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Doing Ethnicity: Multi-layered Ethnic Scripts in Contemporary China
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2023
Abstract
Drawing on lengthy ethnographic fieldwork with ethnic performers in South-West China, this article seeks to explore the multi-layered ethnic scripts in contemporary China. Ethnic performers are people who perform ethnic songs and dances in restaurants or tourist sites, most of whom are rural–urban migrants from ethnic minority backgrounds. Ethnic performers’ ambivalences regarding whether they are “authentic minorities” points to the inadequacy of attempting to understand ethnicity in an essentialized way. Understanding ethnicity as something people do rather than who they are, the concept of “ethnic scripts” is proposed as a conceptual tool to illuminate the cultural and social repertoires which deeply shape people's understanding of and ways of doing ethnicity. By exploring the multi-layered meaning of ethnic scripts in contemporary China, this article highlights the ways that ethnic scripts are closely related to migrant performers’ emotions and sense of self, and addresses the fact that ethnic scripts are inherently gendered.
摘要
本文通过对中国西南地区的民族表演者进行长时间的民族志田野调研，试图探索当代中国多层次的民族脚本。民族表演者是在餐馆或旅游景点表演民族歌舞的人，他们大多是来自少数民族背景的城乡移民。民族表演者对于自己是否是 “地道的少数民族” 的矛盾心理表明，以本质化的方式理解民族性是不够的。通过将民族性理解为人们所做的事情而不是他们是谁，“民族脚本” 被提出来作为一种概念工具，以阐明深深塑造人们对民族性的理解和‘做民族’的方式的文化和社会剧目。通过探讨民族脚本在当代中国的多层次含义，本文强调了民族脚本与移民表演者的情感和自我意识密切相关的方式，以及民族脚本本身具有性别特征的事实。
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London
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