A few years ago I first took notice of a Buddha statue situated on the countertop of an Asian store in a Midwest town. My initial response to the object was to wonder why the Buddha had a big jolly smile and an unusually stout, round body. This was a stark contrast with most other enlightened, serene Buddha statues I had seen at temples in Korea, in art and history textbooks, and through mass media. Soon thereafter I encountered the same figure in other Asian restaurants and markets, leading me to pay closer attention to and document other Asian visual and material culture artifacts.
As an art educator and a native Korean immersed in Asian culture until 30 years of age, who has gained some insights into the two cultures of East Asia and America, I am constantly thinking of what students will learn from embracing Asian visuals and objects in art curriculum. I also ask if their history, identity, form and function, and cultural significance are worthy of study in the art classroom. For example, how might the study of Asian etiinic visual culture lead students and educators to a fuller understanding and appreciation of ot�ier peoples and cultures. In this article, I explore these questions, providing a distinctive example, die Laughing Buddha, which has been popularly displayed in many Asian restaurants and markets in the United States. I propose that art educators study these ethnic objects to unveil the values associated with them, inviting students to explore them as examples of ethnic visual cultures that can be easily neglected or overlooked, acknowledging how mundane, everyday objects are worthy of study in art education (Bolin & Blandy, 2003). At the end, I will also share some curricular activities and suggestions to embrace ethnic visual cultures.
Embracing Visual Culture of Ethnic Minority Groups
Recent discourse about visual culture has focused on Western or dominant groups' visual culture (Elkins, 2003; Noble, 2004). This trend is also reflected in the field of art education (Garber, in press). Art educators have argued for studying visual cultural sites such as television programs, movies, music videos, product packaging, magazines, theme parks, shopping malls, tourist sites, and the Internet (Duncum, 2001; Freedman, 2003; Garoian & Gaudelius, 2004; Taylor, 2007; Taylor & Ballengee-Morris, 2003; Tavin, 2003). In doing so, they have encouraged their students to consider how meaning is created, rejected, transmitted, negotiated, disguised, or distorted in these sites through the selection, distortion, or manipulation of images, sounds, or texts. They have supported developing critical and reflective perspectives focused on consumerism, marketing strategies, ideology, politics, discrimination, stereotyping, and media biases. Establishing such educational goals, as well as extending the boundaries of the discipline of art education, are dimensions of contemporary art education practice that are greatly acknowledged by scholars and increasingly accepted by K- 12 art teachers (Herrmann, 2005; Taylor, Carpenter, Golden, & Church, 2006).
Although as an art educator I support teaching about visual cultural sites, my viewpoint and experience as a member of a minority group in this society has led me to question whether the current visual culture discourse has perhaps neglected the visual culture of minority ethnic groups. For example, Disney movies have been analyzed as examples of perpetuating racial and ethnic stereotypes in popular visual culture (Giroux, 1997; Tavin & Anderson, 2003), and Ono and Pham (2008) have highlighted the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of minority groups as demeaning and stereotypical in news media. However, these studies are only the beginning of a much-needed discourse that seeks to correct negative aspects of popular visual culture. Much more is needed. Others share my concern. Recently, Elkins (2003) argued that visual culture studies, which tend to privilege Western visual culture, should pay more attention to aspects of Non -Western visual cultures. Noble (2004) also worries that Eurocentric thinking and paradigms dominate the discussion and discourse of visual culture.
Further examinations of this issue have recently been published in special journal issues and books, including Art Education (March, 2003; November, 2005), Studies in Art Education (Spring, 2003), the Journal of Multicultural and Cross-Cultural Research in Art Education (2000), and Duncum's edited text, Visual Culture in the Art Class: Case Studies (2006). These studies "(p]rovide a clear indication of how this field has studied such visual cultural sites as "television screens, magazine covers, billboards, computer screens, t-shirts, and in shopping malls, fast food restaurants, sport arenas, school lockers, and children's bedrooms" (Tavin, 2000, p. 21). Duncum's approach asks students to take a critical look at "the plethora of imagery that now circulates 24 hours a day beyond the classroom" (2006, p. xvii). It is further argued that although, in teaching visual culture, art educators promote studying all man-made visual artifacts and their social conditions (Duncum, 2001), very few have studied minority ethnic groups' visual culture. As they have expanded visual culture study to include McDonald's and other fast food restaurants, I wonder why not contrast McDonald's with Chinese, Japanese, or Indian restaurants? If you include Wal-mart and K-mart, why not also provide examples of Asian or Mexican markets? If t-shirts, why not compare them directly to Asian fashion or Native American dresses? I think you get the idea. My approach to and interest in studying ethnic visual cultural sites encourages others to take what has been done one step further. You have to learn about Asian or other ethnic cultures to have insights mto their objects and images. If the goal of teaching about popular or dominant visual culture is to analyze the policies of multi-billion dollar corporations, commercialism, marketing strategies, and stereotypes, students who study minority visual culture may also explore how these objects or cultural sites become the center of an ethnic groups conflicts and struggles between their culture and the dominant group culture, or express cultural identity and preserve language and traditions (Shin, 2009).
I also realized, after examining some popular K-1 2 art education texts, that we barely cover these ethnic visual cultural sites and material objects we may encounter in our everyday context. For example, many images displayed in such everyday contexts as Asian restaurants, stores and Asian immigrants' houses are not included. When students in my art and visual culture education class were asked to explore and report on ethnic objects from other ethnic groups in the community, I noticed that many of their ethnic objects came from African American, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and South Asian cultures that were not included or present in such textbooks as Portfolio (Turner, 2001), Arttalk (Ragans, 2000), and Adventures in Art (Chapman, 1994). Some of the cultural objects my students reported on are Chinese chopsticks, Tibetan prayer flags, Marshall Islands handicrafts, Salwar kameez, Hijab, Japanese Daruma dolls, a Malaysian puppet show. Henna tattoos, and the Ojibwe nation's jingle dress. These are just a few of the possible decorative objects, souvenirs, figurines, furniture, toys and rituals in towns and communities in this country. I believe that they are neglected in the art classroom due to the nature of commercial goods found in cra� or home -decoration stores, or might also reflect the lack of art teachers' interests in them. Sometimes an object can be seen to be too particular to a specific ethnic group, which, in the mind of the educator, can make it hard to find commonalities or relationships to their students' lives.
Gradually, I began to wonder about the value of ethnic artifacts as educational resources that could be used to teach about their cultural meanings and the people who own, display, and engage with them. They are loaded with the cultural values of the people who make and own them as expressions of their ethnic identity. They can also inform viewers of their social, commercial, or political functions in their original context as well as in places, such as the US, that extend beyond their original context. Even though some well-recognized ethnic cultural art forms have gained the attention of art educators who argued for a multicultural approach to art education in the '90s (Chalmers, 1996; Collins & Sandell, 1992; Hart, 1991), ethnic visual culture has not been the focus of studies focusing on visual culture education, leaving out everyday ethnic visual culture in the art classroom.
Ethnicity and Ethnic Culture
Before introducing the Laughing Buddha as one example of an ethnic visual culture artifact, it is necessary to examine more clearly the concept of ethnicity and ethnic culture in order to provide a contextual foundation. The term 'ethnicity' has challenged many sociologists and anthropologists due to its close identification with similar concepts such as race and nationality (Gosden, 1999). Often, ethnicity is understood as a group of people with shared language, ancestry, culture, tradition, and history. Weber (1978) provided a classic but still popular definition of ethnic groups:
[T]hose human groups that entertain a subjective belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or of customs or both, or because of memories of colonization and migration; this belief must be important for group formation; furthermore it does not matter whether an objective blood relationship exists, (p. 389)
A well-known social anthropologist, Barth (1969, 1998), argues that ethnicity is not a bounded entity. Barth's understanding of ethnicity rejects not only enclosed conceptualization, but also argues that ethnicity does not necessarily involve colonization or migration, while depending more so on contact and interaction. Likewise, Nagel (1994) claims that an ethnic group maintains its membership through continuous social group interaction. I agree with Barth and Nagel. My experience and self-definition as a person of Korean American identity is constructed by continually comparing, contrasting and redefining my ethnic and cultural values and beliefs through interaction with other ethnic groups of people.
Examples of ethnic minority groups who live in the US include American Indians, Asian Americans, African Americans, Jewish Americans, Mexican Americans, and many others of ethnic immigrants. An individual's ethnic identity can vary according to "the extent that he or she shares the values, behavioral patterns, cultural traits, and identification with a specific ethnic group" (Bank, 2009, p. 16). We identify ethnic majority and minority groups according to a specific group's predominance in overall population numbers and relative social power within a given geographic region or country. In the US, European Americans (i.e., Caucasians) are classified as the majority, and most other ethnic groups are considered minorities, in terms of their relative social power and privileges (Bank, 2008).
Ethnic groups display their own ethnic culture distinguished from other groups of people. For example, we can easily categorize something Chinese or Native American by looking at clothes, objects, dances, toys, or festivals, and other indicators. In this article, in defining ethnic visual culture, I apply Duncum's (2000, 2001) two components of visual culture, which are visual artifacts and the social conditions in which the artifacts express ethnicity and ethnic culture. So, my ethnic visual culture study focuses on exploring visual artifacts in such sites as restaurants, ethnic food markets, ethnic towns, craft stores, E-bay or other on-line stores, ethnic streets, festivals, and cultural centers. This includes studying ethnic paintings, crafts, decorative objects, furniture, toys, statues, ethnic cultural buildings, and interior designs.
An Example of Ethnic Visual Culture: The Story of the Laughing Buddha
I first noticed the Laughing Buddha, often called "Happy Buddha," when I visited an Asian market owned by a Hmong family in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which is home to more than 2,000 Hmong immigrants from China and Southeast Asia who sought refuge in America after the Vietnam War. At first, I had no clue how to respond to the statue of Buddha, with its stout round body and big smile. Based upon my prior knowledge and experiences with Buddhism growing up in Korea, I thought that perhaps it might be an image that encouraged people to donate money in hopes of receiving the Buddha's blessings, but I was not sure. About a month later I saw a similar Buddha in a Chinese restaurant in La Crosse (Figure 1 ). This one was holding a bowl as a place to collect small donations, typically coins, from customers.
Since moving to Tucson, Arizona, about 3 years ago, I have come across a number of examples of Laughing Buddha statuaries in Chinese and other Asian restaurants and markets. They are almost identical, seemingly representing the same monk or Buddha prototype. Typically, they are presented in the form of gold statues, although paintings, jade, tattoos, and figurines of the Laughing Buddha are also available for purchase in many Asian stores and online markets. The Laughing Buddha type usually holds a bowl or a cloth sack. He is typically depicted as a very stout, jovial, and bald man wearing robes, exposing his large potbelly stomach (Figure 2). He can also be featured holding a fan or surrounded by children.
I had encountered many Buddha images in temples, books, or in mass media growing up in predominantly Buddhist Korea. The Buddha image I have in mind is similar to the one found in Asian temples and museums in North America, statues or paintings portraying "enlightened ones," or awakened teachers of serenity and wisdom. Buddha statues began to appear as an object for worship around the 1st century AD, 600 years after Sakyamuni Buddha (the creator of Buddhism) died (Singh, 2003). Since then, most of the Buddha statues presented in Asian temples have been images of Sakyamuni Buddha or his prominent disciples.'
The Laughing Buddha was unfamiliar to me because most Buddha images created for religious use are not presented in such a manner. Suffice it to say, the Laughing Buddha was quite a stranger to me, even though some practical Buddhists may recognize him. Whenever I saw it, questions immediately came to my mind: Why does the Buddha laugh? And why is he so fat? What do the objects that accompany him stand for? My experience in a Buddhist student club in college during the late 1980s was little help in solving the mystery of the figures meaning. Eventually, I conducted research to find his identity through books and on Internet sites selling the Laughing Buddha.
It was not difficult to discover who he is and why Asians in North America want to have his statue in their offices, stores, or even homes. Budai- also known as Hotei in Japanese and Podae in Korean - is the traditional name of the Laughing Buddha (Chapin, 1933). He was a Chinese Zen monk of the 10th century, during the late Liang Dynasty, with the Buddhist name Qieci. He always carried a cloth sack that contained sweets for childrenor rice plants for the poor. Therefore, his sack has become a symbol of benevolence and prosperity, and his potbelly symbolizes happiness, good luck, and plentitude (Seow, 2002; Young, 2006). Because of his generous and giving nature, people believed he was the incarnation of Maitreya (the Future Buddha), once a disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha who foretold that Maiterya was supposed to come to this world again as the Future Buddha to teach the people (Hyers, 1989). When the monk was alive, he used to grant wishes to people (Chapin, 1933), and after he died people made statues of him or displayed his image at home for purposes of prayer to seek blessings (Seow, 2002).
Recently, one of my graduate students, an art teacher in Tucson, interviewed a Japanese-American student who reported that in Japan to have the Laughing Buddha as a good luck symbol in the house is a popular custom. In China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, his statues are commonly placed in front of the entrance hall of temples (Figure 3). According to folklore, if anyone rubs the belly of a Laughing Buddha statue, it is believed that his or her wish is granted. Clearly, this has become a tradition in these countries.
Interestingly, most Laughing Buddhas seen in Asian restaurants and stores are not made to fulfill this original function of religious worship, or for celebrating folk beliefs of bringing good fortune to a household. They are mainly adaptations of a traditional form of Budai and are used to soothe the yearnings and feelings of nostalgia for life in one's distant homeland, or to function as display objects that visually express ethnic cultural identification. These new functions, acquired in the US setting, tell us that under the new context of immigration, the meanings imposed by ethnic groups on an ethnic artifact are not fixed and can change when compared with a similar cultural object in its original cultural context (Traver, 2007).
Suggestions to Explore Ethnic Minority Visual Culture
In this section, I will make several suggestions concerning teaching Asian ethnic visuals and objects culture in the art classroom, providing practical guiding questions and some strategies for working with ethnic groups or communities.
First, Asian ethnic visual cultural objects can expand educational content to teach about a diverse ethnic group of people through neglected, but ubiquitous ethnic objects and images in contemporary US society. A practical approach to including Asian ethnic visual culture in the art class is to invite students to explore widely displayed ethnic objects in their own community. Teachers may share photos of these objects, or bring the physical objects to class as a strategy to invite students to share their own observations. After that, teachers can ask students to study an ethnic object of their choice, with a focus on understanding the cultural context of the ethnic group commonly associated with the object in their community. Students may visit minority ethnic cultural sites, such as restaurants, markets, community centers, and houses of neighbors or classmates as part of their research. Some students may be more comfortable working with a structured guideline, even though this project should remain open-ended for inclusion of any stories and facts related to the object. Some generic questions students can take to the community include: What is it? Where is it from? Where do you see these objects in our community? What culture, ethnic group, or nationality does it represent? Is there any historical or contextual information related to the object? Where do people use it? What are its physical characteristics? Is it used in a cultural performance? What does the ethnic group from which it came say about the object? Is there any folklore related to it? Does it represent a particular religion's belief system? Why do you think that the group uses or displays it? What does this tell us about the group in terms of identity, culture, and ethnicity? Throughout this research, what did you learn about the people you studied?
Second, the chief advantage of studying ethnic minority culture is the accessibility of the objects in many Communities and towns. Ethnic restaurants, markets, and community centers, or multicultural festivals are good places to look. If students live in a culturally homogeneous rural community that makes it difficult to locate and study an authentic object produced by a non-Western ethnic group (or person), they are encouraged to visit an immigrant from a foreign country. Students can look at them in the context of the real life of the person or ethnic community, whereas ethnic objects acquired from travels to a foreign country would make it difficult for them to explore further due to the lack of resources and accessibility to them. The following are some suggestions to work with your students, considering your school and local community.
* ENCOURAGE students to make visual documentation of ethnic objects in their community, and categorize them according to ethnic groups or similar functions.
* INVITE students to research a similar art or craft form from two different ethnic cultures. Compare and contrast them.
* STUDY with students a particular ethnic art or craft and its traditional production process.
* DEVELOP a school-wide ethnic community art festival, inviting all related ethnic groups and other community members for cultural learning and exchange.
* COLLABORATE with an ethnic community center in creating an interdisciplinary curriculum to teach about specific ethnic culture in the community, working with teachers from other disciplines.
* STUDY how an ethnic group of people respond and react to using recycled and/or cheap materials in reproducing their ethnic artwork. Or study their response towards de-contextuabzing an ethnic art form by only imitating techniques and skills. Try to gain some advice and insights from them in an effort to "fix" this art-making process.
* WORK with students to create a special exhibition in school focused on ethnic objects and forms in the community. Encourage students to participate in the process and create educational materials for visitors. Or create a related on-line exhibition.
Finally, ethnic visual culture should be studied with an emphasis on everyday aesthetic experience because these objects and forms are "more significant than experiences of high art in forming and informing one's identity and view of the world" (Duncum, 1999, p. 296). Ethnic artifacts can go beyond the limitations that fine arts aesthetics (Saito, 2008) or Western visual culture impose in art classes. The study of ethnic visual culture can broaden students' perspectives by helping them understand how everyday objects relate to and express social and cultural values of minority groups. Also, by contrasting cultural values and beliefs of majority and minority groups students can begin to develop mutual understanding and respect among them.
Conclusions
Incorporating the values and worldviews of ethnic minorities into the art curriculum is necessary because this can diversify our teaching by helping students hear the voices of underrepresented groups of people through exploring ethnic visual culture, and also teach them the value and significance of studying mundane and everyday objects. By exploring ethnic culture, students can learn the values, knowledge, and beliefs of the group they study. This will help students of various backgrounds develop mutual respect toward lifestyle, belief systems, morals, modes, folklore, and gender roles of various ethnic groups. Students may also develop more critical perspectives on the appropriation, exploitation, and consumption of an ethnic groups culture by dominant groups and popular culture, Most of all, they will develop an understanding about a group of people as neighbors and community members, and as equal citizens in this society.
[Sidebar]
The study of ethnic visual culture can broaden students' perspectives by helpmg them understand how everyday objects relate to and express social and cultural values of minority groups.
[Reference]
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
I wish to thank Karen Hutzel for comments on an early draft of this article, and Flavia Bastos for offering detailed and constructive comments for revision.
[Author Affiliation]
Ryan Shin is Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Culture Education at the University of Arizona, Tucson. E-mail: shin@arizona.edu
