CHAIRPERSON
Dr Anjeline de Dios, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
ABSTRACT
Nightlife spaces are stages for the presentation of alternative nocturnal selves, stages upon which class, gender, sexual, and other more subcultural identities are publicly performed. The urban nightscape is also a space of global flows, in which imported ideologies, images, sounds, tastes, and people are enjoyed and localized by Chinese people, especially youth. The talk will focus on the changes in Shanghai’s urban nightlife scenes–from the 1920s to the present–showing how night scenes have served as spaces for new forms of gendered sociability. In particular, the talk will focus on how dance clubs since the 1980s have transformed from mass leisure spaces into stages for conspicuous consumption and social distinction. This talk is based on the book Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City written by James Farrer and Andrew David Field (University of Chicago Press 2015).
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
James Farrer is Professor of Sociology and Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo, specializing in urban studies in East Asia, including research on expatriate communities, nightlife, sexuality, and food cultures. His publications include Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai, Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City (with Andrew Field), and Globalization and Asian Cuisines: Transnational Networks and Contact Zones (editor).
REGISTRATION
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