Why colonialist stereotypes persist — and how to stop romanticizing history | Farish Ahmad-Noor

TED Talks Daily

TED

Creativity, Ted Podcast, Ted Talks Daily, Business, Design, Inspiration, Society & Culture, Science, Technology, Education, Tech Demo, Ted Talks, Ted, Entertainment, Tedtalks

4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2020

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Colonialism remains as an inescapable blight on the present, lingering in the toxic, internalized mythologies and stereotypes that outlive the regimes that created them, says historian Farish Ahmad-Noor. Examining why these prejudices and narratives persist (and sometimes thrive), he suggests a multidisciplinary approach to reject cultural obsessions with romanticized history and prevent this malignant nostalgia from perpetuating past oppressions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hume.
0:06.5	There's a William Faulkner quote that I think about a lot.
0:09.4	It goes, the past isn't dead. It's not even past.
0:13.7	That notion that we carry history in us is the central idea in today's talk from political
0:18.9	scientist and historian Farish Ahmad Noor.
0:22.3	In his TEDx talk at NTU in Singapore, Farish asks us to question our viewpoints,
0:27.9	especially when it comes to the stereotypes Asians are often unfairly targeted with.
0:32.6	This one really stuck with me. It'll make you think.
0:37.5	I promise you that I will not sing. I will spare you that at least. But I am a historian
0:44.4	with a background in philosophy. And my main area of research is basically the history of
0:52.9	Southeast Asia with a focus on 19th century
0:55.9	colonial Southeast Asia. And over the last few years, what I've been doing, what I've been doing,
1:01.7	is really tracing the history of certain ideas that shape our viewpoint, the way we in Asia,
1:09.8	in Southeast Asia, look at ourselves and understand ourselves.
1:13.7	Now, there's one thing that I cannot explain as a historian, and this has been puzzling me for
1:22.7	a long time. And this is how and why certain ideas, certain viewpoints by no means, but some people in post-colonial Asia
1:49.7	still hold on to a somewhat romanticized view of the colonial past,
1:57.4	see through a kind of rose-tinted lenses as perhaps a time that was benevolent or nice or pleasant,
2:04.6	even though historians know the realities of the violence and the oppression and the darker side of that entire colonial experience.
2:14.6	So let's imagine I build a time machine for myself.
2:19.3	I built a time machine, and I send myself back to the 1860s, 100 years before I was born.
2:27.9	Oh, dear, I've just dated myself.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.