Asian Values

You know you’re Asian if respect for hierarchy is in the very fiber of your being. And you know you’re American if your rallying cry is freedom from the hierarchy.Right?These are the stories we tell ourselves. But why these stories and not others? And who gets to pick the stories that are told? These are the questions asked by artist Choy Ka Fai, who tells a story of his own—one that goes against the grain—in his performance art piece, The Lan Fang Chronicles.

Lan Fang was a prototypical democratic republic founded in Kalimantan, Indonesia by Hakka Chinese immigrants in 1775. That’s right: a whole year before the American colonies declared their independence. It follows they weren’t inspired by the American tradition of freedom but rather, by their own traditions.{{1}}

The forgotten republic of Lan Fang was brought to the Chinese-speaking public's attention once before, by famed twentieth century reformer Liang Qichao. Liang wanted to draw attention not to Lan Fang's innovations in governance but to China's pioneering efforts in Southeast Asia, drawing inspiration from the West’s glorification of its own colonizing pioneers. Liang did not acknowledge the intrinsic evils of the colonizing project itself.{{2}}The Chinese had historically maintained trade links with the gold- and mineral- rich kingdoms of Kalimantan. By the eighteenth century, more and more Hakka adventurers sought to make their fortune in this new frontier, motivated by a desire to escape a dire economic situation and political oppression at home.In the inhospitable environment of Kalimantan, it made sense for the Hakkas to stick together. Drawing upon Hakka traditions of collective decision-making that were more Taoist (egalitarian) than Confucian (hierarchical), the Hakkas evolved a system of governance for Lan Fang that was groundbreaking in the Chinese cultural context. The inhabitants of Lan Fang organized themselves into various common economic organizations, each appointing (or possibly electing) a delegate to a proto-parliament. This proto-parliament was led in turn by a President elected by all inhabitants of Lan Fang, whether rich or poor. (Compare this with the early years of the USA, where only white, male property-owners could vote.) Over time, as the Hakkas integrated in their new environs, Lan Fang became a multi-ethnic society, but its governing institutions transcended their Hakka origins. Lan Fang thrived for another hundred years, before it was annexed by the Dutch.{{3}}So which part of the above is fact and which is fiction? It's hard to know: few official resources have ever been applied to finding out more about Lan Fang. (There are some quarters where the idea of an indigenous democratic tradition might not be so welcome.)Choy’s Chronicles creates a whole history around this quasi-mythical republic.Choy has even mounted a fake exhibit of Lan Fang “artifacts” within a museum-like setting, complete with cheeky panel text, and in the process makes a point about how history is constructed.[[1]]Lo Hsiang-Lin, A Historical Survey of the Lan-Fang Presidential System in Western Borneo, Established by Lo Fang-Pai and Other Overseas Chinese, 1961.[[1]][[2]]Liam C. Kelley in “Thoughts on a Chinese Diaspora: The Case of the Macs of Hà Tiên, ”Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2000.[[2]][[3]]Yuan Bingling, Chinese Democracies: A Study of the Kongsis of West Borneo (1776-1884), 2000.[[3]]