Histories’ shadows, ghosts, and specters are always present in the tangled political maneuverings of Southeast Asian…

“Histories’ shadows, ghosts, and specters are always present in the tangled political maneuverings of Southeast Asian nation-states. The elderly, often silenced, are among the keepers of these stories, the quotidian and lived realities coursing beneath the nationalist propaganda used by power holders to justify their “national interests” or “national security.” Ancestors’ graves are places for the fading and ever more haphazard retellings, particularly in Singapore, where graveyards are steadily being removed, producing legacy ghosts that not frequently, but also not infrequently, are said to cause bulldozers used in new construction to break down, requiring the rites of Taoist priests to smooth the way (e.g., Comaroff 2009).”

–Michael M. J. Fischer, ‘Ethnography for aging societies—Dignity, cultural genres, and Singapore’s imagined futures’ (2015)