Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
D'Albuquerque's Children: Performing Tradition in Malaysia's Portuguese Settlement

D'Albuquerque's Children: Performing Tradition in Malaysia's Portuguese Settlement

Sarkissian, Margaret

Paperback

Series: Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology

Southeast Asian HistoryWorld Music

ISBN10: 0226734994
ISBN13: 9780226734996
Publisher: Univ Of Chicago Pr
Published: Dec 15 2000
Pages: 233
Weight: 0.77
Height: 0.53 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
When the Portuguese seafarer Afonso de Albuquerque conquered the bustling port of Malacca in 1511, he effectively gained control of the entire South China Sea spice trade. Although their dominance lasted only 130 years, the Portuguese legacy lies at the heart of a burgeoning tourist attraction on the outskirts of the city, in which performers who believe they are the descendants of swashbuckling Portuguese conquerors encapsulate their history in a cultural stage show.

Using historical and ethnographic data, Margaret Sarkissian reveals that this music and dance draws on an eclectic array of influences that span the Portuguese diaspora (one song conjures up images of Lucille Ball impersonating Carmen Miranda on I Love Lucy). Ironically, she shows, what began as a literate tradition in the 1950s has now become an oral one so deeply rooted in Settlement life that the younger generation, like the tourists, now see it as an unbroken heritage stretching back almost 500 years. A fascinating case of orientalism in reverse, D'Albuquerque's Children illuminates the creative ways in which one community has adapted to life in a postcolonial world.

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