This essay is an edited version of a paper of the same title presented at the New Asian Imaginations Symposium, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, 2008. Kwok Kian Chow redefines Nanyang Art by investigating the term “Nanyang”, which opens up research possibilities on the Nanyang School to further link art discourse with contextual and comparative studies on the “West Seas”, “East Seas” and “South Seas”.

Singapore-based British musician and composer, Eric Watson, details American Maestro and Cultural Medallion (Music) recipient Tsung Yeh's journey to this part of the world and the influences on his [Yeh's] artistic direction, and the platforms to expand the repertoire of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. This essay, written from Maestro Yeh's account, is an edited version of a paper presented at the New Asian Imaginations Symposium 2008.

Interviewing Quek Tse Kwang (TK), one of the top architects and art collectors in Singapore, has been very inspiring for the editor. True to his profession — an architect — TK is a person who works at building relationships in each encounter. Little wonder that Singapore's pioneer artist Cheong Soo Pieng would offer him his favourite piece, one that was famous due to the image being publicised by UNICEF — Mother & Daughter. This is also TK's personal favourite as the acquisition of this painting has a very touching story. The artist reduced the price without prompting as he wanted the young architect to have that particular artwork. It was the most expensive painting TK had ever bought. The artist passed on the next day. That was in 1983

After graduating from Keele University with a degree in Law and Psychology, Adrian did the natural thing and spent the next eight years working as an actor in the UK, where his theatre credits include Hair at the West End's Old Vic Theatre; as Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream; as Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy Of Errors; The Magic Fundoshi (Best Comedy at the London Fringe Theatre Awards); The Mens Womb; A Christmas Carol; Tormented; The Circles of Paradise; One For The Road; Sleeping Beauty; New Territories; Take Away; Leaving Turnpike Lane and Privates On Parade.

Under the intense Cold War environment, Hong Kong leftwing troupes, representing progressive socialist Chineseness, performed three times in Singapore in 1959, 1963 and 1966 and conducted one performing tour in Malaysia in 1971. While the official discourse perpetuated the tours as ‘cultural exchanges’, this chapter reveals a more nuanced understanding of these cultural and diplomatic events. First, different from earlier scenarios, these tours were activated by the governments of Singapore and Malaya(sia) to rekindle the ties with the homeland. Second, the ways the ruling party of Singapore and Malaya(sia) appropriated the performed Chineseness illustrated a constant oscillation between taming and appeasing the left-leaning Chinese-educated masses, whose presence and influences were seen as a thorny issue in their decolonisation processes. Therefore, Chapter 7 delves into the critical encounters in which the leftwing troupes employed subtle strategies to articulate the image of socialist China on the one hand, and local governments reframed the embodied Chineseness either within its own political agenda or to facilitate diplomatic interactions with China.