SHIFTING NOIR ELEMENTS : AN OVERVIEW ON NOIR FICTION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

The emergence of noir fiction in Southeast Asian countries has showcased particular evolvement of noir elements. The noir works produced in this region have embraced shifting noir themes and noir protagonists that slightly move away from what formerly constitutes noir fiction. Thus, this study aims at investigating to what extent these two noir elements from noir fiction produced in Southeast Asia has differed from its preceding noir works in the scholarship of noir genre. As a preliminary finding, this study only highlights the shifting noir elements taken from selected noir stories represented by some noir anthologies produced in Southeast Asia. They are KL Noir from Malaysia, Singapore Noir from Singapore, and Manila Noir from the Philippines. The result shows that noir themes have departed from criminality and violence to some other contextualized themes such as supernaturalism, religion, and colonial legacy. Meanwhile, noir protagonists are portrayed as those who are involved with criminality not only as criminals but also as ‘heroes’. Finally, what is discussed in this study is expected to contribute to a larger discussion of fluidity in noir genre, and, also, noir, or darkness, is proven to be derived from various perspectives. Keyword: noir fiction, noir, protagonist, Southeast Asia, theme


Introduction
In a nutshell, noir fiction is known as a dark and bleak narrative which actually much develops from hard-boiled fiction and film noir.In the early development of noir fiction, some noir essentials, for instance detective characters and femme-fatale, are borrowed and adopted from these two previous genres.Besides, noir, in itself, is a challenging issue since noir is seen as "an unstable and shifting critical category" (Dussere, 2014, p. 3).This fact implies that noir fiction has possibly been undergoing shifting development from time to time.
Thus, this study tries to encapsulate one perspective on how noir fiction performs its shifting category.
In the beginning of the 21st was the very first city-titled noir series to publish and "it was not only successful, it spawned a lengthy series of similar anthologies set in varied locations" (Davis, 2010, p. 9).At this stage, Brooklyn Noir was trendsetting the evolved noir fiction.

Literature Review
In The first noir element to discuss is tone.Tone constitutes noir fiction, and it is also similarly known as the mood of the noir works.In noir fiction, the tone is "dark cynicism and alienation" (Conard, 2006, p. 10) and "cynical pessimistic mood" (Holt, 2006, p. 24) (Hagedorn, 2013, p. 13), and "morally ambiguous and unquestionably evil [people]" (Holt, 2006, p. 24).These portrayals of noir protagonists add on the dark tone offered in noir fiction where their pessimistic, evil and alienated are blended to darken the works.Also, such characters living in noir fiction portray sentiments of a dark-fatalistic world.
Finally, this given explanation shows that noir protagonist functioning as one noir element has its own quality to darken this particular genre, and its development also clearly suggests that noir protagonist does shift and depart from its early pioneering era of noir fiction.(Hirsch, 1981, p. 72).Similarly vocalizing the close association of noir fiction and criminality, Andryeyev states that in noir texts "crime is a way of being, not just a sensational act" (Andryeyev, 2012, p. 11).This is a strong affirmation to accept how criminality is closely attached to noir fiction and to see that criminality as 'the lifestyle of noir fiction' is even acceptable.Meanwhile, reviewing American and British noir, Gary Hoppenstand contends that the thematic qualities of alienation, paranoia, and chaotic violence that were thought to be the sole domain of American noir can also be readily found in British noir fiction (Hoppenstand, 1998, p. 162) described by the protagonist, the unnamed-narrator, is described as "impossibly huge, slightly humanoid but of its form were all wrong", and the deity is then described as "distinctively feminine" and "towered over everything, and wore the clouds as it would a sarong" (Hafizi, 2013, p. 256)  Thus, this shared historical dimension of colonialism is well-expressed in noir works, and it also can be contagiously found in some noir stories from Southeast Asia.
In Preeta Samarasan's "Rukun Tetangga", the noir theme of colonial legacy is particularly about the racial ideology existing in the multiracial society of Malaysia.Racial ideology is understood as "the accounts of making extensive use of racial descriptions and explanations and assigning major causal significance to racial categories, and also utilizes racial evaluation and prescription to a substantial degree" (Reeves, 1983, p. 244).
Tracing back the history of colonial Malaya, it is evident that British colonialism has radically fashioned racial ideology across the nation despite merely extracting profit from rubber plantation and tin mining (Hirschman, 1986, p. 357).
Consequently, racial ideology is believed to be one of the colonial legacies in the Malaysian society.In the story, Guna Uncle who is a Malaysian-Indian suffers from racial abuse because of his racial identity from Indian ethnicity.This is because of the extensive use of racial description during the colonial domination where Malayan population was based on their "social status, economic factors and ethnic identity" (Holst, 2012, p. 35).As a result, racial ideology is expansively used as racial catalogues or "ethnicised identity" that is still prevalent in present Malaysian society impacting political and social system of the country (Holst, 2012, p. 1).
For Indians mostly find the label offensive (Velayutham, 2009, p. 263).Calling Indians keling is believed to be "a form of Edward VII" (Damon, 2014, p. 185) As the title suggests, the noir protagonist of Ishak's "Cannibal Vs Ah Long" is an unnamed cannibal who is ironically described as the 'smiling man'.
While he smiles, he slaughters these people involved in illegal loan sharking business to feed his hunger over the human flesh.His main reason of choosing their flesh is "what better source of food than a group of people who would never be missed by society, or even by their own family?"(Ishak, 2013, p. 208).This implies that these people are executed because they are unwanted considering what they have done in their business.These illegal loaners look so much helpful by lending the money, yet they are deceitfully sucking the money from these borrowers.Their existence is parasite, a money sucker; they may ruin more people in the society; therefore, they deserve to be wiped out.
They deserve death.
Based on how noir protagonist is defined so far, the smiling man embraces the characterization of being noir protagonist as he is alienated and unquestionably evil.Simultaneously, from him, the shifting noir protagonist can also be identified.The smiling man operates his hunt over these people's flesh by himself showing that his detecting skill is sufficient.However, the fact that "when alone, the smiling man did not smile" suggests how he is seriously concerned with eradicating the illegal moneylending business in Kuala Lumpur (Ishak, 2013, p. 203).He works alone, he seriously gathers the information about these people, and eventually he executes his 'food' by himself, not involving other parties, let alone the authorities.These instances show his alienation within the society.He feels alienated since he seems to disbelieve that the authorities can solve this social problems.He trusts himself only to punish the moneylenders.He does not talk to many people although what he does is actually helping many victimized people who are trapped in this business.
The fact that the smiling man is obviously and undeniably evil can be seen from the way he enjoys his 'food'.He weirdly and smilingly kills his victims, and his smiles imply how creepy the scene is actually.His being unquestionably evil can be seen from the following quotation: "The smiling man dropped the machete then gripped Machine Gan's wrist; pulling them apart to stop him from covering the open gash.The smiling man opened his mouth to allow the arterial spray to enter.He gulped and grasped as if sucking in the air around him so as not to allow any drop of precious blood to escape" (Ishak, 2013, p. 200).
Here, he chooses the vital organ to start his evil action and continues to enjoy his food until the victim dies.His evil actions are similarly done like how a cannibal targets his victim: blood and flesh are celebrated.The smiling man embraces this characterization of being evil and also violent.His violent characterization is also apparent as "the smiling man was either real handy with a machete or the blade was razor-sharp because pieces of their faces dropped to the floor with relative ease" (Ishak, 2013, p. 202) (Nor, 2013, p. 233).The mystery is accidently revealed until his son confirms himself that his Ayah is more than just a driver when he helps his father to carry "a man lying motionless in a pool of blood" and eventually he witnesses how his father kills the man as he "pushed the hand away and wrapped his hands around the man's throat" (Nor, 2013, p. 234).The figure of the criminal father is overshadowed by his nurturing characteristic as he is the breadwinner of the family as his son acknowledges that "Ayah was rarely present in our lives.But we have food on our plates.And that's all that matters" (Nor, 2013, p. 237).The son who has seen that his father is involved in the murdering seems to ignore what his father has done.The image of a father as the caring father, the hero of the family that provides the family food is considered more important.Thus, this noir protagonist plays a role as both the criminal and the hero of the family.To this extent, this is how the shifting of the noir protagonist is apparent in this noir story.
Here, there is a coined-side of criminal figure that the work is trying to show.A as the authority like Zahid just "[continues] flooding our streets with the poisons.Kill our children, destroy our families … our nation" (Noor, 2014, p. 33).
The notion of wider impact of what Zahid has done is implicitly mentioned here.
Bribing a police officer and disregarding the law enforcement may ruin the nation in the future if it is not stopped.This can be said that Liam is actually fighting not only for his daughter but also for a larger society.Thus, based on what Liam commits, Liam is both a criminal and, simultaneously, a hero for her daughter.
To this extent, Liam's character represents a change that is commonly associated with a noir protagonist, a criminal.Here, he is not only committing crime for the sake of the crime itself but also murdering Zahid for the sake of condemning his action of receiving the bribe and fighting for her late daughter.
Finally, the abovementioned short stories have shown that their noir protagonists embrace a particular shifting manner.They embody characterizations of noir protagonists, yet they also move away from the discourse of what a noir protagonist is about.They move from not only a mere criminal but also a hero.They commit criminality, yet by doing so they also vocalize their heroism in a sense that they struggle, fight and protect the people around these noir protagonists.

Conclusion
The fact that noir elements are shifting is found after investigating city- century, there has been a new trend gaining momentum when a new type of noir fiction starts to be recognized.Noir narratives based on geographical settings are mushrooming.This so-called city-titled noir fiction is written by employing names of cities, either capital cities or metropolitan ones, around the world which are set as the setting and the title of the noir works.The popularity of citytitled noir fiction was set up by Akashic Books, a Brooklyn-based international publisher whose success is through the publication of anthologies of noir short story.In 2004, Akashic's Brooklyn Noir list the current Akashic catalogue, there are forty different volumes including Boston Noir (ed.Dennis Lehane), Havana Noir (ed.Achy Obejas), Miami Noir (ed.Les Standiford), Mexico Noir (ed.Paco Ignacio Taibo), etc.There are some other titles mentioned in Hagedorn such as Baltimore Noir, Boston Noir 1 &2, D.C. Noir 1 & 2, Istanbul Noir, London Noir, Moscow Noir, Mumbai Noir, Paris Noir, Rome Noir, Venice confirms that their works continuously have also shown "images of violence", for example, transforming cars from benign machines of transportation to tools with "darker and more devious uses"(Shelby, 2011, pp.40-41)  which signifies the occurrence of violence embodied via cars where cars are employed to gain the images of danger, fatality and death .Here, Shelby confirms that the association of noir fiction with violence has existed during the pioneering era of noir fiction.
legacy is employed to show darkness and bleakness caused by colonialism.Further, the inclusion of colonial legacy as a noir theme found in Southeast Asian noir fiction can be seen as an expression of scar of colonialism, and, this scar is, somehow, perpetuated during the postcolonial era manifested through the colonial legacy.Noir fiction which is identically narrated with gloominess is used as an appropriate channel to express the dark sides of colonialism as well as the colonial legacy.Additionally, inserting colonial legacy in these noir narratives of Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines emphasizes that these three countries share similar historical background on colonialism, and they may endure a similar scar of colonialism that is expressed through works of noir, accordingly.This is in line with what Rajeev Patke and Philip Holden explain that these three countries have the commonality of "shared historical dimension from colonial to contemporary history" (Patke & Holden, 2010, p. 1).
a colonial legacy is portrayed as the scar of colonialism in the postcolonial era which can cause certain bleakness for certain members of the society.Meanwhile, Damon Chua's "Saiful and the Pink Edward VII" of Singapore Noir and Rosario Cruz Lucero's "A Human Right" of Manila Noir also present colonial legacy as their noir theme.The former highlights racial ideology as source of the darkness whereas the latter lingers around the issue of injustice experienced in the postcolonial era of the Philippines, particularly happening in the state of Davao.Slightly different from Preeta Samarasan's "Rukun Tetangga" where criminality functions only as the backdrop of the story, these two noir narratives employ criminality as their issues.Saiful's life revolves around his family heirloom, a postage stamp with "a rare Straits Settlement misprint from 1902 featuring a pink-coloured King titled noir short stories from Southeast Asia represented by Singapore Noir, Manila Noir and KL Noir.Two noir elements namely noir theme and noir protagonist demonstrate a shifting manner from the discourse that is associated with them.Aside from criminality and violence, these noir works show some other noir themes such as supernaturalism, religion, and colonial legacy.They construct the dark sides of the noir stories.Supernaturalism, religion and colonial legacy are the themes that shade the alienation, gloominess and cynicism that are commonly found in noir works.Meanwhile, noir protagonists of these noir short stories also show its shifting manner by moving from other side of being hero albeit their crime conducts.Thus, they are not only merely a criminal but also a hero.Finally, this study has shown that two noir elements from city-titled noir fiction in Southeast Asia are moving away from their tradition.They develop and expand from the issues of criminality, violence, and the sources of the darkness.Additionally, the study can encapsulate and contribute to the noir scholarship that some noir works from Southeast Asian countries demonstrate their fluidity and shifting styles.