Monday, March 30, 2015

[講座回放:週五研討會] "眼力"的法則:當代中國古玩權威地位的合法化研究

“眼力"的法則:當代中國古玩權威地位的合法化研究

講者:武洹宇(香港中文大學人類學系博士候選人)
日期及時間:2015320日,中午12:30
地點:香港中文大學新亞書院人文館401

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武洹宇在廣東省一個三線小城A進行田野考察,訪問了一個專注古陶瓷收藏和研究的民間團體。在研討會中,她以該團體兩位創始人的個人經歷為線索,講述他們在上世紀的90年代中期,從國家“體制內”的診所藥工,一起辭職,下海經商,然後在經商轉軌途中進入古玩收藏的場域謀求發展,成立民間團體“A城古陶瓷研究會”通過舉辦數次大型展覽,邀請知名的“前輩”權威到場剪綵、題詞、觀展留影以及為展覽圖鑒作序等方式,他們的“眼力”逐步獲得業內的廣泛認可,進而樹立起自身的權威地位。

研討會講者武洹宇
然而,在計劃實行之初,他們就在贗品上展的問題上與前輩的意見嚴重分歧。堅持己見,他們定必得罪前輩,無法獲得支持放棄自己的判斷,任由一些自己看來是贗品的器物展出又會自身名譽。他們意識到自己對遊戲規則的設想與現實世界的情況並不重合:“辨識真偽的能力”與“去偽存真的德行”可相互分離,權威的現實意義紛繁複雜——有“守德的權威”,亦有“失德的權威”。最終,他們選擇了“堅持自己”,代價就是“知止”——成為了A城的地方權威之後,便不再企望佔據省級權威的第一把交椅,也不再妄圖晉級為國家級的古玩權威這種“堅持自己”的方式他們贏得了相當一部分專家的支持和認同,但同時也因此得罪了一大批前輩權威,使他們想要繼續舉辦展覽也難以獲得前輩支持。不過這個決定也為他們帶來了一定程度上的好結果:幾場大型展覽贏得的名聲和威望使他們獲得了兩項重要的官方頭銜:省文史館館員和A城政協委員。以古玩鑒定專家的身份獲此榮譽,標誌著兩人的鑒定“眼力”得到了國家政府官方認定,知識合法化的過程得以正式完成。與此同時,這兩個身份徹底改變了他們的日常社交範圍,使之成為了地方精英團體的成員,進入了一個他們自己稱之為“上流世界”的社會空間。

研討會出席者
武洹宇總結道:自1978年改革開放以後,中國社會發生了大規模的“脫嵌”(dis-embedding)現象:在鄉村集中表現為農民脫離土地湧入城區打工,在城市則體現為個體脫離國有單位體制“下海”經商,如今改革開放的政令已實施三十餘年,個體如何“重嵌”(re-embedding)成為當代中國研究的聚焦問題。因此,她的研究關注個體經由何種路徑形式重新嵌入一個新的意義系統古玩收藏領域。就A城的個案來看,對於講座中的兩位生於上世紀60年代,在文革時期錯失了接受正規教育的機會,後在改革開放時代拼搏取得了一定成就的個體來說,獲得國家頭銜而享有與受過高等教育的人等同的人生機會,就成了他們宣告社會地位合法化的主要手段,使之能夠在古玩收藏場域以外的一個更加廣闊的社會空間裏感受一種區隔性的優越。在此之中,有關道德的爭論處在合法性生成的核心位置,而個體合法地位的最終確定,則是經由國家認證的形式得以完成。

Friday, March 27, 2015

[Announcement] Summer Field Trip to Seoul, South Korea (14–22 July,2015)

Summer Field Trip to Seoul, South Korea (14–22 July,2015)

This year, Professor Sealing Cheng will lead a 9-day field trip to South Korea. The main theme of the trip will be “Gender and Social Justice.” At the core of the trip, students are required to participate in the activities of Magdalena House Collective, an NGO for sex workers that will be celebrating its 30th anniversary. They will also meet with activists and researchers who work on gender and sexuality issues. 

Some of the expected outcomes of the field trip are:
  • For those who find sex work a difficult subject to think about, this will be a good chance for you to get to know sex workers as human beings, rather than a symbol;
  • To examine how gender and sexuality are contested issues in South Korea;
  • To connect everyday experience with broader structural and cultural dynamics;
  • To experience a taste of “making the strange familiar”;
  • Learning to communicate in ways other than the spoken language (unless you speak passable Korean, and you are encouraged to take some intensive language classes before the trip). 

Program of the trip tentatively includes:
  • Helping with the preparation of the 30th Anniversary of Magdalena House Collective (all sorts of task, including a short performance);
  • Visit to sex work areas, including Itaewon;
  • Meeting with researchers on sex work issues;
  • Meeting with activists working on issues of sexuality;
  • Meeting with Korean anthropologists;
  • Visit to War Memorial Museum;
  • Daily briefing sessions.

The summer field trip will be a rewarding experience for anthropology students to understand culture of another place. Do not miss this great learning opportunity. Click the flyer for more details. (Students please check your email for the application form.) 

Flyer of the summer field trip 2015

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

[Upcoming Seminar] Disjunctive Harmony: Life and Work of Foreign Spouses Engaging in Sex Work in Taiwan

Disjunctive Harmony: Life and Work of Foreign Spouses Engaging in Sex Work in Taiwan

Speaker: TSENG Hsunhui (Assistant Professor, Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time: 12:30 p.m., 27 March, 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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For the past decade in Taiwan, newspapers and TV news programmes have reported how the police have ferreted out marriage migrants from Southeast Asia and China engaging in sex work. Indeed, Taiwan has seen massage parlors and Karaoke clubs with hostesses bourgeoning in dark street corners after the influx of marriage migrants in the early 2000s. How should we interpret this phenomenon? Who are these foreign women? Why and how do they enter the sex industry? In this talk, Prof. Tseng Hsunhui will share her recent fieldwork in a karaoke snack restaurant featuring Vietnamese hostesses (yuenan dian, Vietnamese store) in mid-south Taiwan as an example to look into how the market of foreign-born spouses as sex workers was formed as well as to explore how these migrant women negotiate their multiple lives in the family as a mother, daughter, and sometimes, a wife, at the workplace as a worker, and in society as a citizen.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME.



Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Anthropologists on the Road Series:Yearning for a Complete Home: Migrant Workers on the Road


“To the migrant workers, the old home is what they strive hard for in a distant city, hoping to refurbish and to live in with their children after retirement. What an irony that this home, to their children, had crumbled right after their parents migrated.”
Ju-chen Chen
 
Since the mid-1980s, more and more rural Chinese leave their home villages to look for jobs in the city, leaving behind their family as well as their mother tongues and identities. They sacrifice and endeavour for the dream of a better worlda world of material abundance.

Nevertheless, the increasingly commercialized and commoditized society of China and the ever growing needs for money have made the efforts of these workers insignificant. While trying hard to meet the living standard of the better-off China, these workers remain as the “marginalized” dwellers of the city.

The rural migrant workers leave their family and strive in the cities to pursue a complete home and better living conditions, but the irony is that their children, instead of having strong attachment to their home, wish to be recognized in new grounds when they grow up.


Want to have a more comprehensive picture on the lives of rural migrant workers in China? Click here and read the full text of Dr. Chen's article published in the Anthropologists on the Road Series of Hong Kong Discovery (Vol.81)

Thursday, March 19, 2015

[Nepali Culture Workshop 2014-2015] Field Trip to YMCA Cheung Sha Wan Centre: A Lens to Social Enterprise in Hong Kong

Multiculturalism in Action: Nepali Culture Workshop

Field Trip to YMCA Cheung Sha Wan Centre: 

A Lens to Social Enterprise in Hong Kong



Visit to YMCA CSW Centre
The participants of “Multiculturalism in Action: Nepali Culture Workshop”, together with undergraduate students of the Department of Anthropology, paid a visit to the YMCA Cheung Sha Wan Center on 22 November, 2014, to learn more about the objectives and operation of a social enterprise.

After a short briefing by Ms. Law, social worker at the Center, participants were divided into groups and took turns to participate in three activitieshenna painting, handicraft making, and cooking Nepali food (aaloo achar).

Henna painting by a Pakistani teacher
Cooking demonstration by a Nepali teacher
Each activity was presented and led by members of a social minority in Hong Kong. The activities gave participants an opportunity to hear from ethnic and cultural minorities firsthand, and to gain a better understanding on the everyday experience and disadvantaged status of marginalized groups.

Learning bracelet making from a Chinese teacher
Participants also visited the community store run by the YMCA Cheung Sha Wan Center. The store was a social enterprise with an aim to provide minority women a way to support their own living by selling handmade products and to learn business skills that could be applied in future. The HK Government rented the store to them at a discounted rate, enabling the Center to generate profits for social and community projects.

This field trip was a great opportunity for participants to learn about the design, operation, and difficulties of a social enterprise. With more face-to-face discussion and interaction with the minority communities, participants were able to understand better the living conditions and needs of minorities from their own perspectives.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

[活動預告:週五研討會] "眼力"的法則:當代中國古玩權威地位的合法化研究

"眼力"的法則:當代中國古玩權威地位的合法化研究(普通話主講)

講者:武洹宇(香港中文大學人類學系博士候選人)
日期及時間:2015年3月20日,中午12:30
地點:香港中文大學新亞書院人文館401室

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自 1978 年改革開放以後,中國社會發生了大規模的"脫嵌"(dis-embedding)現象:在鄉村
集中表現為農民脫離土地湧入城區打工,在城市則體現為個體脫離國有單位體制"下海"經
商。於是,個體如何"重嵌"(re-embedding)成為當代中國研究的聚焦問題。本研究所關注
的對象,即是在上世紀90 年代中期"下海"之後,轉入古玩收藏領域另圖發展的個體,經由
何種路徑、以何種形式重新嵌入一個新的意義系統和等級秩序。

歡迎參加是次研討會。

研討會海報

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

[講座回放:週五研討會] 中國的垃圾戰爭: 社會行動與科技爭議

中國的垃圾戰爭: 社會行動與科技爭議

講者:張劼穎(香港中文大學人類學系博士候選人)
日期及時間:2015313日,中午12:30
地點:香港中文大學新亞書院人文館401

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是次研討會聚焦於2009年至2013年在廣州發生的一系列反對垃圾焚燒的運動,檢視當地居民如何就垃圾焚燒方案與政府角力。講者先講述了引發「中國垃圾戰爭的大環境,當中包括現代化、工業化、消費社會的膨脹、城鄉二元結構下的高速城市化等。在此基拙上,講者再導入至中國垃圾量日益增加的問題,並解釋垃圾圍城」的出現。

研討會講者張劼穎
為了解決龐大的垃圾量,政府積極策劃興建垃圾焚燒設施,引起了周邊民眾和環保組織的激烈抗議。其中,廣州居民策劃了一系列反焚行動,包括街頭集體抗議、請願、遞交公開信給全國人民代表大會常務委員會、籌辦民間座談會和展示行為藝術 (送垃圾、送鐘、防毒面具地鐵遊等等)。他們技巧地把行動合法化,又邀請政府參與其中的活動(例如民間座談會)。另一方面,政府則致力去展示焚燒廠的環保、高科技、現代化及安全性,並指反焚人士污名化」和妖魔化焚燒設施及技術。

雙方就垃圾焚燒的安全性、技術及地方適用性展開辯論,當中爭議包括有害物質二噁英的排放、政府對「高科技」的控制能力、設備的完美性、國家標準的可信性和準確性,以及技術對「廣州的垃圾」的作用。垃圾焚燒技術或許在歐美國家能安全運作,可是因為廣州人“愛煲湯”的習俗,導致垃圾水分含量較高,不利於焚化爐保持持續高溫的狀態,從而加大產生二噁英的風險。經過反焚人士一系列的行動後,政府改變姿態,並邀請民眾加入諮詢委員會。雙方的關係由對抗變為合作。

研討會出席者
講者強調反焚人士結合地方知識及科技知識來挑戰權威,並把政府召入對話。他們在行動中形成一套認知及敘事經驗,由「生物公民」(以保障身體健康為出發點)轉變成「常民專(lay expert) (透過重新建構地方知識來豐富其理據)。他們更以廣州的特有氣候和飲食文化來重新界定垃圾。由此可見,垃圾不單被經濟結構和文化所界定,還在其引發的政治行動及社會運動中被再界定。因此,講者在結語中指出中國的垃圾戰爭可被視為話語相互影響(interplay of discourse)的體現。

Friday, March 13, 2015

Anthropologists on the Road Series: Work More, Pay Less? An Experience on Setting Up a Shrimp Farming "Cooperative" in China

“Yet, the robust statistics of the industry conceals the shrimp farmers’ dilemma: despite their continual efforts in improving technology and enhancing yields, they get no fair reward. Their living standard over the toiling years has not raised much. Why is it so? As an anthropologist, apart from doing investigations and analyses, how may I help them?”
Huang Yu

When suppliers of shrimp post larvae and pharmaceuticals are used to maximize their profits by cutting corners and deceiving farmers, and middlemen who collect shrimp always collude with each other to suppress shrimp prices, farmers with little bargaining power are left to struggle alone.

When good harvest does not necessarily bring profit to the farmers, what can they do to survive in the wave of market economy? Huang Yu, Assistant Professor of our Department, switched her role as a researcher to an actor during her visit to Bailingdong Village in Dongli Town, Leizhou.

Want to know how Professor Huang helped the shrimp farmers in restoring the value of their labour? Click here and check out the full text. 



Thursday, March 12, 2015

Anthropologists on the Road Series: Traveling Through Ethnicity, Forests and Fields in Sichuan

“While language and style of dress is rarely as diverse in such a small section of the planet as it is in this part of Sichuan, what is unique about agriculture is that producing crops can define boundaries between cultures but it also is an activity shared and understood by farmers around the world.”
Edwin Schmitt

Cultural identity of a community can be manifested in various forms and waysagricultural practice is one among them. The variety of crops grown and the planting and harvesting methods used are some of the hints giving us insights into the culture of a community. Edwin Schmitt, a PhD Candidate of our Department, had went to Sichuan earlier and talked to the ethnic groups there to discover more about their rituals, agricultural practices and perceptions towards forest and ecology in relation to the construction of their cultural identity.


Want to know more about what he had encountered and discovered? Click here and read Schmitt's full article on "Traveling Through Ethnicity, Forests and Fields in Sichuan" published in Hong Kong Discovery (Vol. 78), Anthropologists on the Road Series.


Wednesday, March 11, 2015

[活動預告:週五研討會] 中國的垃圾戰爭: 社會行動與科技爭議

中國的垃圾戰爭: 社會行動與科技爭議(普通話主講)

講者:張劼穎(香港中文大學人類學系博士候選人)
日期及時間:2015313日,中午12:30
地點:香港中文大學新亞書院人文館401


這個講座關注垃圾及其引發的社會行動和科學爭議。當代中國的高速城市化、消費社會的膨脹,所帶來的一個未預料的後果是海量的無法處理的垃圾及其帶來的污染。為了解決垃圾圍城的問題,各大城市開始興建垃圾焚燒設施。垃圾焚燒發電技術,作為國家的新能源和可持續發展計劃,即將成為中國未來最主要的垃圾處理方式。然而,這些基礎設施遭遇了周邊民眾和環保組織的激烈抗議。

本研究聚焦2009年到2013年發生在廣州的一系列反對垃圾焚燒的運動,檢視當地居民是如何反抗國家的垃圾焚燒計劃的,特別是,當地行動者如何使用地方性知識對全球性的焚燒科技進行挑戰,又如何通過重新界定垃圾是什麼來提出另類解決方案的。基於對這一系列運動的觀察,本研究試圖探索地方常民是如何參與知識建構並挑戰普遍性的精英科學知識。另外,作者也試圖與廢棄物研究和社會運動的相關理論進行對話。

研討會海報

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

[Friday Seminar Recap] Trapped in Transformation: Negotiating Inner City Redevelopment in a Chinese Coastal City

Trapped in Transformation: Negotiating Inner City Redevelopment in a Chinese Coastal City

Speaker: Philipp DEMGENSKI (PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time: 12:30 p.m., 6 March, 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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Philipp Demgenski
Philipp Demgenski’s seminar focused on the process of attempted redevelopment in Qingdao, China. Qingdao was a colony of Germany for 17 years, and this historical period marked the start of city planning and development in the region. There have been various plans since the 1990s to redevelop the downtown to make use of this heritage. Yet, the redevelopment process has currently come to a deadlock, which is not normally seen in China. Demgenski’s ethnographic research investigated into the reasons contributing to and the consequences of such stagnation. The liyuan (裡院), where lots of different families had resided, was his field site in Qingdao.

The attendees
Philipp Demgenski discussed the different “groups” that had substantial influence on the redevelopment process — the Government, the residents and the old town protectors. The three groups held different views and concerns about the varied benefits or disadvantages urban planning might bring them. Government officials wished to create a “preserved” and “scenic” neighbourhood in the area similar to Xintiandi (新天地) in Shanghai (a kind of “soft” urbanisation), and they believed that success of this project could directly affect their mobility in the hierarchy. Residents would like to have a good compensation and improvement in their living conditions. At the same time they refused to cooperate due to the notion of “self-reliance”, the feeling of being “left behind” and the disappointment caused by the non-transparency and broken promises of the government. Old town protectors were enthusiasts that called for “authentic” preservation of the inner city. They believed in “absolute historical truth” and saw old buildings as the “extension of a fixed and unshakable past”.

Attendee asking questions
The varied perceptions of different “groups” towards urban space had hindered the progress of redevelopment project; and Demgenski referred the discrepancy between the “imagined Xintiandi” and reality as a kind of liminality. He concluded that the stagnation in Qingdao redevelopment project should not be understood as having a single cause; instead, a number of circumstances contributed that had taken place simultaneously.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Friday Seminars Schedule (Spring 2015)

Philipp DEMGENSKI will be giving a seminar tomorrow on the topic “Trapped in Transformation: Negotiating Inner City Redevelopment in a Chinese Coastal City”. Join us tomorrow, and make sure you do not miss the upcoming Friday seminars

The upcoming Friday seminars in this academic term will take place at 12:30p.m. in Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME.


List of Friday Seminars in spring 2015

[Publication] Rethinking Asian Food Heritage

Book Cover

Foodways is an important cultural marker of identity in many globalizing Asian societies, and provides insight to not only social changes, cultural nationalism, and traditional values, but also cultural inheritance in the context of political economy. Edited by Professor Sidney C. H. Cheung, this book collects selected and revised papers from the international conference “Foodways and Heritage: A Perspective of Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage”. The thirteen chapters in this book provide rich ethnographic description and analysis on food as a kind of intangible cultural heritage as it interacts with social and political complexities in Asia’s diverse cultures.

傳統飲食文化不單為很多正值全球化發展的亞洲社會提供了文化身份認同的解讀,更牽涉到社會變遷、文化民族主義、傳統價值以及政治經濟下的文化傳承等議題。此論文選集由本系教授張展鴻編纂,收錄了於「傳統飲食文化與非物質文化遺產保護國際研討會」所發表的其中十三篇論文,以非物質文化遺產的角度及民族志的研究和分析方法去探討傳統飲食文化。

Content of the book

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

[Upcoming Seminar] Trapped in Transformation: Negotiating Inner City Redevelopment in a Chinese Coastal City

Trapped in Transformation: Negotiating Inner City Redevelopment in a Chinese Coastal City

Speaker: Philipp DEMGENSKI (PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time: 12:30 p.m., 6 March, 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

****************************************************************

This talk addresses a growing urban planning predicament in contemporary China: the gridlock in inner city redevelopment. The old centre of the coastal city of Qingdao is home to diverse colonial architecture but is in a state of serious disrepair, overcrowded, and offering poor living conditions. Under the umbrella of “old housing renovation” (舊房改造) and “preservation-oriented development” (保護性發展), the city government has been trying to push for gentrification through spatial reconfiguration and human resettlement. This endeavour has, however, been largely unsuccessful and the project continues to stagnate. 

Ethnographic research helps explain what lies behind this ongoing developmental deadlock. Different groups of urban society entertain contested views regarding the “correct” meaning, usage, and appearance of the inner city. The state’s inability to handle this reflects some very fundamental issues in China’s current attempt to change its urban development and governing practices. Centrally propagated agendas, local government practices, and people’s reactions to and expectations towards the government are largely at odds with each other. This points to an essential paradox: the growing focus on “culturally sensitive” and more “humane” urban development, as well as peoples’ increased ability to influence urban planning--these being some of the key reasons for the current stagnation of urban redevelopment--have actually ended up antagonising most people involved. This shows the challenges China is facing in managing its urban future. 

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME.


Seminar Poster