Publication Type
Conference Paper
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
1-2005
Abstract
The ‘Self’ in late-modernity is never singular but multiplies across different discourses, practices and positions. It is constructed through difference. It is only through a relation to the ‘Other’ that the ‘Self’ can be defined. This paper endeavours to map the endless negotiations of my ‘Self’ as male Australian academic of Chinese descent, a Malaysian citizen, a Bruneian resident, and an Indonesian specialist, over a period of fieldwork in Jakarta in 2004. It discusses how I defined my multiple ‘Selves’ to different individuals and communities, how they in turn defined me, and how these constructions were always shifting. Depending on the situation, it was my Australian ‘Self’ that defined me, or my Chinese, or Malaysian, or Bruneian, or even a local Indonesian ‘Self’ acquired over the period of fieldwork. Using the practice of self-reflexivity, this paper problematises the various dichotomies between the researcher and the researched, Self/Other, insider/outsider, native/foreign and home/away.
Discipline
Asian Studies
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Locating Asian-Australian Cultures Symposium
City or Country
Monash University, Melbourne
Citation
HOON, Chang Yau.(2005). Defining (Multiple) Selves: Stories from the Field. Paper presented at the Locating Asian-Australian Cultures Symposium, Monash University, Melbourne.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/840
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Comments
Monash University, Melbourne