Daily Reflections Day 3 /สอง/

 

We started out the day with more focus because we had already settled the direction of our research last night. We were also a lot more systematic and efficient when conducting interviews because we decided on specific roles for everyone the night before. The practice that we had from the first day helped in making the entire interviewing process smoother as well. It was the start of amazing teamwork for the rest of the data collection process.

At Fulldome.pro, we had the opportunity to interact with the employees at the company. It was really inspiring to see how passionate they were about their job. In fact, it wasn’t just a job to them, it was a career. They left the familiarity of their homes to come to Chiang Mai just so they could do what they loved. While waiting for the toilet (of all occasions, yes!), I got to talk to a friendly young lady who was in the sound department of the company. Being a tech idiot, I had no experience in her field at all, but I could sense how much she loved this place, not just the company but the city of Chiang Mai herself. Through her words, I got to see Chiang Mai for what she is. She’s a beautiful city, yes, but she has so much more to offer. She holds the right balance of rustic and modern, with all the technology we need today but still slow-paced enough to provide the much-needed respite in our daily lives. And it is precisely this that so many people are fighting to protect. Countries around the world, Singapore included, have sacrificed the serenity of life to accommodate the ever-growing and insatiable need for more. More information, more money, more time. It aches to see so much of our past being eroded with the unforgiving influx of change. I’m not one to sit around berating progress and insisting that we stubbornly hold on to the obsolete. I do see the value of change. It’s just that it’s even more painful to know that we have to let go of such an invaluable entity in exchange for what we perceive to be valuable today.

That afternoon, we visited a museum that held artefacts donated from locals living in the region. As I wandered around the small building, seeking to understand more about Chiang Mai’s history, I noticed that many of the items were not in their best condition. Cabinets were broken, glass display cases were dusty, ancient slabs of traditional rooftop tiles hung like haphazard puzzle pieces on the walls. There was barely any effort put into maintaining the many artefacts in the museum. Now, it might be tempting to cast blame upon the man who ran the place. Yet, he is only one man. I do not doubt his passion for his heritage. I did not understand a word he said when he spoke to us after we first arrived, but in that moment I understood what people mean when they say that only 7% of communication lies in the words. The sorrow of a declining heritage has sunken deep in his furrowed brow, yet I saw fire in his eyes when he talked about how much he wanted to keep Chiang Mai’s heritage alive.

Sadly, the whole place felt like it was wasting away together with its keeper. Can we only sigh and lament about how nothing is being done? The danger of this museum is that people may feel that they have already done their part by donating whatever artefacts they have so others could come and learn about their heritage. But preserving heritage is more than keeping a warehouse filled with old trinkets. The artefacts have to be maintained, and there has to be someone to tell the story behind them. Heritage isn’t a collection of toys; it isn’t a building filled with old stuff. Heritage is in the people, their stories, their experiences, their movement, their beliefs and thoughts and acts. More importantly, preserving heritage is the collective responsibility of the entire community, not the work of one man.

The place we visited in the morning contrasted greatly with the places we went to in the afternoon. They represented the new and the old of Chiang Mai, respectively. I saw the new as a viable way of protecting and presenting heritage. On the other hand, the old served as a reminder of how pressing the issue of preserving heritage is, as the old methods are no longer effective in this day and age. We need new methods that will not fall victim to time. Perhaps the old and the new are not antitheses to each other after all: the old can inspire the new, while the new can help in preserving the old.