1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

j >/ e . Af {/V a n P osh va n . s a / > 4 COUNTRY SPECIFIC SESSION ASIA-PACIFIC TRIENNIAL, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA 18 September 1993 p S A f ' T COUNTRY SPECIFIC SESSION (THAILAND) 'CONTEMPORARY ART AND CULTURAL IDENTITY: CROSS-CULTURAL MATING I' 'Knowing thyself' or to search for what one really is has been closely linked with the official ideology of nationalism which includes the invention of traditions and the refurbishing of one's past. In its specificity this ideology has created 'imagined communities' of nationalism under the kind of totalizing umbrella. Many nations within the so-called Asia-Pacific region are classified as Third World as well as postcolonialist countries. Under such circumstances, nationalism in a given political and historical setting may become the local ethnicity, the trans­ nationalism, the religious, the diaspora or the ex-colonial. Moreover, cultural identity under the package of nationalism can also be the excuse for infatuation of nation-ness, hatred of others, extreme xenophobia, the cult leader, and military dictatorship. As the twentieth century is drawing to a close profound 1