Shayne Phua

The nine-tailed fox of Asian mythology is a trickster figure that purportedly possesses the ability to shapeshift, often taking on human form to deceive for its own ends. Phua has cast the supernatural being, incongruously, in the mould of the ancient Chinese sage, Confucius, from the archaic robes to the sword tucked under one arm. (The weapon constituted a part of the philosopher’s common iconography as he was born into the warrior class, or shi.) Confucianism has become associated with the discourse of Asian values that was espoused by Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir Mohamad in the 1990s – then the Prime Ministers of Singapore and Malaysia, respectively – and stressed qualities such as loyalty, filial piety, and personal virtue in leadership. In conflating a shapeshifting sprite and one of the most dominant figures in Chinese intellectual history, Phua points to the utilitarian ends that Confucianism has served, the myriad guises of the nine-tailed fox dovetailing with the political convenience of Confucian ideology. The title of the work is derived, unsurprisingly, from a politician. Singapore’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Goh Keng Swee, is credited with remarking that he was willing to turn Confucius on his head to make him relevant for Singapore’s context, suggesting the reinvention of tradition to meet the needs of a political agenda.