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An Ethnography of the Spring Festival

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An Ethnography of the Spring Festival IMAGINING CHINA IN THE ERA OF GLOBAL CONSUMERISM AND LOCAL CONSCIOUSNESS: MEDIA, MOBILITY, AND THE SPRING FESTIVAL A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Li Ren June 2003 This dissertation entitled IMAGINING CHINA IN THE ERA OF GLOBAL CONSUMERISM AND LOCAL CONSCIOUSNESS: MEDIA, MOBILITY AND THE SPRING FESTIVAL BY LI REN has been approved by the School of Interpersonal Communication and the College of Communication by Arvind Singhal Professor of Interpersonal Communication Timothy A. Simpson Professor of Interpersonal Communication Kathy Krendl Dean, College of Communication REN, LI. Ph.D. June 2003. Interpersonal Communication Imagining China in the Era of Global Consumerism and Local Consciousness: Media, Mobility, and the Spring Festival. (260 pp.) Co-directors of Dissertation: Arvind Singhal and Timothy A. Simpson Using the Spring Festival (the Chinese New Year) as a springboard for fieldwork and discussion, this dissertation explores the rise of electronic media and mobility in contemporary China and their effect on modern Chinese subjectivity, especially, the collective imagination of Chinese people. Informed by cultural studies and ethnographic methods, this research project consisted of 14 in-depth interviews with residents in Chengdu, China, ethnographic participatory observation of local festival activities, and analysis of media events, artifacts, documents, and online communication. The dissertation argues that “cultural China,” an officially-endorsed concept that has transformed a national entity into a borderless cultural entity, is the most conspicuous and powerful public imagery produced and circulated during the 2001 Spring Festival. As a work of collective imagination, cultural China creates a complex and contested space in which the Chinese Party-state, the global consumer culture, and individuals and local communities seek to gain their own ground with various strategies and tactics. This dissertation has five chapters: Chapter one introduces the project and situates it within a theoretical, historical, and scholarly context. Chapter two details the methodological framework and lays out a specific design for the fieldwork in Chengdu, China. Chapter three probes Chinese mediascapes with the focus on two image-centered media—television and the Internet. Discussion includes the transformation of the annual festival into a mediated national ritual, the China Central Television (CCTV) Spring Festival eve gala, as well as the virtual celebration of the festival on the Internet. Chapter four concerns holiday consumption and tourism as China undergoes a profound transition from a production-oriented to a consumer-oriented economy. The chapter examines the reconfiguration of urban spaces by market forces, a collective desire for festival consumption, and the revival of folk traditions as packaged tourist spectacles. Chapter five, the conclusion, reiterates the researcher’s interpretations, reflects on the methodology, and acknowledges limitations and implications of the present study. Approved: Arvind Singhal Professor of Interpersonal Communication Timothy A. Simpson Professor of Interpersonal Communication 5 Acknowledgments I would like to thank the co-directors of my dissertation committee, Dr. Arvind Singhal and Dr. Timothy A. Simpson, for all of their unflagging assistance, constructive critiques, and tremendous encouragement during this long process. I extend my gratitude to committee members, Drs. Jenny L. Nelson and Nagesh Rao, for making my educational experience at Ohio University stimulating and rewarding. I am also grateful to all the individuals I interviewed in Chengdu, China for this fieldwork, who allowed me into their homes and lives during the bustling Spring Festival. My gratitude also goes to those who offered their help and made my time spent in the field less stressful and more productive. I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Hugh M. Culbertson, who has always supported me during and after my years in Athens, OH. I thank fellow Ph.D. students at the School of Interpersonal Communication, especially Debbie London, for their advice and encouragement during this toiling process. My utmost thanks go to my families, both in China and the United States. My greatest gratitude is to my late mother, Zhou Liangfeng, for her unconditional love that still gives me strength in life. I thank my father Ren Xianfu, my sister Ren Hong, and my brother-in-law Shen Tao for their love and support throughout my education as well as in everyday life. I also want to express my gratefulness to my new family, my parents-in- law Ruth and Ralph Kaplan, and my sister-in-law Jenny Griffin and her family, for embracing me without reservation in their hearts. 6 Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to my husband, John Kaplan, whose love and vision inspire me daily and encourage me to grow to my full potential. Without him, I would not be where I am today. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract................................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgments................................................................................................................5 Chapter 1 (Re)locating the Field/homework........................................................................9 1.1 Prologue: Homecoming .....................................................................................9 1.2 Introduction: The Spring Festival ....................................................................10 1.3 Defining the Terms ..........................................................................................13 1.3.1 Nationalism/Culturalism................................................................14 1.3.2 The Rise of Global Consumer Culture and Local Consciousness .21 1.3.3 Everyday Culture: A Site of Investigation.....................................25 1.4 Theorizing and Contextualizing the Study ......................................................32 1.4.1 Cultural Studies: Thinking Culture Politically ..............................33 1.4.2 Point of Entry: The Work of the Imagination in China .................34 1.4.3 Histories of Mediascapes and Ethnoscapes in China.....................36 1.4.4 An On-going Scholarly Debate......................................................53 1.5 Organization of the Dissertation ......................................................................62 Chapter 2 Methodology: Cosmopolitan Ethnography in a Global Terrain........................64 2.1 Ethnography: The Methodological Framework..............................................65 2.2 Cosmopolitan Ethnography ............................................................................68 2.3 Inscribing Myself as a Native Ethnographer ..................................................73 2.4 The Base: Entering the Heartland of China ....................................................74 2.5 Doing and Learning ........................................................................................77 2.5.1 Artifact Gathering..........................................................................77 2.5.2 Participant Observation: Professional Observer or Observing Native.............................................................................................78 2.5.3 Interviewing ...................................................................................78 2.5.4 Roadmap for the Interview ............................................................79 2.5.5 Surfing the Internet ........................................................................80 2.5.6 Unintended Field/homework .........................................................80 2.5.7 Transcribing and Translating .........................................................81 2.6 Chapter Summary..........................................................................................81 Chapter 3 Mediascapes: Floating Imagery of “Chineseness”............................................82 3.1 CCTV gala: A Televised Re-invention of Festival Celebration ......................85 3.1.1 An (Inter)national Family Reunion................................................87 3.1.2 Censored Happiness: For Sale .....................................................105 3.1.3 The Watching Game ....................................................................122 3.2 The Internet: Virtual Spring Festival, Virtual China .....................................146 3.2.1 Tu verses yang: The Return of Myth ...........................................149 3.2.2 Mythical Dragon with Electronic Wings .....................................151 8 3.2.3 Virtual Chinese Community ........................................................157 3.3 Conclusions....................................................................................................161 Chapter 4 Celebration of Cosmopolitanism: Mobile and Deterritorialized Ethnoscapes163 4.1 Urbanity, Cosmopolitanism, and Consumerism: Reconfiguration of Space and Power in Urban China....................................................................................165 4.1.1 Reclaiming Private Space and a Personal Celebration ................168 4.1.2 We Consume Therefore We Exist ...............................................176 4.1.3 From the Rural to the Global: The Changing Façade of Chinese Imagined Worlds..........................................................................195
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