|
View the h-asia Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in h-asia's June 2005 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in h-asia's June 2005 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the h-asia home page.
H-ASIA
June 18, 2005
A specific case of the impact of 'popular' history--forthcoming exhibition
in Singapore re: Zheng He and Gavin Menzies
------
Ed. note:
I can affirm that the 1421 exhibition in Singapore is going to be a BIG
DEAL! Publicity was thick on the ground when I was there two weeks ago.
It struck me that the promotion and likely impact of the exhibition had
interesting resonances including the relations of China with the world of
Southeast Asia and images of Chinese civilization abroad. The flyers and
posters for this exhibit are very attractive and the event is being
boomed in magazines, hoardings, posters and advertisements on the sides
of busses, featuring heroic pictures of the admiral in a jaunty, confident
pose. Geoff Wade's comments in this post make a fine point of departure
for further discussion popular vs. academic history, as well as of
China's Discovery of Gavin Menzies...
FFC
*************************************************************************
From: Geoff Wade <arigpw@nus.edu.sg>
Dear H-ASIA members,
What follows is a piece which I wrote in response to Gavin Menzie's 1421
Exhibition that is being mounted in Singapore as part of the Zheng He
600th anniversary celebrations. I believe this relates directly to our
on-going thread of discussiion of "popular versus academic history," and
the wider issue of heritage versus history.
Best,
Geoff Wade
Asia Research Institute
National University of Singapore
-------------
"1421 and All That" by Geoff Wade
The debate in Singapore between economic benefit and the social
desirability of particular policies has in recent months been monopolized
by the casino issue. However, another pressing area where the debate
could profitably be shifted is the "1421" Exhibition now being marketed
as part of the Singapore Tourism Board's (STB) Zheng He celebration
activities.
This year marks the 600th anniversary of the first voyage of the Ming
navigator Zheng He to Southeast Asia and beyond, and various groups and
government agencies around the region are taking advantage of this
anniversary to promote diverse tourism and other agenda. The STB is, not
unnaturally, also using this opportunity to promote tourism to Singapore
from both China and the ASEAN states through a range of activities
detailed more fully on their website. [See the URL:
<http://www.visitsingapore-zhenghe.com/index.php>.]
Many of the activities planned are educational and will prove attractive
to both Singaporeans and tourists. The National Library is sponsoring an
exhibition on Zheng He and maritime Asia to mark the opening of its new
building in Victoria Street; there will be a "Zheng He Village" featuring
regional "ports of call" at Marina Promenade; other events are being
organised in Labrador Park; a Zheng He musical is being staged, and a
performance of "Zheng He, Admiral of the Seven Seas" will grace the Arts
Festival. The Huayinet Committee will also convene an academic
conference in August which will incorporate various aspects of Zheng He
studies. These activities will undoubtedly be well-attended and will
likely fulfil the organisers' hopes of attracting tourists, particularly
those from the PRC, and of pleasing the citizens of the Republic.
There remains, however, a troubling element to the arrangements. As an
integral aspect of the celebrations, the STB has invited Mr Gavin Menzies
to come to Singapore with his researchers to mount an exhibition on his
book _1421: The Year China Discovered the World_ or, as published in the
United States, _1421: the Year China Discovered America_ For those not
au fait with Mr Menzies' work, it might be noted in passing that the book
claims that during one of the Zheng He voyages beginning in 1421, various
sub-fleets circumnavigated Australia, reached the Americas, sailed around
Greenland and generally mapped the world. That there is not one single
piece of recognised evidence to support these claims seems to have made
no difference to the author or his supporters. Mr Menzies is seen by
some as mildly eccentric and by others as a dangerous charlatan. He has
a powerful marketing machine behind him which is continually producing
new "evidence" to keep sales of the book (as well as paintings and now
tours of Southeast Asia, for which see Menzies' website) booming. He
remains, like Erich von Daniken, author of the infamous _Chariots of the
Gods_, surrounded by a group of avid acolytes, but lacking all academic
respectability. He was, for a time, popular in China, but his subsequent
dismissal of Chinese historians as being ignorant of their own past has
left him without any real support in the PRC. He has thus shifted his
attention to Southeast Asia, where there is a ready audience for stories
of great exploits by the Ming admiral, factual or otherwise.
It is thus that the "1421 Exhibition" has come to Singapore. The
exhibition was arranged, and is being marketed, by the Singapore Tourism
Board, but the practical arrangements have been subcontracted to Pico Art
International, a Singapore company.
What will the exhibition contain? Apart from the claims detailed in the
book -- that "Zheng He discovered America and circumnavigated the world
nearly a century ahead of the Europeans" -- Mr. Menzies' website promises
that even more dramatic "evidence" for his thesis, including the expose
of a Ming naval base in the Americas, will be revealed. Those who have
been watching the Menzies' bandwagon over the years will recognise the
modus operandi. In 2002, when he rented a room in the Royal Geographical
Society in London to publicize his then forthcoming book, Mr Menzies
claimed the existence of Ming shipwrecks in the Bimini islands. They were
later shown to be sand dunes. Subsequently, he asserted the existence of
remnants of a Ming fleet off New Zealand, driven into a cliff by a comet-
generated tsunami! The "evidence" for this was all shown to be
unfailingly natural. The most recent Menzies' claims about a Ming naval
base on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, are upset somewhat by the fact
that even the discoverer of the site, Mr. Paul Chiasson, agrees that
there is no evidence to indicate any cultural affiliation of the site,
and -- given its location quite some distance inland -- denies that it is
a naval base of any form. But the wild claims do not cease, because they
are the grist which drives the commercial sales of Menzies Inc.
But why should one adopt a negative attitude towards such a commercial
venture? Where lies the problem with providing an eccentric with a
venue to put forward his highly speculative claims and to make a few
dollars in the process? The problem lies precisely in the fact that Mr
Menzies and his backers are portraying his increasingly wild claims --
which are, it must be underlined, entirely dismissed by the academic
world -- as fact and as history. And those who will walk the Singapore
exhibition -- the Singaporean children, the regional visitors, and the
merely interested person-in-the-street -- will be told that these
speculations are indeed an integral part of our common pasts. This
Exhibition is in fact being marketed to Singaporeans and regional
visitors as must-see revisionist history.
A recent Reuters article on the upcoming exhibition highlighted the nub
of the problem when it noted that Singapore, through this "three-month
exhibition beginning in June," will be providing Mr. Menzies' theory with
"a new sheen of respectability." Is this promotion something in which a
body so closely connected with the Singapore government should be
engaged? STB claims that it is only marketing, but not endorsing, the
product. But when it markets and issues press releases on the
exhibition's behalf, and features it on its website, is this any
different from endorsement? That public monies should be spent and that a
government-linked agency should be party to an exhibition which
intentionally deceives and, more importantly, distorts the Asian past in
the quest for commercial gain, suggests a disservice to the many
thousands of visitors who are being targeted to attend this Exhibition.
What should be done? Too much money and time have been spent on the
project to expect that it be cancelled. However, some means is required
to save Singapore from international embarrassment. The STB could
categorically state in prominent notices and on tickets that it does not
endorse the exhibition, and that the contents are highly speculative and
not supported by orthodox historians.
Given that the public are protected by legislation from false and
misleading advertising claims in the commercial realm, should they not be
protected from the marketing of fictitious history?
When faced with criticism over the content, the organisers have claimed
that visitors will be able to make up their own minds about Mr. Menzies'
claims in the 1421 Exhibition. But when it is solely the theories of Mr.
Menzies on display, on what basis are adults, much less youth, to assess
the truth of the product? Singapore's citizens and its visitors deserve
better than this.
Details of the 1421 Exhibition can be seen at:
http://www.1421exhibition.com/
Geoff Wade is a Senior Research Fellow in the Asia Research Institute,
National University of Singapore. The views expressed above are personal
opinions.
******************************************************************
To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to:
<H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu>
For holidays or short absences send post to:
<listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message:
SET H-ASIA NOMAIL
Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL
H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
|