War Heritage Tim

In this follow up to episode 5, Mark explores the relationship between modern conflict in Southeast Asia and forms of musical expression. In particular, he looks at the emergence of new and hybrid forms of rock and pop music, tracking their birth during the Vietnam War, and their development across the regions from the highlands of Northeastern Thailand to Singapore, Malaysia and Saigon. Can pop, rock and psychedelic sounds of the era be considered a valid example of intangible cultural heritage?

Any consideration of intangible cultural heritage needs to take account of how stories, memories, traditions or rituals are transformed, reinterpreted or lost through the passage of time. This episode focuses on the importance of formal education and, in particular, of language to this process of intergenerational transmission. In conversation with Kirsty Sword Gusmao, Helen Ting and Mark Maca, Edward Vickers debates the role of language as a form of superordinate intangible cultural heritage.

Heritage by definition tends to be regarded as intrinsically positive and worthy of preservation. But is this always the case, especially when the heritage in question relates to past conflict? In this episode, Edward Vickers and guests discuss various 'difficult' aspects of intangible cultural heritage in Southeast Asia, from issues of gendered violence to the contested legacies of colonialism.

Mark and Daniel enter the world of spirits and ghosts in Vietnam and Cambodia. They explore the cultural roles of “wandering souls” that war and conflict created and discuss their social, political, and economic significance. We are grateful to Narrowcasters for contributing parts of their audio guide to memory sites in Phnom Penh.

How does food become heritage? And what is its relationship with war and conflict? Daniel explores these questions by talking to food experts of Southeast Asia to find out how wartime foods can connect communities through space and time and become an important marker of people’s identities.

In this first part of a two-part episode on the sounds and music cultures of war, Mark and Daniel first ask what kind of sounds might actually qualify as war heritage. They then explore sound regimes and sonic infrastructures from the Asia-Pacific War to the American War in Vietnam and look at the transmission and modification of the conflicts’ traveling musical repertoires.