At the Pivot of East and West

Michael M. J. Fischer is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of numerous books, including Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life and Anthropology in the Meantime: Experimental Ethnography, Theory, and Method for the Twenty-First Century, both also published by Duke University Press.

“Michael M. J. Fischer’s pathbreaking use of literature and documentary films to construct Asian ethnographies that splinter binaries and identities makes Asia, and Singapore in particular, far more fractal and dense with images and possibilities than it normally appears in social science literature. For those who know or thought they knew Singapore, this book will be a surprise. For those who don’t, Fischer introduces Singapore as having a mature, edgy, and politically engaged art scene as vibrant as any in Asia.” - Gregory Clancey, author of (Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868–1930) “Michael M. J. Fischer’s extraordinary writing demonstrates how much of the inner life of a society becomes manifest by placing novels and films within the domain of ethnographic investigation. Providing access to powerful, often haunting dimensions of both individual lives and societies that are simply not available in such rich form elsewhere, this book has the potential to transform ethnographic practice.” - Byron J. Good, author of (Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective)

• Acknowledgments  ixIntroduction. Reader’s Guide and Manifesto  11. Oiled Hinges: Sounds and Silences in Documentary Films of Social Change  472. Filmic Stutter, Taped Counter-Truths, and Musical Sutures: Knots of Recovery  763. White Ink, Family Systems, Forests of Illusion, and Aging: Knots of Passion  1114. Miniatures: Small Kindnesses across Poisonous Knowledges  1415. Blue Widow with Green Stripes: Pivots in Widening Horizons  1556. Filmic Obsessive Repetitions, Dissociations, and Power Relations  1947. Meritocracy Blues, Chimeras, and Analytic Monsters  212Afterword. Portals to the Future: MRT Stations, Universities, and the Peopling of Technologies  243Exergue. Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Historical Hinge in Australia  257Notes  269References  313Index  337