When cultures meet

PINOY KASI


When cultures meet
By Michael Tan
Inquirer

Last updated 01:47am (Mla time) 03/02/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- An ivory Virgin Mary and a sleeping Santo Niño with Chinese eyes. A blue and white jar, dating back to the Qing dynasty, where you could lock up chocolate. A gold “ibu dan anak” (mother-and-child) ornament to hold together a batik blouse.

These are among the objects on display at the Ayala Museum until May 27, as part of a 6-in-1 exhibit called “Chinese Diaspora: Art Streams from the Mainland.” The six exhibits include The Robert Villanueva Collection of Chinese Trade Wares; The Peranakan Legacy; Tsinoy: Mestizo Art in Colonial Times; Damian Domingo: The First Great Filipino Painter; Evidence Bags: Claudine Sia; and China Gaze: Valeria Cavestany.

The first four are historical exhibits, while the last two are modern art. But all six come together to show what happens when cultures meet, and interact.

Talking wares

My favorite exhibit is that of trade wares. Most are from China, although there are also pieces from Vietnam and Thailand. Curated by Rita Tan, one of the foremost authorities on Chinese ceramics, the exhibit brings together all kinds of Chinese ceramics that were transported on extensive trade routes that ran throughout the entire Southeast Asian region. These were originally in the collection of H. Otley Beyer, the American anthropologist and archaeologist, but were later bought up by Roberto and Corazon Grau Villanueva.

This exhibit reminds us that the "168" mall and the Divisoria flea market area are only the latest developments of a centuries-old trading relationship. More than a thousand years ago, the Chinese realized the trading potential in Southeast Asia. The Chinese knew that in exchange for their ceramics, as well as other products such as silk, they could obtain valuable forest and mineral products from their neighbors. If the ceramics could talk, we’d have wondrous tales of that trading relationship.

The Ayala exhibits offer glimpses into the dimensions of this trade. The wares come from several dynasties, the oldest piece being Yue ware dating back to the 10th century. They come from different parts of China, including Zhejiang, Henan, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Fujian. The wares from that last province interested me the most, and it was thrilling to learn that Nan-an, from where my paternal grandfather came from, was a major producer of these ceramics.

Most of the trade wares had very practical uses, from plates and beakers and bowls for dining to the huge jars for storing and fermenting (imagine pre-colonial "patis" or "bagoong"!) foods, and, let’s not forget, drinks, as in intoxicating beverages.

Many of the objects combine the utilitarian and the decorative. A figurine showing a boy on a water buffalo, for example, turns out to be a water dropper. Next to one of these wares is something that looks quite naughty: a couple in a rather amorous position. I couldn’t tell if it is meant to be a water dropper as well, but try to imagine our ancestors displaying such figurines in their homes.

Many of the trade wares are exhibited in the homes of the rich and famous as prestige goods, a way of displaying one’s wealth. But I suspect even our ancestors already saw these wares as a way of showing off. Many of the ceramics were excavated from burial sites, again a way of indicating one’s status, as well as an expression of beliefs in an after-life where the valuable ceramics could still be used. Who says you can’t take it all with you?

Mestizo art

The Chinese who migrated out to Southeast Asian countries included artisans who had the traditional ceramics designs not only in their heads but also the skills to replicate the technology. Thus, in parts of modern Thailand and Malaysia, you have jars produced in kilns that were established way back in time by Chinese migrants. This is why you have to be very careful when you buy “antique” ceramics: more likely than not, that jar may be 21st-century made-in-Thailand rather than some 12th-century Chinese ceramic.

In other cases, Chinese migrants modified their artistic skills, incorporating local motifs, designs and processes to produce “mestizo art.” Three of the Ayala Museum exhibits give fine examples of these hybrids. “The Peranakan Legacy” is an exhibit on loan from the Asian Civilizations Museum, showing everything from embroidery and beadwork to intricate jewelry and ornaments, to massive sculpted furniture, all produced by the Peranakan or "mestizo" [mixed-blood] Chinese-Malay.

A Qing blue and white jar with a lock, intended to store (hoard?) chocolate, reminds us of the prosperity of these mestizo classes, which is reflected in the extravagance of their artwork. Some of these families even had their own jewelers-in-residence, something rich Filipino (including Chinese mestizo) families did too in the 19th century, to make sure the craftsmen did not substitute or filch valuable raw materials.

Ambeth Ocampo has described in his column the exhibit, “Tsinoy: Mestizo Art in Colonial Times,” which he curated. While the Peranakan exhibit was breath-taking, I still found charm in the “Tsinoy” exhibit, a small selection of hardwood "santos" and jewelry that show Chinese influences -- the "singkit" [chinky] eyes on some of the images, including a Virgin Mary and a sleeping Santo Niño. One statue of the Virgin Mary, from its facial features as well as its dress, could have passed for the Buddhist Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy).

Another exhibit shows the work of another Chinese mestizo, Damian Domingo who established the first art school in the country. It’s intriguing though how one self-portrait shows him looking very Caucasian, without the slightest hint of his Chinese ancestry.

Unleashed

The two more modern art exhibits show how the fascination with things Chinese remains with us today, incorporated into the “evidence bags” (actually glassine envelopes with photographs and postcards) of Claudine Sia and the media light boxes of Valeria Cavestany, using light boxes with acrylic renditions of China and the Chinese.

There’s contrast and continuity in these exhibits. The old Chinese wares are exquisite, but there’s contrast between their staid colors -- blue and white, celadon, brown -- and those of “mestizo art,” where there is an explosion of colors and a move away from traditional designs. It almost seems as if the Chinese artisans and artists, unleashed in new hothouse environments of Southeast Asia, gave free rein to their imagination, whether in the Peranakan clothing, or the contemporary work of Sia.

Yet even when mestizo art turns whimsical, kitschy or opulent, you find continuity, a connection to mainland Chinese culture, in the designs, in the workmanship. Understanding the Chinese influence in Filipino culture becomes all the more important in our age of globalization and now, the Filipino diaspora. Will we, too, leave our mark elsewhere, even as we bring home the sights and sounds of our overseas sojourns to blend into our already eclectic cultural potpourri?