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(under contract) Casual Assemblies: Afterlives of Socialist Performance Culture in Beijing's Public Parks

par Richaud-Berthoumieu, Lisa
Référence Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, Ed. 1
Publication A Paraître, 2024

Ouvrage auteur unique

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Résumé :

Over the past thirty years, China's public parks have been turned into stages for amateurperformances of socialist anthems by self-organized retirees who lived through the Mao era(1949-1976). Challenging previous interpretations in terms of political expression ornostalgia, Casual Assemblies explores the seeming paradox of displaying political messages inthe heart of the capital city while framing these gatherings as fun or self-entertainment.Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Beijing, this book takes these claims to non -seriousnessseriously. For at stake in these gatherings is the possibility of being non-literal and reclaimingthe sensuous pleasures of performing old tunes from “politics” (zhengzhi). The book theorizescasualness as a mode of engagement predicated upon the irrelevance of the correspondencebetween action and referential meaning. Through the making-casual of a cultural form oncesupposed to produce revolutionary commitment, parkgoers enact new experiences of beingin-public, togetherness, and shifting relationships to the Maoist past.