I could be wrong about this, but when I see in the diaspora our cultural practices like dance and song performed in universities and in niche performance halls in front of upper income audiences, there is a certain 'deadness' to them that I feel 1/8

When traditional arts are performed for the academy, divorced from the masses they were born from, and not practiced in everyday life in the community, we're seeing how neoliberalism and capitalism steals our time and culture from us, and prevents us from creating new culture 2/8

When I saw a performance of the Khmer folktale "The Goddess and the Ogre" performed in university, I look back and wonder who that was for (a museum audience?), and wonder why theatre is such a rare medium of expression under daily life in capitalist society. 3/8

It was also the first time I ever saw the play. The folktale was never passed down to me and a lot of other Khmer american people in the audience. Was it being performed for a bunch of sad asian kids who were looking for their culture? 4/8

And we see our cultures "frozen". Isolated in the ivory tower, we can only repeat the same traditional story. We don't get a lot of room to adapt or modify old stories or dances for new themes. And we don't draw from the lives of the masses these dances originate from 5/8

I look to how oppressed people undergoing revolutionary changes regenerate lost or alienated culture but with new twists and current themes, and that these forms of expression are practiced in real, everyday life, not in isolation of the ivory tower for elite onlookers 6/8

The Chinese cultural revolution unleashed all sorts of creative energies where dancers, artists, singers, and poets adapted old art forms to reflect new ideas and modern struggles. And Fanon talks about how culture changes, adapts, and reforms in liberatory struggle. 7/8

Is our culture really 'alive' if we only perform the same traditional dance or song once a year for New Years? And that's not to fault our brothers and sisters performing and practicing these traditional arts. It's what happens when capitalism alienates us from ourselves. 8/8

This is me reckoning again now as a Marxist and Communist, not a liberal, with the whole idea of "loss of culture" in the Asian Diaspora. Looking for your input.

Not losing sleep over this typical "diaspora culture angst" but I'm genuinely curious what a revitalized culture could be or look like after we shed the chains of capitalism and win back our time and our forms of expression

Cause, you know it would be pretty neat to have diaspora Song & Dance People's Theatre + Open Mic after work where everyday diaspora people in your non-alienated community share experiences through a play, or hear a song about people's struggle in the native tongue

It's really fascinating to see how after the revolution, Beijing Opera became something normal everyday people could go see AND participate in, no longer just for the pleasure of the elites and gatekept by elitist artists: