Abstract
Quite a number of single women in Shanghai’s creative industries are active in the Kunqu scene. Originating in the late Yuan dynasty, Kunqu is generally considered to be one of the oldest forms of operatic arts in China. These women engage with Kunqu as fans, apprentices, teachers, organizers, or promoters. And very often, they know one another. This chapter seeks to map out what exactly they do regarding Kunqu, how and why this community of informal sociality came into being, and what the passion, friendships, and contacts they share with regard to its creative practice mean to these single women. In so doing, it engages with three lines of scholarship: deliberations on (imagined) community and citizenship, creative labour studies that often frame “sociality” among creative workers in professional terms, and fandom studies as well as audience research, which attempt to redefine what fans and audiences are in our time.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Richard Sennett, Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012).
- 2.
There is one exception, who works in the financial sector.
- 3.
Chow Yiu Fai, “Martial Arts Films and Dutch–Chinese Masculinities: Smaller Is Better,” China Information 22, no. 2 (2008): 331–59.
- 4.
They include those associated with “fans” such as fenxi (粉丝, a sound translation of “fans”) and naocanfen (脑残粉, literally braindead fans), those associated with mi (迷), meaning obsessed, admiring, such as ximi (戏迷, an admirer of xiqu, 戏曲) and mimei (迷妹, literally an admiring girl) as well as a term peculiar to Kunqu fans: kunchong (昆虫, literally insect, a hybrid sound play with the kun in Kunqu).
- 5.
See, for instance, Janice A. Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature (London: Verso, 1987); Karen R. Scheel and John S. Westefeld, “Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Suicidality: An Empirical Investigation,” Adolescence 34, no. 134 (1999): 253; Lyn Thomas, Fans, Feminisms and “Quality” Media (Hove: Psychology Press, 2002).
- 6.
See Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess, and Gloria Jacobs, “Beatlemania: Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” in The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, ed. Lisa A. Lewis (London: Routledge, 2002), 84–106; Anna Fishzon, Fandom, Authenticity, and Opera: Mad Acts and Letter Scenes in Fin-de-Siècle Russia (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); Stephen Hinerman, “Beatlemania: Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” in The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, ed. Lisa A. Lewis (London: Routledge, 2002), 107–34; Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Feminist Theory and Pop Culture (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2015).
- 7.
Male fans, on the other hand, “tend to be typed as ‘aggressive’ and are often the target for most media markets.” See Trier-Bieniek, Feminist Theory and Pop Culture, xii.
- 8.
Tanya R. Cochran, “The Browncoats Are Coming! Firefly, Serenity, and Fan Activism,” in Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier, ed. Rhonda V. Wilcox and Tanya R. Cochran (London: I.B. Tauris, 2008), 239–240.
- 9.
See Stuart Hall, “Encoding/Decoding,” in Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, ed. Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (London: Hutchinson, 1980).
- 10.
Chow Yiu Fai and Jeroen de Kloet, Sonic Multiplicities: Hong Kong Pop and the Global Circulation of Sound and Image (Bristol, UK; Chicago, USA: Intellect Books, 2013), 44.
- 11.
Lisa A. Lewis, The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media (Hove: Psychology Press, 1992).
- 12.
Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York: NYU Press, 2006), 243.
- 13.
Axel Bruns, Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage (New York: Peter Lang, 2008).
- 14.
See, for instance, Kristin M. Barton and Jonathan Malcolm Lampley, eds., Fan CULTure: Essays on Participatory Fandom in the 21st Century (NC: McFarland, 2014); Elizabeth Evans, Transmedia Television: Audiences, New Media, and Daily Life (London: Routledge, 2011).
- 15.
Zhang Weiyu and Mao Chengting, “Fan Activism Sustained and Challenged: Participatory Culture in Chinese Online Translation Communities,” Chinese Journal of Communication 6, no. 1 (2013): 45–61.
- 16.
S. Elizabeth Bird, “Are We All Produsers Now?,” Cultural Studies 25, no. 4–5 (2011): 502–16. See also James Hay and Nick Couldry, “Rethinking Convergence/Culture,” Cultural Studies 25, no. 4–5 (2011): 473–86.
- 17.
Trier-Bieniek, Feminist Theory and Pop Culture, xii.
- 18.
Ibid., xi.
- 19.
Matt Hills, Fan Cultures (Hove: Psychology Press, 2002), xii.
- 20.
Lily Kong, “The Sociality of Cultural Industries,” International Journal of Cultural Policy 11, no. 1 (2005): 61–76.
- 21.
Gino Cattani and Simone Ferriani, “A Core/Periphery Perspective on Individual Creative Performance: Social Networks and Cinematic Achievements in the Hollywood Film Industry,” Organization Science 19, no. 6 (2008): 824–44.
- 22.
Emma Felton, Christy Collis, and Phil Graham, “Making Connections: Creative Industries Networks in Outer-Suburban Locations,” Australian Geographer 41, no. 1 (2010): 57–70.
- 23.
Lee Minha, “Fostering Connectivity: A Social Network Analysis of Entrepreneurs in Creative Industries,” International Journal of Cultural Policy 21, no. 2 (2015): 139–52.
- 24.
See Max Weber, “The Distribution of Power Within the Gemeinschaft: Classes, Stände, Parties,” in Weber’s Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification, ed. Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 37–58. See also Ferdinand Tönnies, Gemeinschaft Und Gesellschaft (Leipzig: Fues’s Verlag, 1887); Emile Durkheim, “A Review of Ferdinand Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft Und Gesellschaft: Abhandlung Des Communismus Und Des Socialismus Als Empirischer Culturformen,” American Journal of Sociology 77 (1972): 1193; Joan Aldous, Emile Durkheim, and Ferdinand Tonnies, “An Exchange Between Durkheim and Tonnies on the Nature of Social Relations, with an Introduction by Joan Aldous,” American Journal of Sociology 77, no. 6 (1972): 1191–1200. For a critique of Weber’s conception of gesellschaft being more progressive than gemeinschaft, see Jean-Luc Nancy, The Inoperative Community (Minnesota: U of Minnesota Press, 1991).
- 25.
See, for instance, Robert Park, “The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the Urban Environment,” in Classic Essays on the Culture of Cities, ed. Richard Sennett (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1916).
- 26.
Tony Blackshaw, Key Concepts in Community Studies (London: SAGE Publications, 2010): 5.
- 27.
Sennett, Together, 273.
- 28.
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991).
- 29.
This brief account of Kunqu and its connection with Shanghai is based on the following selection of works: Feng Yun (冯芸), “苏州的昆曲传承:昆曲曲社的历史变迁 [Suzhou Kunqu de Chuancheng: Kunqu Qushe de Lishi Bianqian],” 中国音乐 [Zhongguo Yinyue], no. 3 (2010): 47–53; Gu Duhuang (顾笃璜), “苏州昆曲曲家与道和曲社 [Suzhou Kunqu Qujia Yu Daohe Qushe],” 文匯報 [Wenhui Bao], May 18, 2015; Guo Yingde (郭英德), 明清传奇史 [Mingqing Chuanqi Shi] (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1999); Qian Nanyang (钱南扬), “南词引正校注 (Nanci Yinzheng Jiaozhu),” 戏剧报 [Xiju Bao], no. 2 (1961): 60–61; Zheng Chuanjian (郑传鉴), “昆剧传习所纪事 [Kunqu Chuanxisuo Jishi],” 中国戏曲网 [Zhongguo Xiqu Wang] (blog), November 6, 2006, http://www.chinaopera.net/html/2006-11/606p3.html; 中国戏曲志全国编辑委员会 [Zhongguo xiquzhi quanguobianji weiyuanhui], 中国戏曲志上海卷 [Chinese Xiqu Records Shanghai volume] (Beijing: Zhongguo, 1999).
- 30.
Zhao Shanlin (赵山林), “试论昆曲观众的历史变迁与现状 [On the Historical Vicissitude and Current Situation of Kunqu],” 东南大学学报(哲学社会科学版) [Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy and Social Science)] 16, no. 1 (2014): 96–165; Yu Weimin (俞为民), “昆曲的现代性发展之可能性研究 [Study on the Possibility of the Modern Development of Kunqu],” 文化艺术研究 [Wenhua Yishu Yanjiu], no. 1 (2011): 133–55.
- 31.
See Josh Stenberg, “Three Relations between History and Stage in the Kunju Scene Slaying the Tiger General,” Asian Theatre Journal 32, no. 1 (2015): 107–35; Chen Chaochen, “How Beijing Opera Eclipsed Kun Opera in Chinese Sociocultural and Sociopolitical Contexts” (California State University, 2011).
- 32.
Joseph Sui Ching Lam, “Escorting Lady Jing Home: A Journey of Chinese Gender, Opera, and Politics,” Yearbook for Traditional Music 46 (2014): 114–39.
- 33.
Josh Stenberg and Jason J. P. Cai, “Mostly Young Women with Quite Traditional Tastes: Empirical Evidence for National Contemporary Audiences of Xiqu,” Theatre Journal 69, no. 1 (2017): 43–59.
- 34.
For a discussion on xiangqin practices, see Chap. 5.
- 35.
John Storey, “The Social Life of Opera,” European Journal of Cultural Studies 6, no. 1 (2003): 5–35.
- 36.
For a book-length treatise on a particular form of Yueju—all-female cast—see Jiang Jin (姜进), 诗与政治: 20世纪上海公共文化中的女子越剧 [Poetry and Politics: Female Yue Opera in 20th Century Shanghai Public Culture] (Beijing: 社会科学文献出版社 [Social Sciences Academic Press], 2015).
- 37.
Born in Guangxi province in 1937, Pai moved to Taiwan with his family when he was a teenager. His works enjoy persistent popularity among literary youth in the Chinese-speaking world. See Wang Yan (王焱), “现代主义与传统文化的璧合──白先勇小说创作概论 [The Combination of Modernism and Traditional Culture ─ An Introduction to Bai Xianyong’s Novel Creation],” 天中学刊 [Tianzhong Xuekan], no. 1X (1995): 66–69. Bai Xianyong is the rendition of Pai’s name in the mainland Chinese pinyin system.
- 38.
In her study on teenage girl smokers, Fin Cullen uses the term “informal social currency” to describe how smoking practices are mobilized and shared as a way to initiate relationships. See Fin Cullen, “‘Two’s up and Poncing Fags’: Young Women’s Smoking Practices, Reciprocity and Friendship,” Gender and Education 22, no. 5 (2010): 491–504.
- 39.
See Chap. 5 for an account of their travelling practices.
- 40.
Sennett, Together, 248.
- 41.
On the use of humour in managing young women’s lives, see Akane Kanai, “On Not Taking the Self Seriously: Resilience, Relatability and Humour in Young Women’s Tumblr Blogs,” European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2017, 1–18.
- 42.
For a deliberation of the rise of emotional culture and the making of capitalism, see Eva Illouz, Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism (Cambridge: Polity, 2007).
- 43.
Kate Themen and Jenny van Hooff, “Kicking against Tradition: Women’s Football, Negotiating Friendships and Social Spaces,” Leisure Studies 36, no. 4 (2017): 542–52.
References
Aldous, Joan, Emile Durkheim, and Ferdinand Tonnies. “An Exchange Between Durkheim and Tonnies on the Nature of Social Relations, with an Introduction by Joan Aldous.” American Journal of Sociology 77, no. 6 (1972): 1191–1200.
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991.
Barton, Kristin M., and Jonathan Malcolm Lampley, eds. Fan CULTure: Essays on Participatory Fandom in the 21st Century. NC: McFarland, 2014.
Bird, S. Elizabeth. “Are We All Produsers Now?” Cultural Studies 25, no. 4–5 (2011): 502–16.
Blackshaw, Tony. Key Concepts in Community Studies. London: SAGE Publications, 2010.
Bruns, Axel. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.
Cattani, Gino, and Simone Ferriani. “A Core/Periphery Perspective on Individual Creative Performance: Social Networks and Cinematic Achievements in the Hollywood Film Industry.” Organization Science 19, no. 6 (2008): 824–44.
Chen, Chaochen. “How Beijing Opera Eclipsed Kun Opera in Chinese Sociocultural and Sociopolitical Contexts.” Master’s Thesis, California State University, 2011.
Chow, Yiu Fai. “Martial Arts Films and Dutch–Chinese Masculinities: Smaller Is Better.” China Information 22, no. 2 (2008): 331–59.
Chow, Yiu Fai, and Jeroen de Kloet. Sonic Multiplicities: Hong Kong Pop and the Global Circulation of Sound and Image. Bristol, UK; Chicago, USA: Intellect Books, 2013.
Cochran, Tanya R. “The Browncoats Are Coming! Firefly, Serenity, and Fan Activism.” In Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier, edited by Rhonda V. Wilcox and Tanya R. Cochran, 239–50. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.
Cullen, Fin. “‘Two’s up and Poncing Fags’: Young Women’s Smoking Practices, Reciprocity and Friendship.” Gender and Education 22, no. 5 (2010): 491–504.
Durkheim, Emile. “A Review of Ferdinand Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft Und Gesellschaft: Abhandlung Des Communismus Und Des Socialismus Als Empirischer Culturformen.” American Journal of Sociology 77 (1972): 1193.
Ehrenreich, Barbara, Elizabeth Hess, and Gloria Jacobs. “Beatlemania: Girls Just Want To Have Fun.” In The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, edited by Lisa A. Lewis, 84–106. London: Routledge, 2002.
Evans, Elizabeth. Transmedia Television: Audiences, New Media, and Daily Life. London: Routledge, 2011.
Felton, Emma, Christy Collis, and Phil Graham. “Making Connections: Creative Industries Networks in Outer-Suburban Locations.” Australian Geographer 41, no. 1 (2010): 57–70.
Feng, Yun (冯芸). “苏州的昆曲传承:昆曲曲社的历史变迁 [Suzhou Kunqu de Chuancheng: Kunqu Qushe de Lishi Bianqian].” 中国音乐 [Zhongguo Yinyue], no. 3 (2010): 47–53.
Fishzon, Anna. Fandom, Authenticity, and Opera: Mad Acts and Letter Scenes in Fin-de-Siècle Russia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Gu, Duhuang (顾笃璜). “苏州昆曲曲家与道和曲社 [Suzhou Kunqu Qujia Yu Daohe Qushe].” 文匯報 [Wenhui Bao], May 18, 2015.
Guo, Yingde (郭英德). 明清传奇史 [Mingqing Chuanqi Shi]. Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1999.
Hall, Stuart. “Encoding/Decoding.” In Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, edited by Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. London: Hutchinson, 1980.
Hay, James, and Nick Couldry. “Rethinking Convergence/Culture.” Cultural Studies 25, no. 4–5 (2011): 473–86.
Hills, Matt. Fan Cultures. Hove: Psychology Press, 2002.
Hinerman, Stephen. “Beatlemania: Girls Just Want To Have Fun.” In The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, edited by Lisa A. Lewis, 107–34. London: Routledge, 2002.
Illouz, Eva. Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity, 2007.
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press, 2006.
Jiang, Jin (姜进). 诗与政治: 20世纪上海公共文化中的女子越剧 [Poetry and Politics: Female Yue Opera in 20th Century Shanghai Public Culture]. Beijing: 社会科学文献出版社 [Social Sciences Academic Press], 2015.
Kanai, Akane. “On Not Taking the Self Seriously: Resilience, Relatability and Humour in Young Women’s Tumblr Blogs.” European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2017, 1–18.
Kong, Lily. “The Sociality of Cultural Industries.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 11, no. 1 (2005): 61–76.
Lam, Joseph Sui Ching. “Escorting Lady Jing Home: A Journey of Chinese Gender, Opera, and Politics.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 46 (2014): 114–39.
Lee, Minha. “Fostering Connectivity: A Social Network Analysis of Entrepreneurs in Creative Industries.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 21, no. 2 (2015): 139–52.
Nancy, Jean-Luc. The Inoperative Community. Minnesota: U of Minnesota Press, 1991.
Park, Robert. “The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the Urban Environment.” In Classic Essays on the Culture of Cities, edited by Richard Sennett. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1916.
Qian, Nanyang (钱南扬). “南词引正校注 (Nanci Yinzheng Jiaozhu).” 戏剧报 [Xiju Bao], no. 2 (1961): 60–61.
Radway, Janice A. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. London: Verso, 1987.
Scheel, Karen R., and John S. Westefeld. “Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Suicidality: An Empirical Investigation.” Adolescence 34, no. 134 (1999): 253.
Sennett, Richard. Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
Stenberg, Josh. “Three Relations between History and Stage in the Kunju Scene Slaying the Tiger General.” Asian Theatre Journal 32, no. 1 (2015): 107–35.
Stenberg, Josh, and Jason J. P. Cai. “Mostly Young Women with Quite Traditional Tastes: Empirical Evidence for National Contemporary Audiences of Xiqu.” Theatre Journal 69, no. 1 (2017): 43–59.
Storey, John. “The Social Life of Opera.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 6, no. 1 (2003): 5–35.
Themen, Kate, and Jenny van Hooff. “Kicking against Tradition: Women’s Football, Negotiating Friendships and Social Spaces.” Leisure Studies 36, no. 4 (2017): 542–52.
Thomas, Lyn. Fans, Feminisms and “quality” Media. Hove: Psychology Press, 2002.
Tönnies, Ferdinand. Gemeinschaft Und Gesellschaft. Leipzig: Fues’s Verlag, 1887.
Trier-Bieniek, Adrienne. Feminist Theory and Pop Culture. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2015.
Wang, Yan (王焱). “现代主义与传统文化的璧合──白先勇小说创作概论 [The Combination of Modernism and Traditional Culture ─ An Introduction to Bai Xianyong’s Novel Creation].” 天中学刊 [Tianzhong Xuekan], no. 1X (1995): 66–69.
Weber, Max. “The Distribution of Power Within the Gemeinschaft: Classes, Stände, Parties.” In Weber’s Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification, edited by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, 37–58. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Yu, Weimin (俞为民). “昆曲的现代性发展之可能性研究 [Study on the Possibility of the Modern Development of Kunqu].” 文化艺术研究 [Wenhua Yishu Yanjiu], no. 1 (2011): 133–55.
Zhang, Weiyu, and Chengting Mao. “Fan Activism Sustained and Challenged: Participatory Culture in Chinese Online Translation Communities.” Chinese Journal of Communication 6, no. 1 (2013): 45–61.
Zhao, Shanlin (赵山林). “试论昆曲观众的历史变迁与现状 [On the Historical Vicissitude and Current Situation of Kunqu].” 东南大学学报(哲学社会科学版) [Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy and Social Science)] 16, no. 1 (2014): 96–165.
Zheng, Chuanjian (郑传鉴). “昆剧传习所纪事 [Kunqu Chuanxisuo Jishi].” 中国戏曲网 [Zhongguo Xiqu Wang] (blog), November 6, 2006. http://www.chinaopera.net/html/2006-11/606p3.html.
中国戏曲志全国编辑委员会 [Zhongguo xiquzhi quanguobianji weiyuanhui]. 中国戏曲志上海卷 [Chinese Xiqu Records Shanghai Volume]. Beijing: Zhongguo, 1999.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yiu Fai, C. (2019). Living with Us—The Case of Kunqu. In: Caring in Times of Precarity. Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76898-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76898-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76897-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76898-4
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)