites and artifacts of Thai cultural memory By Maurizio Peleggi Honolulu: University of Hawaiʿi Press, 2017. Pp. 280. Bibliography, Index, Illustrations

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Julie Mehretu: Black City

Research paper thumbnail of Virtual Beirut

Research paper thumbnail of Beat Takeshi vs. Takeshi Kitano

Research paper thumbnail of In a Different Light : Visual Culture, Sexual Identity, Queer Practice

This catalogue represents a series of nine exhibitions on the theme of homosexuality in the arts.... more This catalogue represents a series of nine exhibitions on the theme of homosexuality in the arts. With the participation of 112 mainly American artists, there are also seven texts documenting specific exhibitions presented between 1978 and 1991, as well as excepts from 19 historical works. In his introduction, Rinder sets the very broad parameter for the exhibition, while the works have elements of importance to the question of homosexuality and its relation to art, the artists themselves need not be gay or lesbian. Blake elaborates on his choice of curatorial principles: intergenerational slices, mixed artists, queer and straight, oriented towards the public, and representative of the artists themselves. Brief biographical notes on the three editors/curators. 3 bibl. ref.

Research paper thumbnail of Teaching the History of Modern and Contemporary Art of Southeast Asia

Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, 2020

For this roundtable on pedagogy, the editorial collective of Southeast of Now has invited contrib... more For this roundtable on pedagogy, the editorial collective of Southeast of Now has invited contributors to write a short text reflecting on the experience of teaching the history of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art. We suggested that contributors consider the challenges and rewards of teaching, and reflect on methodological and/or other issues specific to this field. The format, style and tone of the text was left open for each individual author to decide. Contributions relate to the teaching of both undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as the supervision of postgraduate research. We have invited teachers of the history of "art" in an expanded sense, encompassing not only visual art, but also cinema and video, theatre and performance, architecture and urbanism, design and related fields. This roundtable follows numerous other roundtables on other topics relating to the history of modern and contemporary art, published elsewhere. It also follows previous publications relating specifically to the experience of teaching the

Research paper thumbnail of Modernity’s Other

South East Asia Research, 2020

The four essays in this special section feature recent work in South East Asian architectural and... more The four essays in this special section feature recent work in South East Asian architectural and urban history that de-centres the nation-state as the primary subject of history by disclosing what has been excluded from or hidden in the grand narratives of nationalism. Responding to calls to move away from the geographical boundedness of Area Studies while stimulating interdisciplinary dialogue, it positions the built environment as a common archive used by scholars across disciplines to examine the buildings and spaces that accompany and structure everyday life. Infrastructure, informal settlements and ephemeral shrines occupy the attention of these scholars, while palaces and monumentsthe privileged architectural leitmotifs of progress and developmentare read against the grain to disclose their hidden violence. Together, they point not only to the cultural diversity of South East Asia that lies hidden beneath the veneer of the nation-state, but also open up new ways of studying the complex relations that underlie the seemingly solid facades of the built environment.

Research paper thumbnail of A Tale of Two Crematoria

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2018

In 1926, the remains of Siam's last absolute monarch were cremated on Bangkok's royal par... more In 1926, the remains of Siam's last absolute monarch were cremated on Bangkok's royal parade grounds, Sanam Luang, in a highly decorated ceremonial pyre known as the phra merumat or phra men. Modeled on Mount Meru, the center of the Vedic and Buddhist cosmos, ephemeral structures like this drew on the Traiphum phra ruang, a fourteenth-century text that elaborated the hierarchical structure of the universe and the exalted place of royalty within it. After the overthrow of the absolute monarchy in 1932, the sanctity of Sanam Luang was challenged when a controversial crematorium for commoners who died defending Siam's nascent constitution was built in the area once reserved for royalty. Together, the two crematoria played an important role in representing new forms of national belonging in the twentieth century that were consistent with older conceptions of social hierarchy. In A Tale of Two Crematoria: Funeral Architecture and the Politics of Representation in Mid-Twentiet...

Research paper thumbnail of Night Fever: Designing Club Culture, 1960 — Today

The Journal of Architecture, 2019

Today, agroecology is more than a science; it is a movement that advocates for a sustainable rede... more Today, agroecology is more than a science; it is a movement that advocates for a sustainable redesign of the global food system. Some of its acknowledged protagonists plead for a redesign based on the support of and for small-scale farming because small farms are considered more sustainable than large farms. The present review explores the arguments that leading agroecologists use for justifying their preference for small (frequently peasant) farms. In this review, small farms are defined as possessing a mean agricultural area of maximum two hectares, being family-owned, emphasizing outdoor production, and annually producing at least two different crops or livestock. Peasant farms are defined as subsistent small farms in developing countries. The review includes an overview of the current state of small farms and their most severe challenges. Agroecological publications of the last thirty years were scanned for arguments that sustain the hypothesis that small farms are more sustainable. It was found that there are no studies that directly compare the sustainability of farms based on their size. Instead, most studies cited to confirm the sustainability of small farms compare farms that differ in terms of both, size and farm management. Hence, it is likely that the reason for the advanced sustainability of small farms is their management, not their size. The assertion that small farms are a priori more sustainable than large ones is not supportable. Misleading use of the term "small farms" may impede the efforts of agroecology to stimulate sustainable food production.

Research paper thumbnail of Contemporary Buddhist Architecture

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016

This chapter places the historical development of contemporary Buddhist architecture in its histo... more This chapter places the historical development of contemporary Buddhist architecture in its historical context. It examines the ways that architects, builders, and monastics have drawn on historical typologies like the stupa, the stambha, and the caitya hall in producing new spaces for the teaching, dissemination, and veneration of Buddhist thought and practices. Sites like Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the Erawan Museum, the Spiritual Theater at Suan Mokkh , the Water Temple, and the Water-Moon Monasteryhave sought to reconcile the reflective and pedagogical aspects of historic Buddhist architecture with the needs of contemporary lay communities, modern expectations of leisure time, and the development of new modes of sense perception within a globalized culture that privileges consumption over contemplation.

Research paper thumbnail of Muae 2 : Collapsing New Buildings

Research paper thumbnail of Like Mangoes in July : The Work of Richard Fung

Research paper thumbnail of The City and the City

Journal of Urban History, 2014

This article examines the racialization of urban space in early twentieth-century Bangkok. After ... more This article examines the racialization of urban space in early twentieth-century Bangkok. After a general strike in 1910, the Siamese monarchy represented itself in urban space as the leaders of a sovereign nation with a racial Other in its midst. Rather than create a separate, walled enclave to contain this population, the monarchy drew on a material and rhetorical campaign to develop two interdependent cities with distinct racial identities. One city was a national capital under the authority of the absolute monarchy. The other was a thriving port city populated mostly by “Chinese” migrants and governed by extraterritorial law. Juxtaposing the built environment against its discursive representations, this article argues that the monarchy sought to endow the dual city of Bangkok and its inhabitants with racial characteristics to clarify national belonging, control the political power of the region’s migrant population, and cultivate support for royal urban investments.

Research paper thumbnail of Queer Looks: Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Film and Video

Feminist Review, 1995

Queer Looks is a collection of writing by video artists, filmmakers, and critics which explores t... more Queer Looks is a collection of writing by video artists, filmmakers, and critics which explores the recent explosion of lesbian and gay independent media culture. A compelling compilation of artists' statements and critical theory, producer interviews and image-text works, this anthology demonstrates the vitality of queer artists under attack and fighting back. Each maker and writer deploys a surprising array of techniques and tactics, negotiating the difficult terrain between street pragmatism and theoretical inquiry, finding voices rich in chutzpah and subtlety. From guerilla Super-8 in Manila to AIDS video activism in New York, Queer Looks zooms in on this very queer place in media culture, revealing a wealth of strategies, a plurality of aesthetics, and an artillary of resistances.

Research paper thumbnail of Life in Marvelous Times": Hip-hop, Housing, and Utopia

Research paper thumbnail of Honey, I Shrunk the Nation-State: The Scales of Global History in the Thai Nationalist Theme Park

Research paper thumbnail of The Aesthetic Citizen

Southeast Asia's Modern Architecture, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of The Garden of Liberation

The Routledge Companion to Architecture and Social Engagement, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Building Siam: leisure, race, and nationalism in modern Thai architecture, 1910-1973

Research paper thumbnail of Imperial Negotiations: Introducing Comprador Networks and Comparative Modernities

Architectural Histories, 2020

The comprador classes of the 19th-and early 20th-centuries were critical agents of global capital... more The comprador classes of the 19th-and early 20th-centuries were critical agents of global capitalism. As 'middle men' in the colonial enterprise, they enabled the development of imperial trade networks, negotiated the supply of labor that extracted profit from the local landscape, established new patterns of consumption and taste, and facilitated cultural as well as economic exchanges that were critical to the growth of Asian cities. In diverse treaty ports and colonial entrepôts like Singapore, Batavia, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, compradors drew on a diverse vocabulary of intra-and trans-regional architectural forms, labor, materials, and construction techniques to build homes, offices, godowns, factories, and infrastructural networks that were legible to both European corporations and local populations. The travelling, sojourning perspective of the comprador allows historians to critically examine the fractured, multi-scaled geographies at play across global networks as well as what Raymond Williams has described as 'the metropolitan interpretation of its own processes as universals'. This special collection examines the role of comprador patrons and architects as active participants in the production of the global modern built environment in the 19th and 20th centuries. The articles aim to create an understanding of treaty ports, colonial cities, and free trade zones not only as sites of local and foreign interactions but as incubators of new ideas about architecture and modernity in the global capitalist economy.

Research paper thumbnail of Thailand. Monastery, monument, museum: Sites and artifacts of Thai cultural memory By Maurizio Peleggi Honolulu: University of Hawaiʿi Press, 2017. Pp. 280. Bibliography, Index, Illustrations

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Julie Mehretu: Black City

Research paper thumbnail of Virtual Beirut

Research paper thumbnail of Beat Takeshi vs. Takeshi Kitano

Research paper thumbnail of In a Different Light : Visual Culture, Sexual Identity, Queer Practice

This catalogue represents a series of nine exhibitions on the theme of homosexuality in the arts.... more This catalogue represents a series of nine exhibitions on the theme of homosexuality in the arts. With the participation of 112 mainly American artists, there are also seven texts documenting specific exhibitions presented between 1978 and 1991, as well as excepts from 19 historical works. In his introduction, Rinder sets the very broad parameter for the exhibition, while the works have elements of importance to the question of homosexuality and its relation to art, the artists themselves need not be gay or lesbian. Blake elaborates on his choice of curatorial principles: intergenerational slices, mixed artists, queer and straight, oriented towards the public, and representative of the artists themselves. Brief biographical notes on the three editors/curators. 3 bibl. ref.

Research paper thumbnail of Teaching the History of Modern and Contemporary Art of Southeast Asia

Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, 2020

For this roundtable on pedagogy, the editorial collective of Southeast of Now has invited contrib... more For this roundtable on pedagogy, the editorial collective of Southeast of Now has invited contributors to write a short text reflecting on the experience of teaching the history of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art. We suggested that contributors consider the challenges and rewards of teaching, and reflect on methodological and/or other issues specific to this field. The format, style and tone of the text was left open for each individual author to decide. Contributions relate to the teaching of both undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as the supervision of postgraduate research. We have invited teachers of the history of "art" in an expanded sense, encompassing not only visual art, but also cinema and video, theatre and performance, architecture and urbanism, design and related fields. This roundtable follows numerous other roundtables on other topics relating to the history of modern and contemporary art, published elsewhere. It also follows previous publications relating specifically to the experience of teaching the

Research paper thumbnail of Modernity’s Other

South East Asia Research, 2020

The four essays in this special section feature recent work in South East Asian architectural and... more The four essays in this special section feature recent work in South East Asian architectural and urban history that de-centres the nation-state as the primary subject of history by disclosing what has been excluded from or hidden in the grand narratives of nationalism. Responding to calls to move away from the geographical boundedness of Area Studies while stimulating interdisciplinary dialogue, it positions the built environment as a common archive used by scholars across disciplines to examine the buildings and spaces that accompany and structure everyday life. Infrastructure, informal settlements and ephemeral shrines occupy the attention of these scholars, while palaces and monumentsthe privileged architectural leitmotifs of progress and developmentare read against the grain to disclose their hidden violence. Together, they point not only to the cultural diversity of South East Asia that lies hidden beneath the veneer of the nation-state, but also open up new ways of studying the complex relations that underlie the seemingly solid facades of the built environment.

Research paper thumbnail of A Tale of Two Crematoria

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2018

In 1926, the remains of Siam's last absolute monarch were cremated on Bangkok's royal par... more In 1926, the remains of Siam's last absolute monarch were cremated on Bangkok's royal parade grounds, Sanam Luang, in a highly decorated ceremonial pyre known as the phra merumat or phra men. Modeled on Mount Meru, the center of the Vedic and Buddhist cosmos, ephemeral structures like this drew on the Traiphum phra ruang, a fourteenth-century text that elaborated the hierarchical structure of the universe and the exalted place of royalty within it. After the overthrow of the absolute monarchy in 1932, the sanctity of Sanam Luang was challenged when a controversial crematorium for commoners who died defending Siam's nascent constitution was built in the area once reserved for royalty. Together, the two crematoria played an important role in representing new forms of national belonging in the twentieth century that were consistent with older conceptions of social hierarchy. In A Tale of Two Crematoria: Funeral Architecture and the Politics of Representation in Mid-Twentiet...

Research paper thumbnail of Night Fever: Designing Club Culture, 1960 — Today

The Journal of Architecture, 2019

Today, agroecology is more than a science; it is a movement that advocates for a sustainable rede... more Today, agroecology is more than a science; it is a movement that advocates for a sustainable redesign of the global food system. Some of its acknowledged protagonists plead for a redesign based on the support of and for small-scale farming because small farms are considered more sustainable than large farms. The present review explores the arguments that leading agroecologists use for justifying their preference for small (frequently peasant) farms. In this review, small farms are defined as possessing a mean agricultural area of maximum two hectares, being family-owned, emphasizing outdoor production, and annually producing at least two different crops or livestock. Peasant farms are defined as subsistent small farms in developing countries. The review includes an overview of the current state of small farms and their most severe challenges. Agroecological publications of the last thirty years were scanned for arguments that sustain the hypothesis that small farms are more sustainable. It was found that there are no studies that directly compare the sustainability of farms based on their size. Instead, most studies cited to confirm the sustainability of small farms compare farms that differ in terms of both, size and farm management. Hence, it is likely that the reason for the advanced sustainability of small farms is their management, not their size. The assertion that small farms are a priori more sustainable than large ones is not supportable. Misleading use of the term "small farms" may impede the efforts of agroecology to stimulate sustainable food production.

Research paper thumbnail of Contemporary Buddhist Architecture

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016

This chapter places the historical development of contemporary Buddhist architecture in its histo... more This chapter places the historical development of contemporary Buddhist architecture in its historical context. It examines the ways that architects, builders, and monastics have drawn on historical typologies like the stupa, the stambha, and the caitya hall in producing new spaces for the teaching, dissemination, and veneration of Buddhist thought and practices. Sites like Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the Erawan Museum, the Spiritual Theater at Suan Mokkh , the Water Temple, and the Water-Moon Monasteryhave sought to reconcile the reflective and pedagogical aspects of historic Buddhist architecture with the needs of contemporary lay communities, modern expectations of leisure time, and the development of new modes of sense perception within a globalized culture that privileges consumption over contemplation.

Research paper thumbnail of Muae 2 : Collapsing New Buildings

Research paper thumbnail of Like Mangoes in July : The Work of Richard Fung

Research paper thumbnail of The City and the City

Journal of Urban History, 2014

This article examines the racialization of urban space in early twentieth-century Bangkok. After ... more This article examines the racialization of urban space in early twentieth-century Bangkok. After a general strike in 1910, the Siamese monarchy represented itself in urban space as the leaders of a sovereign nation with a racial Other in its midst. Rather than create a separate, walled enclave to contain this population, the monarchy drew on a material and rhetorical campaign to develop two interdependent cities with distinct racial identities. One city was a national capital under the authority of the absolute monarchy. The other was a thriving port city populated mostly by “Chinese” migrants and governed by extraterritorial law. Juxtaposing the built environment against its discursive representations, this article argues that the monarchy sought to endow the dual city of Bangkok and its inhabitants with racial characteristics to clarify national belonging, control the political power of the region’s migrant population, and cultivate support for royal urban investments.

Research paper thumbnail of Queer Looks: Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Film and Video

Feminist Review, 1995

Queer Looks is a collection of writing by video artists, filmmakers, and critics which explores t... more Queer Looks is a collection of writing by video artists, filmmakers, and critics which explores the recent explosion of lesbian and gay independent media culture. A compelling compilation of artists' statements and critical theory, producer interviews and image-text works, this anthology demonstrates the vitality of queer artists under attack and fighting back. Each maker and writer deploys a surprising array of techniques and tactics, negotiating the difficult terrain between street pragmatism and theoretical inquiry, finding voices rich in chutzpah and subtlety. From guerilla Super-8 in Manila to AIDS video activism in New York, Queer Looks zooms in on this very queer place in media culture, revealing a wealth of strategies, a plurality of aesthetics, and an artillary of resistances.