(Re)Production of Identity Through High-Cultural Consumption
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TO APPLAUD OR NOT TO APPLAUD: GOVERNANCE AND THE (RE)PRODUCTION OF IDENTITY THROUGH HIGH-CULTURAL CONSUMPTION by Fang Xu A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Sociology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2010 © Fang Xu, 2010 Abstract This research investigates high-cultural consumption in urban China during the last decade, looking in particular at attendance of Western classical music concerts. By studying the audiences, I intend to explore the reasons behind the popularity of this cultural consuming practice in a market economy with Chinese characteristics. Situated in Shanghai, a 'global city’ in making, I also view this phenomenon from a post-colonial perspective – given the city’s semi-colonial history in the early 20th century. In this paper, I try to bridge Foucaultian governmentality in the sense of self-cultivation and governmental intervention in the cultural market, with Bourdieu’s capital conversions by illustrating how urbanites in Shanghai appropriate high-cultural consumption in the process of their identity (re)production. I argue that Shanghairen’s attendance at, and interest in, Western classical music concerts is an epitome of the local’s response or coping mechanism when encountering the ‘modern’ global in its historical and contemporary forms. This cultural consumption practice promoted by the municipal government – based on its manipulation of Shanghairen’s aspiration towards the modern West – in reality contributes to the formation of both the local residents’ identities, and the urban culture. Furthermore, the appreciation of Western classical music concerts closes up the perceived distance between Shanghai and the advanced West, meanwhile, enlarges the ‘quality’ (suzhi) gap between Shanghairen and people from the rest of China. ii Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………….ii Table of Contents …………………………………………………………………………….iii List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………………....v List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………….. vi Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………… vii Dedication …………………………………………………………………………………..viii 1. Introduction …………..………………………………………………………………...…1 2. Previous Research and Theoretical Approach ……………………………………………8 2.1 Re-emergence of a “Global City” ………………………………………………..8 2.2 Governing Western Cultural Consumption………………………………….…..17 2.3 Identity Negotiation through Consumption…………………………...................27 3. Methodology …………………………………………………………………………….43 3.1 In-depth Interview ………………………………………………………………43 3.2 Participant Observation …………………………………………………………49 3.3 Insider VS Outsider …………………………………………………………..…52 4. Research Findings ……………………………………………………………………….58 4.1 Classical as a New Trend ……………………………………………………….59 4.2 Logical and Rational Conversion of Capitals ……………………………….66 4.2.1 Whether it is preiswert? ...…………………………………………………..67 4.2.2 What adds up to the perceived value?............................................................73 4.2.3 Revitalize conspicuous leisure as true distinction…………………………...84 4.3 Shanghairen Identity: Sophisticated and Modern……………………………….90 4.3.1 Interplay between place-bound identity and suzhi ………………………….91 4.3.2 Volume of cultural capital and Shanghairen identity ……………………...102 5. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….……..114 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………..121 Appendix A ………………………………………………………………………………...125 Interview Guide ………………..……………………………………………………..125 iii Appendix B ……………………………………………………………………………..… 127 Advertisement of Interview Respondent’s Recruitment [in Chinese] …………….. 127 Advertisement of Interview Respondent’s Recruitment [in English] ………………… 128 Appendix C ……………………………………………………………………………….. 129 Consent Form [in Chinese] .............................................................................................129 Consent Form [in English] ..............................................................................................131 Appendix D ………………………………………………………………………………...133 Certificate of Approval – Minimal Risk ………………………………………………..133 iv List of Tables Table 2.1 Per Capita Annual Disposable Income and Consumption Expenditures of Urban Households……………………………………...……………………………………………18 v List of Figures Figure 2.2.1: Shanghai Grand Theatre ………………………………………………………24 Figure 2.2.2: Shanghai Concert Hall ……...…………………………………………………24 Figure 4.3.1: Cafe Seeker on Wukang Road in the Former French Concession ………...…..94 Figure 4.3.2: Cafe Seeker on Wukang Road in the Former French Concession …………….94 Figure 4.3.3: Wukang Apartment Building, Formerly Called Normandy Mansion ……….94 Figure 4.3.4: Shanghai Concert Hall Building ……………………………………………..100 Figure 4.3.5: Shanghai Concert Hall Lobby ……………………………………………….100 Figure 4.3.6: Shanghai Concert Hall Interior …………………………………………...….101 Figure 4.3.7: Shanghai Concert Hall Interior ………………………………...…………….101 Figure 4.3.8: Shanghai Concert Hall Interior ………………………………..……………..101 vi Acknowledgements My wholehearted gratitude is given to my mother, Wei Long, for her continuous support for my lone journey from Shanghai to Vancouver, and throughout my Master’s study. I thank her for the tremendous amount of emotional support for me continuing this academic pursuit after my divorce decision, and also for her insights on the Western classical music listeners and concert-goers in Shanghai. I also want to take this opportunity to thank my step-father, R Austin McEntyre for his encouragement and support. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Amy Hanser for her support in encouraging me to carry out this project, guiding me through the sociology literature, and inspiring my thesis composition with provoking questions, enlightening conversations and valuable comments and suggestions. I thank Dr. Abidin Kusno for directing my interest into governmentality, imagined community and urban culture, and for invaluable encouragement and inspirations he has offered ever since I took his class “The City and the National Imagination”. I also thank Dr. Renisa Mawani, Dr. Jennifer Chun, Dr. Thomas Kemple, and Dr. Wendy Roth for their comments and suggestions on my research project. Many thanks to Bonar Buffam, Sophia Woodman, Andrea Hjálmsdóttir, Hélène Frohard-Dourlent , Mike Halpin, Sherrie Dilley, Justin Tse, my fellow graduate students at the University of British Columbia, and Chris Morrison at the University of Calgary, who all have been great friends and provided insights and inspirations for this research project and my thesis writing. I express my gratitude to Ying Li, Wei Xue, Shaolu Ni, and Hao Wu, my former colleagues in the Shanghai Grand Theatre and the Shanghai Concert Hall, who made my fieldwork possible and provided so much help along the way. I am also very grateful to all the respondents participated in the interviews. Your frankness about personal experiences and valuable insights not only contribute to this research project, but also encourage me to go on the journey in academia for the PhD study. vii Dedication To my grandma, Sun Yucheng, who planted the seed of nostalgia towards the “Old Shanghai” in me. viii 1. Introduction This research will investigate cultural consumption in urban China during the last decade, looking in particular at attendance of Western classical music concerts. By studying the audiences, this project aims to explore the reasons behind the popularity of Western classical music appreciation in urban China, precisely Shanghai, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, as well as to further our understanding of the changing lifestyles in contemporary Chinese metropolises in a global context. This project attempts to illustrate how urbanites in Shanghai appropriate high-cultural consumption in the process of their identity production and reproduction. Western high culture – in this context, classical music, ballet and opera – is diversely understood and consumed across broad socioeconomic and demographic spectrums. Existing research on consumption in urban China mostly focuses on everyday necessities and household needs, for example, housing (Davis, 2006), food (Veeck, 2000), and clothes (Schein, 2001); very few studies have examined the new practices in the cultural arena. There is research on rock & roll music (Efird, 2001), and on discothèques (Farrer, 2000). But none of these studies examine the recently prospering market of classical music concerts. In mainland China, the high-culture market is a more complicated field than that of the everyday commodity, because it is a contested space of governmental ideological control, a WTO-granted “free-market”, and a practice requiring knowledge of the field for appreciation. As such, a study of the consumption of Western high-culture offers an opportunity to explore questions related to the dynamics of urban culture and of the consumption of Western products as a sphere in which social and 1 cultural hierarchies, government policies, and market mechanism converge. Drawing on previous literatures of this social context as well as my one-and-a-half year working experience in the Shanghai Concert Hall, I argue that the reason a market for Western high-culture has prospered lies in urban audiences’ eagerness to identify their social status against the backdrop of drastic socioeconomic differentiation in contemporary China. Supported by governmental funding and promoted by state-owned major mass media, attending Western high-cultural performances is associated with “progressiveness,” “being highly-educated