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AU Sow Yee: Rumah Attap Library & Collective looks to vitalize local knowledge production or critical thinking, and has fine interaction with different organizations in the Zhongshan Building, as we support each other’s events. But I think we are all concentrated in the building, whereas Kuala Lumpur is a more spread-out city. This space provides certain conditions for you to learn and support each other. For example, we knew about Malaysia Design Archive, but did not know any of its actual members. Later we became neighbors, and have been interacting more closely.
Alice KO Nien Po: Do you plan to launch other educational or research projects in the future?
SHOW Ying Xin: All three of the member organizations have things we want to do. For example, “Archive of the Other Mapping Project” is a project of the library; Amateur has always been keeping a close watch on discussions on intellectuals, as well as some other social issues. We also organize seminars and publish magazines. In Between Cultura invites scholars to the library for courses on modernity in addition to organizing some workshops on organic menstrual pads. Actually, we do have this kind of courses here, what is lacking is perhaps reading discussion — a space where people can discuss after they finish reading books. That is why Amateur wants to focus on this area. However, since we all have day jobs, we have not yet systematically lay out a plan on which books to read.
AU: This has something to do with target audience. Community library can reach a wider audience. We do not have the resources to do these things; collecting and managing books are time consuming, and require lots of efforts. Most of our members have full time jobs, and we cannot afford to hire any employees. This is why we really want to focus on books on culture and arts, sociology, and critical thinking, because these types of books are what normal libraries lack. Books sold in bookstores are limited, some more critical books are more difficult to obtain, and are more expensive compared to other countries. We want to collect some books that are hard to buy. Only by achieving this can we further create agencies, or else things will remain the same 10, 20, or even 30 years from now. Nutrients do not just come from art itself, else it would become more and more boring. We never care about the past or events around us; even when we do care, we just think about them. I think to change our mindset requires a long process, but at least we can make the library a part of our journey.
I think our reference in Taiwan is not art spaces; the key point is, in Taiwan, they have more vibrant interactions between art practices and thinking. We founded the library perhaps because, coming from different backgrounds, we could quickly reach consensus; maybe we were inspired by KUNCI. We started this without any resource, and so at the moment we still have to pay the rent. We have only recruited volunteers to help with the archiving, because we really want to have a book loan system. Actually, the library itself is a piece of work; as an open space, or a “living body,” how can we reassemble the things that happen here? This is what I really want to do, rather than publishing works in the library. Its formation is not too distant from my creative practice; as a kind of knowledge reassembly, regardless of our concerns for history or future, blocks of time can be reassembled here, and in a way, it is another dimension of my work.
KO: Can you talk a bit about “Archive of the Other Mapping Project”?
SHOW: “Archive of the Other Mapping Project” mainly positions the library as a local entity. We are located at the heart of Kuala Lumpur, with Petaling Street nearby; across from us is a community of migrant workers, but no one has explored it deeper. There are many others in this city, how do we learn more about their lives, and the things they care about? Personally, I was inspired by that library in Surabaya; they did not know the local history before establishing the library. After they began operation, they started researching local history, making maps, and organizing guided tours. I hope the library can position itself, and make a map of Kuala Lumpur’s landscape. For example, many visually impaired people will gather around the Brickfield near us, because there is a school for blind people. The visually impaired people start living there once they graduate from the school, and there are some massage parlors run by the blind people. It is also an Indian community, whereas over here, we are a Chinese community. So, we hope to collect the stories of these communities to better illustrate the location of the library. So, the “Archive of the Other Mapping Project” recruits some volunteers for field study; everyone is here voluntarily. The volunteers are broken up into smaller groups for the research, and in the end, we will publish a magazine and produce a documentary film.
Also, reading group is very important. We have compiled an essay collection titled Method of Reading Kuala Lumpur, which features research papers on homeless and visually impaired people, as well as the history of Kuala Lumpur. So, there are roughly three aspects: field study ethics, spatial landscape theory, and historical view, which are all quite well received. We are also open to the general public, and few dozens who are interested also signed up, forming a reading group of about 30 people, which is divided into three sessions in August, September, and October. We divided the work among us; Sow Yee is in charge of exhibition, others are responsible for the reading sessions, and most of the library members work on fieldwork together.
AU: I think the city of Kuala Lumpur has no focal point; it seems to be lacking a sense of body. If you asked someone in the city for direction, the person would tell you the GPS direction, and your senses of space and body would then be placed inside a car, where the perception between your body and space slowly disappeared. But this sense of body was still there when we were children. I knew which ways were shortcuts. Social media and news always mention “other,” and perhaps I have also turned myself into “other,” the process through which I am accepted or removed. Turning oneself into other while also regarding other people as others, such contradiction is especially obvious in Kuala Lumpur. This includes narrating history or narrating the look of a city, and these narratives are not just official narratives, they must use people as the basic units. Can we restart a vision for the imagination of Kuala Lumpur from this narrative based on people? We borrow the concept of “mapping”, which is both a noun and a verb, and therefore, I think the most important thing is to re-summon the people, including field study volunteers, our members, or other young people who are interested; what kind of look will be woven by interaction among these people, and how will the imagination of this city change? The discourse focuses on “other,” and can the state of other be re-debated and re-confirmed through this method? Who is or who is not? Through gatherings we tighten our relationship, and in seminars we look at the matter on the level of history; how different spaces appear, and how do they connect with one another.
KO: But many of them are migrant workers speaking different languages?
SHOW: Yes. Some are from Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. We have followed them to Little Bangladesh or Little Myanmar for photo shoots. South Asians are all in the same district; Catholic church belongs to the Filipinos, they go there every Sunday. They are mostly women, because they are mainly domestic helpers. They come to the church on Sunday to participate in classes, such as cooking, makeup, or guitar. In the end, we hope to publish a magazine, which chronicles the lives of these urban dwellers. Since we opened the library, we feel that we should not just idealize things; we need to take concrete actions.
KO: Is the library still going through changes at the moment?
SHOW: Yes. The three organizations need to communicate, and we are not rushing to position ourselves. We will take some time and see how it develops into. Our events attract people; there are galleries and artist workshops here in the Zhongshan Building, but they all say that the library seems to be the most active tenant. However, they do not know us well, because our events are mainly in Mandarin. I think the library should not limit itself within the Chinese community; Amateur’s objective is to introduce things the Chinese community is unfamiliar with. So, we try to translate as much as we can, and we welcome questions in different languages during the events. This is inspired by Inter-Asia School; because their events often proceed in multiple languages, where simultaneous interpretation is provided, so that everyone can speak in the language they are most comfortable with, and understand one another. Malaysia is a multilingual country, yet not a lot of people operate this way. Therefore, “Revisiting Malaya” 2.0 conference was conducted in at least two languages when it was held in Kuala Lumpur, and many participating Malay scholars expressed that it was the first time they attended an event with interpretation between Chinese and English. This kind of mutual understanding is important. Since Amateur came from a Chinese-educated background, we must bring in other knowledge. Also, we invite our Malay friends to organize events here. On the week of the 60th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence, we also co-organized a forum with a group in Malay.
KO: Although the library focuses on critical thinking and related discussions, compared to academic activities, the general public has greater diversity in terms of language expressions. How would you imagine the difference between them?
SHOW: We definitely will not discuss in academic language. Our published zine, Intellectuals, is too straightforward and vernacular for academia, but we have always wanted to find the balance, so we can talk about some phenomena in plain and simple language without citing any theories. I think the greatest influence I got from Inter-Asia School was from a meeting held in Okinawa in 2013; intellectuals of Okinawa were not necessarily from the academia. Some worked for magazines, and some wrote poetry. These intellectuals truly cared about the society. Their concerns were not just scholars’ concerns for their own fields of study. Okinawa’s issues were part of their lives, and all people were protesting, even scholars participated in protests at military bases. Just as CHEN Kuang-hsing said, the inside and outside of the system must be interconnected, and they had clear ultimate concerns instead of superficial discourses; they actually aimed to revisit the course of history and colonization. Although it was an academic conference, I remember some scholars wept during presentations as they were deeply touched. Upon my return, I thought about what the Malaysians cared about. I also hope that the library can become the place where foreigners know that they should come to find out about the local history when they visit Kuala Lumpur. Also, the library is a platform where different communities collide and interact, so that everyone can share ideas freely, and not limited by language and identity.
AU: Inter-Asia School, to an extent, is more elitist and institutionalized, requiring academic recognition for forum presentations. However, what we want to do is to continue gathering people, and engage them in face-to-face interactions; it is still uncertain what we will ultimately achieve, but we will continue accumulating our effort, for at least now people can express their ideas, to eventually create an open space, break barriers, and facilitate brainstorming. Through current projects, we have attracted a group of young people, making it possible to sustain such interaction, and perhaps it will become part of the next project. Through this method, knowledge production can be constantly stirred, instead of having a group of same people doing the same thing all the time. Unlike Inter-Asia School, Rumah Attap Library & Collective is a more intimate space and organization, and this intimacy can serve as the origin of induction, which is happening continuously.