1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

16 Far more contiguity is the re t h a n admitted by the no tion of t r a n s f e r to a s itu a tio n where a r t d iscourses did no t ex is t - a t l e a s t in th e sense of a r t works be ing made which encap su la ted h igher cu ltu r a l and cognitive va lues. Sync re tis t adsorption be tween d iscourses seems to have been the case in Tha iland •and the Phillipines. Cu ltu ra l p rovenance does not seem to have been an issue in defining s ty lis tic a u th e n t i c i t y before the na tiona lisms of the la te 19 th and early 20 th cen tu ry . India p re sen ts the case of a multiplicity of d iscourses which may a t d ifferen t times or phases be placed in any of these th ree categories, bu t with a basica lly syn c r e tis tic tendency which ov e rca s ts all a ttemp ts to e s tab lish pa ra lle l n e o - t r a d i t i o n a l and n eo -Eu rame rican discourses. For the 1930s these discourse types may be roughly co rre la ted with the independence of the s t a t e , or the way in which it was colonized. The Thai neo -co lon ia l s itua tion , for example, th en resembled what would become the case for many s t a t e s which became independen t from semi-co lon ia l or colonial s itu a tion s a f te r World War II. Euramerican a rt Syncretism P a ra lle l-d is cou r se s of as a rt d iscou r se - con tigu ity of n e o - t r a d i t i o n a l & in i t i a to r d isp a r a te d iscourses neo -Eu rame rican Sta te autonomy independent Japan neo -co lon ia l Tha iland semi-colonia l Philippines China colonial Indonesia India Taiwan Malay S ta tes Korea Thus before we go fu r the r , it is clear, on the s t r u c t u r a l basis of its a r t discourses th a t Japan is only like ly to be ana ly tica lly comparable to China. Taiwan, and Korea, the l a s t two be ing its colonies and the first