Semiotics of Hybridity in Nanyang Art: A Visual Analysis of Chen Wen Hsi and Liu Kang’s Cross-Cultural Works (1950–1975)

Abstract

Background and Aim: This study investigates the semiotic strategies underlying the cross-cultural hybridity of Nanyang art, a movement that emerged in mid-20th-century Southeast Asia, blending Chinese ink traditions, Western modernism, and local Southeast Asian motifs. The focus is on works by Chen Wen Hsi and Liu Kang from 1950 to 1975, aiming to reveal how their visual language functions not only aesthetically but also ideologically, negotiating postcolonial identity and cultural belonging.

Materials and Methods: The research adopts a semiotic analytical framework integrating Charles S. Peirce’s triadic model (icon–index–symbol) and Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralist theory (signifier–signified). Four representative artworks—Chen’s Egrets with Banana Tree and Two Gibbons, Liu’s Tea Pickers’ Dance, and Batik Workers—were selected for in-depth visual deconstruction. The analysis also incorporates Barthes’ narrative codes and Mieke Bal’s theory of visual focalization to interpret cultural myths embedded in composition, color, and brushwork.

Results: Findings reveal a “T-shaped” semiotic system: the horizontal axis reflects formal hybridity through techniques like Cubist fragmentation and ink-wash calligraphy, while the vertical axis encodes cultural ideologies such as Daoist reclusion and anti-colonial labor narratives. Visual signs (e.g., Liu’s Fauvist red or Chen’s gibbons) recontextualize traditional motifs into a transcultural language that challenges colonial binaries and affirms diasporic identity.

Conclusion: Nanyang art’s hybridity is not merely stylistic but a dynamic semiotic negotiation of cultural meaning. By bridging Eastern, Western, and Southeast Asian traditions, Chen and Liu’s works exemplify how visual symbols serve as ideological instruments in constructing postcolonial narratives. This study contributes to semiotic art history by proposing a reproducible model for analyzing cross-cultural signification in diaspora contexts. The implications of this research extend beyond Nanyang art, offering insights into how hybridity in art serves as a critical lens for understanding postcolonial identity, cultural belonging, and the negotiation of cultural influences in other hybrid contexts.