Curating Shadows: Malayan Shadow Puppets in Singapore's Asian Civilisations Museum

Abstract:Singapore's Asian Civilisations Museum houses a large collection of shadow puppets from Malaysia, but very little is known about them except that the originated in Kelantan during the period of British colonial rule. Scant records exist explaining how they ended up in the museum's ethnographic holdings, or the social significance of the collection for the museum and for Kelantanese theatrical arts. Examining the puppets through both an aesthetic and curatorial lens allows us to expand our knowledge of museology and cross-cultural encounters, and contributes to discussions on the interrelationship between history, the performing arts, and the politics of collecting at the periphery of colonial Malaya.