"“DAWEI is not like the rest of Myanmar. We have our own language, our own culture and literature. Our way of thinking is different,” explained Ma Mya Ei Thwe, a volunteer at the Dawei Art Space in the Tanintharyi Region capital. Given Myanmar’s diversity, such statements are regularly heard in other parts of the country. However, because Tanintharyi is a nominally Bamar-majority administrative region, as opposed to an ethnic nationality state, its cultural distinctiveness is often overlooked. Mya Ei Thwe, who is known to friends as Nge Nge, said locals were also prone to devalue their heritage in the desire for modernity and economic development. In an isolated region where many households are only kept afloat by remittances from relatives working in exploitative conditions in Thailand, there is straightforward desire for a better life. Mya Ei Thwe said a better life needn’t come at the expense of identity. She believes that the gallery and the art it displays, with its focus on local subjects, could play a role in rekindling pride in the region’s natural and cultural inheritance. “People want to copy more developed countries, but we’ll lose our culture and our values that way,” she said. “Through art, we can recall our childhood memories and our happiness.” When the gallery opened in June, Dawei was being pummelled by monsoon rains that hit this lush coastal corner of southeastern Myanmar with particular ferocity. Close to the municipal market and just a couple of minutes’ walk from Strand Road along the river, the Dawei Art Space is one of the few contemporary cultural offerings in a small, low-rise city characterised by peeling colonial villas and family-run businesses..."