In the article: The World Beyond the Nation in Southeast Asian Museums, the author discovered more than one vision of the nation in Southeast Asia’s national museums. Also, museum narratives, which likewise change and rewrite over time, tell stories about the nation and the world that are important in shaping and reproducing a sense of nationhood. Influenced by this question is the focus of national museums in Southeast Asian countries on historical narratives and how museum professionals, curators, historians, scholars, or public members interested in Southeast Asian culture and history think about national museum narratives and their positioning. National museums in Southeast Asian countries integrate the region as a whole and with its different ethnicities, which is different from the cultures of the countries mentioned in class because of the influence of different cultures in different histories. However, the reason why Southeast Asia can be presented to the public as a whole regional culture in which the common ethnicity is strong and closely related to each other. In this article, the national narratives, images, and symbolic constructions of the nation, as well as the imagination and connection to the unexpected world of the nation are shown through the vehicle of the national museum.

The author, Eric C. THOMPSON, is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore, where this article appeared in Sojourn: A Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. He refers to the fact that while the purpose of the National Museum is to celebrate and symbolize the nation, it also provides a narrative of the wider region and nation. The map silhouette is a popular and powerful symbol of the nation, becoming an “icon” of the national imaginary. The history of the country and modern human evolution, the Thai and Malaysian museums place more emphasis on a single nation than other museums. Patterns of the rise of nations and the disappearance of ties are prominent in all Southeast Asian national museums, especially in terms of participation in broad regions of cultural interaction and long-distance trade.

Museum narratives adopt regional themes and regional cultural or social patterns of events, with territorial and geo-threatening presentations occurring more often, but as history progresses and nations and territories are consolidated, international cooperation and friendly contacts are increasingly emphasized, which shows the national narratives have evolved over time to include broader transnational perspectives. I think the reason why national museums, not local regional museums are, and why they are not just narratives of local history and culture, is that the very existence and significance of the nation is complementary to its relationship with other nations and the world at large. National museums tell the stories of their own countries and those of other countries, reflecting on modern man’s determination of his place in the world and his relationship with the rest of the world based on the neighborhoods of Southeast Asian countries.

article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43186923