OHANA (4)
In Winter Break of 2019, I returned to Thailand and quickly settled down to the rhythms of daily life back home. As usual, Sorn and I went to markets, made some dishes together. Throughout the two weeks, I compiled field notes of our interactions as well as photographs, which I presented in the seminar’s fieldwork exhibition.
The major turning point
When my grandfather passed in mid-July 2019, Sorn and I discussed revisiting Hua Lampong. We were at Hua Lampong temple for my grandfather’s funeral and Sorn was there to accompany my grieving grandmother. “It’s been almost 30 years since I came here. This was where I grew up with ‘Ama’, who took me under her wing.” The idea of coming here again with her had been put on hold since but finally put into action on December 30th, the day right before New Year’s Eve.
When we ventured through Hua Lampong together, we found it difficult to navigate. It has been 30 years, hence the city had already undergone major development. Names of locations that Sorn knew were nowhere to be found when searched on Google Maps. Sorn mentioned how the city had changed and became almost unrecognizable to her.
Unable to pinpoint the exact spot of her past workplace, we asked the locals as we walked, only to hear how everything had moved. Sorn interacted with the locals in an array of different dialects- Northeastern dialect to the taxi driver, Cantonese to the lady in the old convenience store. In the end, the only thing that we could grasp onto was the street sign, “Saphan On”. Nonetheless, Sorn’s past was rediscovered. Even in an area that appeared almost foreign to her, Sorn explored with child-like curiosity. She told me about her old name, and her experiences in her old ‘home’ much more vividly. Unlike other times where Sorn often encouraged me to walk first, she led the way. After this event, Sorn was much more comfortable with telling me different fragments of her past.
Expressing Sorn
Towards the fieldwork exhibition in February 2020, I thought about how I can bring my fieldwork experiences to the public audience. How can I express Sorn and our experience’s beyond the scope of her occupation? From early on, ‘domestic helper’ has been the word that I want to avoid throughout the whole project, for it connotes to many stereotypes. When it comes to calling Sorn, I tend to call her “พี่ (P’)”. It translates to “sister/brother” in Thai. It can be used to call someone who is partly family or someone older in age. Depending on the context, the meaning can exhibit both family-like values and also show respect. With this in mind, I questioned the traditional meaning of words with family-like notions. Can it possibly be a way to bring two people closer?
Prototyping a collage with Sorn
Through learning about different aspects of Sorn, I realized it might be difficult to summarize my discoveries into one single poster. In order to better express Sorn from different perspectives, both ‘on’ work and ‘off’ work, the idea of using collage came to mind.
In the academic world, collage comes under the umbrella of “arts-based research”. It is an exploratory method that expresses different narratives. According to Butler Kismer and Poldma (2010), they define collage creation to have three characteristics: “reflection, elicitation, and conceptualization”. The method of collage-making extends from selecting pictures, cutting them, and combining them in a way that creates new meaning. Through this process, that I would reflect with Sorn and at the same time, bring this idea to Japan and see the reactions of those who may have not experienced such cultures.
With this in mind, I used the collection of photographs that I had compiled throughout the two weeks of fieldwork, which aims to show the different aspects that I have experienced through interacting with Sorn. As we cut out the pictures, Sorn reflected on each moment with each photograph. She partook in the cutting and pasting process but did not express much in how it should be laid out, continually asking me where she should place each photo. Looking back to this moment, clearly, a power imbalance appears to be very much inherent in our interactions.
Fieldwork exhibition
For the fieldwork exhibition, I recreated the collage that I made with Sorn, utilizing fabrics that I got with her in the market and the pictures collected during fieldwork. Unlike summer break where the primary medium had been video, it was easier to collect visual information and maintain the level of communication with her. At the same time, the photographs lacked continuity. This made it difficult for the audience to understand the narrative fully, especially when there were cultural implications. The lack of cultural understanding was realized at the exhibition. Despite visual cues, it was almost impossible to explain Sorn’s social standing without using the word “helper”. Pictures also needed explanations of how the different boards had a different meaning. Yet, the experience has been incredibly meaningful in hearing what others have viewed her, especially from people who may not have experienced living with a domestic helper in the past.
From now
For the latter half of my project, I shifted my focus to Sorn. Having built trust with her, I strongly feel the need to dive deep and further explore our relationship as it transforms with our interactions. I plan to explore this through film. The process I take will be explained in the next article.
Reference
Butler-Kisber, L., & Poldma, T. (2010). The power of visual approaches in qualitative inquiry: The use of collage making and concept mapping in experiential research. Journal of Research Practice
This is part of the Keio University Fumitoshi Kato Seminar’s module, “Graduation project” report outcome. (As of April 1st, 2020)
