Open AccessChinese Cemetery as Heterotopia: A Case of Kwong Tong Chinese Cemetery (KTCC)
Author(s) -
Valerie Ng,
Meow Hui Goh
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/636/1/012012
Subject(s) - heterotopia (medicine) , realm , relation (database) , representation (politics) , space (punctuation) , china , history , sociology , aesthetics , art , archaeology , law , political science , politics , philosophy , computer science , linguistics , genetics , database , biology
With the emergence of new typologies of memorial parks and commercialisation of industries for the dead in Malaysia, what is the image and fate of older cemetery sites within the urban realm? This paper aims to re-define the perception of urban Chinese cemetery as a heterotopic space through the case study of Kwong Tong Chinese Cemetery (KTCC). Using the Foucauldian notion of heterotopia as a framework for analysis, this paper studies the transitions of KTCC through time, and how it stands in relation to the society that produced it. The paper argues that the cemetery is a highly heterotopic site; it is a space of representation and a space of difference, which celebrates the disruption of space and time in relation to society. The implication of society towards the ever changing role of a cemetery, and for now, the changing progression is at the stage where the contemporary Chinese cemetery in Malaysia displays its multi-functional spatial qualities within a single site, as a space of ‘otherness’.