Redistributed Representation Through Multispecies Co-Design in Singapore

Abstract

This article examines lion dance practice in Singapore as a site where participatory co-design challenges and reimagines the politics of representation—moving from historically suppressed clan identity and state-managed monovocal multiculturalism toward embodied multispecies agency. Rather than treating lion dance as a static cultural symbol representing a bounded “Chinese heritage,” this study proposes that participatory design interventions enable communities to reclaim representational authority from institutional gatekeepers and state narratives. By centering multispecies collaboration through the lion symbol, performer bodies, and collective practice co-design meaning, participatory approaches redistribute who speaks for the lion, who authorises cultural meaning, and how heritage practice can address contemporary community needs beyond preservation. Drawing on multispecies ethnography with the case study of a co-design project, this article argues for the importance of more-than-human agency in a participatory approach to redistributing representational power in heritage narratives. It implies more spaces required in cultural representation, navigating the dynamics between humans and non-humans, individuals and collectives.