WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/research/westminsterresearch Kaili, the homeland of 100 festivals: Space, music and sound in a small city Paul Kendall Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © The Author, 2014. This is an exact reproduction of the paper copy held by the University of Westminster library. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Users are permitted to download and/or print one copy for non-commercial private study or research. Further distribution and any use of material from within this archive for profit-making enterprises or for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: (http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e- mail [email protected] University of Westminster, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, Contemporary China Centre KAILI, THE HOMELAND OF 100 FESTIVALS: SPACE, MUSIC, AND SOUND IN A SMALL CITY PAUL KENDALL A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy MAY 2014 Thesis Abstract ! This thesis examines the production of social space in Kaili, a small city in southwest China, through its branding as “the homeland of one hundred festivals”, inhabitants’ conceptualizations of music, amateur music-making practices, and the construction of the built environment. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's triad of social space as a basic framework, I explore the complexity of the city through multiple aspects of the relationship between space, music and sound: how the built environment of post-Mao China hinders and hides amateur music, even in a city branded as a place of authentic (yuanshengtai) ethnic folk music; how disparities between the branding and living of Kaili have produced a discourse whereby citizens relocate authentic musical practices to an imagined rural space outside the city; and how amateur musicians have constructed hierarchies of amateur musical space within the city. This thesis makes a distinctive contribution across a range of disciplinary and theoretical interests: Chinese studies, multi-disciplinary debates about Lefebvre’s spatial theory, and urban studies. For Chinese studies, it gives detailed scrutiny to Lefebvre’s spatial theory in considering the historical and recent formation of urban space in China, and in so doing goes beyond the truism that social space is socially produced. It intervenes in ongoing discussions about Lefebvrian theory outside the parameters of Chinese studies, by grounding what has been a predominantly abstract discussion in ethnographically and textually-based research. My discussion of city branding and everyday musical activity elaborates Lefebvre’s theory, both modifying and adding to his triad of perceived, conceived and lived space. My fieldwork further suggests the need for both Chinese studies and urban studies to look beyond the big city for a more comprehensive understanding of how cities and urban spaces are configured. Most notably, many inhabitants of Kaili conceptualize not only a rural-urban divide – long a dominant geographical imagination of China – but also a spatial triad of village, big city and small city. These multiple interpretations of space interweave with a discourse of authenticity which assigns “real” minorities and their folk music practices to the village, authenticity-seekers to the big city, and sinicized “fake” minorities to Kaili. This latter category, of “fake” minority, emerges in this thesis as a little-studied form of self-identification in the context of literature on ethnicity in China. Thesis Abstract 2! Table of Contents Introduction: Situating the Ethnographic and the Academic 8 Thesis structure 14 Chapter One: False Starts and Reformulations 17 Reformulating research through fieldwork experience and grounded theory 17 Fieldwork methods: participant observation, interviews and textual research 25 A walk in the city 30 Two more walks and two bus journeys 35 Chapter Two: Theoretical Conceptualizations 40 A summary of spatial theory 40 Universal theories of space and the spatial triad 44 The redefinition of place 50 Social space and the aural 53 The musical representation and construction of place 55 Unifying music and sound 57 Sound and the spatial triad 60 Ethnicity and minzu 64 Chapter Three: A Spatial History of the Rural, the Industrial and the Urban in Kaili 71 Of administrative-urban, industrial and rural spaces 74 Musical activity in the proto-city of Kaili 80 A transitional period: from factory space to entertainment space 87 Public spaces and the city image 94 The civilized city 99 The soundscape of outdoor leisure spaces 102 Table of Contents 3! Chapter Four: Locating Cultural Authenticity in Kaili Municipality/City 109 Yuanshengtai as authenticity 111 Minzu and rural place in yuanshengtai discourse 116 Yuanshengtai and the branding of Kaili 121 Professionalized yuanshengtai and self-entertainment 128 The real and the fake in yuanshengtai discourse 132 Coda: repositioning Kaili 137 Chapter Five: Music Groups, Fluidity and Perceived Space 140 Apple Hill Park and a first meshwork 142 Amplified trails 149 Fluid groups and temporary music sites 152 A second meshwork 156 Rhythms of musical activity 164 Coda: the stability of place names 170 Chapter Six: Lived Musical Space in Kaili City 175 The contested function of park music 177 The educational indoor choir 182 Healthy entertainment for youth 190 Generationalism, vocal technique and repertoire 193 Coda: pop meets multi-part 199 Conclusion 205 Glossary of Selected Chinese Characters 211 Bibliography 216 Table of Contents 4! List of Figures Figure I.1 Dashizi intersection and lusheng statue 9 Figure 1.1 Map of Kaili 33 Figure 1.2 Dashizi and Nationalities Museum 34 Figure 1.3 Old Street and Dage Park 34 Figure 1.4 Miao-style bus stop 37 Figure 2.1 Busker in Dashizi 62 Figure 3.1 Abandoned Third Front factory 73 Figure 3.2 Choral competition of labour union 80 Figure 3.3 Dashizi in the 1970s 85 Figure 3.4 Dashizi in the 1980s 85 Figure 3.5 Train station 89 Figure 3.6 Cotton mill 90 Figure 3.7 Power plant 90 Figure 3.8 Nationalities Museum 92 Figure 3.9 Newspaper cartoon 94 Figure 3.10 Nationalities Stadium 96 Figure 3.11 Table of vehicular volume and sound levels (streets) 104 Figure 3.12 Table of sound levels (public spaces) 104 Figure 3.13 Map of public spaces and sound level recordings 105 Figure 5.1 Main entrance to Apple Hill Park 144 Figure 5.2 Library 144 Figure 5.3 Ticket booth in Dage Park 146 Figure 5.4 Scores and singers of Apple Hill Park 149 Figure 5.5 Portable amplifier 151 Figure 5.6 Kaili University 157 Figure 5.7 Kaili University during photo shoot 157 Figure 5.8 Bright Star 161 Figure 5.9 Kaili University map 164 Figure 5.10 Map of former Third Front sites 173 Figure 6.1 Viewing tower in Apple Hill Park 178 Figure 6.2 Fenghua choir 187 Figure 6.3 Advertisement for Bright Star 192 Figure 6.4 K-Vox at Kaili University 199 List of Figures 5! Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors, Harriet Evans and David Cunningham, for their expertise and patience. I feel privileged to have had such an interdisciplinary supervisory team, whose breadth of knowledge kept me reading and thinking throughout the creation of this thesis. Secondly, my thanks to my wife Daisy for enduring the PhD years, including the months we spent apart when I was in China, and the many more months of obsessive reading and writing in London. No more PhDs in the future, I promise. Thanks also to my parents for supporting my decision to return to university, and for supporting Daisy when I was not around. More generally, I’d like to thank all of those who have assisted or befriended me during the PhD. Aiming in the direction of Kaili, special thanks to all those who helped me during the early stages of fieldwork, as well as those who became friends rather than passing acquaintances in the field. A list of individuals would be too long and the pseudonyms too many, but most were attached in some way to one or more of the following spaces: Apple Hill Park, Bright Star, Longtouhe village, Kaili University, and Fenghua choir. Back in London, multiple generations of the Westminster Wells Street PhD room provided good company and diverse academic perspectives, as did old acquaintances in the School of African and Oriental Studies. I also wish to thank the University of Westminster for funding this research. Acknowledgements 6! Statement of Authorship ! I declare that all the material contained in this thesis is my own work. Statement of Authorship 7! Introduction: Situating the Ethnographic and the Academic “Don't waste your time in Kaili”,1 advised Wang Dewei, a retired English teacher who played erhu (two-stringed spike fiddle) for an amateur choir in one of Kaili city’s local parks. An accusation of laziness would have made me happier than his intended meaning, that my time was wasted because I had chosen the wrong place to do fieldwork on everyday musical activity. The city of Kaili was not the best place for music and I should instead head to the surrounding countryside, Teacher Wang explained, as we walked down from the summit of Apple Hill Park (Pingguoshan gongyuan). International Labour Day holiday was less than a week away, and he felt that this would be a good opportunity for me to visit the nearby town of Zhenyuan, where there would be festive activities.