Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
11-2021
Abstract
Beyond their traditional role as entertainment, form of expression and meeting spaces within local communities, arts and culture festivals can perform various functions. They can serve as showcases of artistic pride, signal openness towards cultural diversity, support the local economy, contribute to reducing political tension and provide grounds to consolidate international relationships. On occasion, such festivals function as tools to support the vision of a multilateral co-operation institution, as is the case of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Through a comprehensive review of the arts and culture festivals curated in ASEAN, this article investigates the festivals’ ulterior motivations. A range of economic, political, diplomatic, and organisational logics explain the evolution of such festivals during the last fifty years. The article concludes that arts and culture festivals have remained a compelling and instrumental co-operation mechanism in ASEAN, but formats and approaches need substantial revision.
Keywords
Diplomacy, Arts and Culture, Festivals, Cultural Diplomacy, Cultural Co-operation, ASEAN, ASEAN Arts and Culture, Southeast Asian Culture, Arts and Culture Festivals
Discipline
Arts and Humanities | Asian Studies | Sociology of Culture
Research Areas
Political Science; Humanities
Publication
Hague Journal of Diplomacy
First Page
1
Last Page
29
ISSN
1871-1901
Identifier
10.1163/1871191X-bja10081
Publisher
Brill Academic Publishers
Citation
OCON, David.(2021). Cultural diplomacy and co-operation in ASEAN: The role of arts and culture festivals. Hague Journal of Diplomacy, , 1-29.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3475
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.