ABSTRACT
From a social constructivist perspective, building and maintaining a nation requires constantly constructing and consolidating national symbols. Nation-building involves the discursive reconciliation and demarcation of differences between groups both within and beyond the marked and perceived national boundaries (Duara, 1996). National boundaries and the symbols that mark them are constantly shifting, and it is through mediated performances that nations are able to ‘try on’ various identities and fashion a ‘coherent ethnic narrative’ for themselves (cf. Nelson, 1999, p. 341; Spickard, 2001, p. 93; Woronov, 2007, pp. 654, 666). Language and other forms of expression, such as music/sound, stage design, television editing production techniques, and dance, all work together to project particular imaginings of the nation.
