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The significance of celebrities’ personal possessions for image authentication: the Teresa Teng memorabilia museum

2015; Routledge; Volume: 7; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/19392397.2015.1088393

1939-2400

Peter Gilks,

Music History and Culture

In contrast with episodic news about celebrities in the tabloid press, the narrative approach taken in biographical documentaries is better able to construct a coherent identity for a celebrity through telling the story of how they came to be the person they are. Taking two TV documentaries on the life of Asian popular music superstar Teresa Teng as examples, it can be seen that even this form of identity construction may be unreliable as a consequence of the inclusion of various broader narratives that are woven into the personal life story. However, the non-mediated nature of the experience of viewing a celebrity's personal possessions has the potential to authenticate (or discredit) certain publicly constructed identities and images on account of its similarity to an 'out-of-face' encounter. To illustrate, seeing the collection of Teresa Teng's personal possessions in her memorabilia museum reinforces for the visitor an image of Teng as someone for whom traditional markers of high status were particularly important – an identity somewhat at odds with the popular depiction of her as the sweet, girl-next-door type who shared the sentiments and tastes of millions of ordinary Taiwanese.