RAS LECTURE – Shanghai Nightlife and the Modern Chinese Woman – April 12th
Posted: April 11th, 2011 | No Comments »An RAS China event in Shanghai that may be of interest to readers of this blog should you be in that part of the world:
RAS LECTURE
Tuesday 12th April, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Tavern, Radisson Plaza Xingguo Hotel 78 Xing Guo Road,Shanghai
兴国宾馆 上海市兴国路78å·
Shanghai Nightlife and the Modern Chinese Woman
Andrew David Field, PhD
This talk aims to trace changes in the roles and status of women in the nightlife of Shanghai over the past century. In the late 19th century, the city boasted a rich courtesan culture and Chinese courtesans emerged as the first public female figures in urban life. They were also the first women to embrace the Western cultures of urban modernity.
By the 1920s, new opportunities arose for women in the city in the wake of political and social developments associated with the May Fourth Era. Not coincidentally, Chinese society began to embrace the “Jazz Age†and men and women stepped out for a night of dancing in the city’s cabarets.
During the ‘20s and ‘30s, the wunu or dance hostesses who worked in these ballrooms drew on the culture pioneered by the courtesans of earlier decades but also on cultures of Hollywood films and the American taxi-dance halls and became icons of femininity for a New China.
The Revolution of 1949 and the Mao years saw an end to these developments and social dancing went deep underground, but that era also elevated the status and power of women in many areas ranging from marriage to the workplace.
By the 1980s, with the dawn of the “opening and reforms†era, people in Shanghai were dancing out in the open again, but this time with men and women dancing on a more equal footing. Then in the 1990s, the city opened up once again to international commerce, trade, and culture, and a new era of nightclubs and fancy bars emerged.
Today, women play ambiguous roles as customers, entertainers, and hostesses in the city’s nightclubs, and the legacy of the 19th century can still be seen in the city’s club cultures. Accompanied by plenty of visual images, this lecture will trace these developments as we examine the shifting roles and identities of women in Shanghai’s nightscape.
Andrew Field is an independent scholar of Chinese history and culture living and working in Shanghai.
Entrance: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members) those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption, prior to the RAS Lecture. Membership applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.
RSVP: to RAS Enquiry desk enquiry@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn
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