首先,在所有將病毒和網路梗圖進行含混的比較中,我們可以看到後者的傳播——與與病毒的路徑大相徑庭——與正如梗圖(memes)的詞源所表達的,是一種摹仿(mimesis)。其傳播有賴標誌性的再製(iconic reproduction),或者說對物體外觀進行相似性的摹仿。相比之下,人們論述的這種摹仿經濟背後的「真實」網絡,其傳播模式實際上是某種接觸傳播,也是真正具有傳染性的。正如病毒通過握手或呼吸交流傳播,影響力和資本網絡此類用來定罪黑命攸關這類社會運動的分析,往往著眼於其物質流通的路徑,其所涉各方卻沒有明顯的外觀相似處。這種傳播留下的,與其說是具有標誌性價值的圖像,不如說是留下一條蹤跡,引導我們沿著物質的傳播鏈條向後溯源到索引符號的產生,就像是新冠病毒流行期間,追踪無症狀感染者軌跡的方式一樣。如此一來,我們便進入了一個難以名狀的論述場域:正是在那些否定「黑命攸關」的這群人中,我們反而發現了一種非常接近唯物論的批判潛能。
儘管這種批評模式存在各種矛盾,但應用在對跨國團結進行批評時,由於跨國團結的表述往往難以在道德良善以外進一步闡明實質的利益關係,反而讓這種批評模式仍有相當的修辭殺傷力。事實上,即使團結的論述涉及全球資本主義的情境,它也不是基於商品、勞動力和資本的實際流通上。相反,它聚焦於「他們」在資本主義體制下的剝削情境,正如同「我們」在這樣的資本主義環境中被剝削一樣。「在此處」的剝削經驗與「在他方」的剝削經驗形成相似之處,兩者共同串聯起來。這種「資本主義肇因」的論點,坦白說並無法解釋全球價值鏈,像新加坡如此高度金融化的城邦國家,大部分中產階級的利益與全球億萬富翁階層的利益更為密切相關。因此,前述的類比與其說是為了想像與全球底層階級團結的基礎,卻反而在足以決定一個人與資本接近程度的物質流通分析上,將「此處」和「彼處」的差異含混帶過。物質流通未經嚴格檢視的情況並不是因為它無法被再現,相反,它源於標誌性(iconicity)的迷戀,從而讓再現(representation)被簡化為只剩下類比的功能,而對於讓再現本身發揮作用的權力關係的分析工作──其工程繁瑣但至關重要──卻被取代了。正如我們將在本文的後面看到的那樣,這些擔憂在四十多年前已經被第三世界國際主義提出過,但最終仍被其自身的「聖像學」(iconography)所吞噬。誠然,標誌(icons)自身以指代物呈現實際圖像的邏輯,不正是意味著:其抹除的部分大於其所呈現的圖像?
2 2019年7月,一名華人演員在一則廣告中以「褐色妝」飾演馬來和印度族裔,因種族敏感度不足而受到嚴厲批評。隨後,由YouTube喜劇演員Preeti Nair和饒舌歌手Subhas Nair製作的一支嘻哈MV戲仿了這則廣告,引起更多爭議,並因煽動性言論而受到警方調查。關於這些事件的簡明報導和分析,見:Ruby Thiagarajan, “Brownface and Racism in Singapore,” New Narratif, August 1, 2019, https://newnaratif.com/journalism/brownface-and-racism-in-singapore/.
3 儘管「覺醒」(woke)源於美國黑人俚語的「清醒」(awake)變體,如今它更普遍用來指涉對社會正義議題的意識,特別是與種族、性別和性取向有關的問題。這個詞語在社交媒體上的流通也引發了意義的流轉,並受到近年來線上「文化戰爭」中的武器化影響。參見:Aja Romano, “A history of ‘wokeness’,” Vox, October 9, 2020, https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy.
7 參見:Kirsten Han, “Crazy Rich Asians is a win for Asian Americans. But it gets Singapore wrong,” Vox, August 17, 2018, https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/17/17715124/crazy-rich-asians-movie-singapore, and Pooja Nansi, “Crazy Rich Asians is one of our saddest moments,” Inkstone, August 22, 2018,
8 Jerrine Tan, “Asian Male Sexuality, the Money-Phallus, and Why Asian Americans Need to Stop Calling Crazy Rich Asians the Asian Black Panther,” Medium, September 1, 2018, https://medium.com/@jerrinetan/asian-male-sexuality-the-money-phallus-and-why-asian-americans-need-to-stop-calling-crazy-rich-e296abb77231.
9 Kirsten Han, “Hollywood Has No Time for Crazy Poor Asians,” Foreign Policy, August 17, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/17/hollywood-has-no-time-for-crazy-poor-asians/.
33 United Nations, General Assembly, Resolution 3201, Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, A/RES/3201(S-VI) (May 1, 1974), https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/218450.
44 “Black Lives Matter skirts North Africa despite everyday racism,” France 24, July 20, 2020, https://www.france24.com/en/20200720-black-lives-matter-skirts-north-africa-despite-everyday-racism.
2 2019年7月,一名華人演員在一則廣告中以「褐色妝」飾演馬來和印度族裔,因種族敏感度不足而受到嚴厲批評。隨後,由YouTube喜劇演員Preeti Nair和饒舌歌手Subhas Nair製作的一支嘻哈MV戲仿了這則廣告,引起更多爭議,並因煽動性言論而受到警方調查。關於這些事件的簡明報導和分析,見:Ruby Thiagarajan, “Brownface and Racism in Singapore,” New Narratif, August 1, 2019, https://newnaratif.com/journalism/brownface-and-racism-in-singapore/.
3 儘管「覺醒」(woke)源於美國黑人俚語的「清醒」(awake)變體,如今它更普遍用來指涉對社會正義議題的意識,特別是與種族、性別和性取向有關的問題。這個詞語在社交媒體上的流通也引發了意義的流轉,並受到近年來線上「文化戰爭」中的武器化影響。參見:Aja Romano, “A history of ‘wokeness’,” Vox, October 9, 2020, https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy.
5 Angela Nagle, Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right (London: Zero Books, 2017), 68.
6 參見:Fatima Bhutto, “Crazy Rich Asians is no racial triumph. It’s a soulless salute to the 1%,” The Guardian, September 12, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/12/crazy-rich-asians-racial-triumph以及:Mark Tseng-Putterman, “One Way That Crazy Rich Asians Is a Step Backward,” The Atlantic, August 23, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/asian-americas-great-gatsby-moment/568213/.
7 參見:Kirsten Han, “Crazy Rich Asians is a win for Asian Americans. But it gets Singapore wrong,” Vox, August 17, 2018, https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/17/17715124/crazy-rich-asians-movie-singapore, and Pooja Nansi, “Crazy Rich Asians is one of our saddest moments,” Inkstone, August 22, 2018,
8 Jerrine Tan, “Asian Male Sexuality, the Money-Phallus, and Why Asian Americans Need to Stop Calling Crazy Rich Asians the Asian Black Panther,” Medium, September 1, 2018, https://medium.com/@jerrinetan/asian-male-sexuality-the-money-phallus-and-why-asian-americans-need-to-stop-calling-crazy-rich-e296abb77231.
9 Kirsten Han, “Hollywood Has No Time for Crazy Poor Asians,” Foreign Policy, August 17, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/17/hollywood-has-no-time-for-crazy-poor-asians/.
10 Rosalind C. Morris, “Theses on the New Öffentlichkeit,” Grey Room 51 (Spring 2018): 96.
12 亞洲美元市場是以美元計價的區域性存款市場。它利用新加坡時區的有利位置,得以吸引美國盤後和隔天歐洲開盤前的交易。參見:J.J. Woo, Singapore as an International Finance Centre: History, Policy and Politics (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 45.
13 儘管這些資產投機的投資人確實承擔風險,但在違約的後果上卻存在明顯的不對等。在金融化的房地產市場中,風險尤為高。儘管在投資者中,對房屋的「賭注」總是有輸有贏,但房主在無法履行貸款時卻需要面臨被驅逐的風險。參見:Saskia Sassen, Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014), 125.
15 Jerome Couturier, Davide Sola and Paul Stonham, “Are sovereign funds ‘white knights’?” Qualitative Research in Financial Markets 1, no. 3 (2009): 142–51.
16 參見: Elvin K. Wyly, Mona Atia, Elizabeth Lee and Pablo Mendez, “Race, gender, and statistical representation: predatory mortgage lending and the US community reinvestment movement,” Environment and Planning A 39 (2007): 2139-2166.
17 Laura Hyun Yi Kang, “The Uses of Asianization: Figuring Crises, 1997-98 and 2007-?,” American Quarterly 64, no. 3 (September 2012): 411.
19 Rick Carew, P.R. Venkat and Costas Paris, “Citi Bailout Also Bails Out Singapore Fund,” The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2009.
22 Lee Kah-Wee, Las Vegas in Singapore: Violence, Progress and the Crisis of Nationalist Modernity (Singapore: NUS Press, 2019), 234-6.
24 “Ministry aims for a city revival,” Business Times, January 5, 1979.
25 William S.W. Lim, “The Quality of Urban Life: With Special Reference To Developing Countries,”
Asian Journal of Social Science 1, no. 1 (1973): 81-96.
26 考慮到他們更關注財富的不均分配,幾乎沒有跡象顯示在新加坡的都市規劃中存在有關貧民窟的種族化問題。然而,上世紀七十年代興起的比較方法論則一貫將貧民窟描述為地方政策失敗的案例,以突顯新加坡模式的成功。這與1967年的亞非住房大會上的討論則呈現出非常大的差異,當時的討論並不是將美國的住房危機歸因於地方政府的問題,而是看作快速的城市化這類現代性的普遍現象。參見:Chia Poteik, “Afro-Asian Builder’s Manual,” The Straits Times, October 15, 1967.
27 這個編年參考自Vijay Prashad的第三世界國際主義史。參見:Vijay Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (New York: The New Press, 2007).
31 A.W. Singham and Shirley Hune, Non-alignment in an Age of Alignments (Harare: The College Press, 1986), 47.
32 Amitav Acharya and See Seng Tan, “The Normative Relevance of the Bandung Conference for Contemporary Asian and International Order” in Bandung Revisited: The Legacy of the 1955 Asian-African Conference for International Order, eds. See Seng Tan and Amitav Acharya (Singapore: NUS Press, 2008), 10.
33 United Nations, General Assembly, Resolution 3201, Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, A/RES/3201(S-VI) (May 1, 1974), https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/218450.
35 Vijay Prashad, “Naeem Mohaiemen’s Tragic History of the 1970s Left,” Afterall 47 (Spring/Summer 2019): 56-65.
36 Charles S. Peirce, Philosophical Writings of Peirce, ed. Justus Buchler (New York: Dover, 1955), 104-15.
37 Mary Ann Doane, “The Indexical and the Concept of Medium Specificity,” differences 18, no. 1 (2007): 133.
38 此處的分析借鑑了李静君「資本多樣性」的概念。參見:Ching Kwan Lee, The Specter of Global China: Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investment in Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017).
40 Hennie van Vuuren, Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit (London: Hurst, 2018), 434-7.
42 班雅明認為最能體現這種能力的媒介是航空攝影。參見:Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schoken, 1968), 251.
44 “Black Lives Matter skirts North Africa despite everyday racism,” France 24, July 20, 2020, https://www.france24.com/en/20200720-black-lives-matter-skirts-north-africa-despite-everyday-racism.
45 Peirce, 108. 羅蘭·巴特發明「此曾在」(that-has-been)描述攝影以時間差對其所指對象的驗證,並賦予攝影媒介所需的遲滯感。參見:Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1981), 77.