Dances Of The Chinese Minorities

As one of the earliest art forms of humanity, dance has its roots in all kinds of activities and is deeply ingrained in human social life.

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Revolutionary Bodies is the first English-language primary source–based history of concert dance in the People’s Republic of China. Combining over a decade of ethnographic and archival research, Emily Wilcox analyzes major dance works by Chinese choreographers staged over an eighty-year period from 1935 to 2015. Using previously unexamined film footage, photographic documentation, performance programs, and other historical and contemporary sources, Wilcox challenges the commonly accepted view that Soviet-inspired revolutionary ballets are the primary legacy of the socialist era in China’s dance field. The digital edition of this title includes nineteen embedded videos of selected dance works discussed by the author.

In a path-breaking series of essays the contributors to this collection explore the development of anthropological research in Asia. The volume includes writings on Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The classification of ethnic identities (minzu) remains controversial in China. Categories established in the 1950s are still used by the state to administer minority areas, despite the existence of a complicated web of subjective identities which potentially undermines efforts to use these categories effectively. This book offers a new, and sometimes unusual, perspective on ethnic relations in China, and on the interactions between China and other cultures. Two major themes run through the book: the classification of ethnic minorities in China by the state, and the implications of this practice; and the way in which China and the Chinese are seen by outsiders as well as insiders. The contributors, whose research is all based on fieldwork with the relevant communities, are from a wide range of backgrounds and are currently based in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Germany. The subjects of their research are the politics of minority classification in the People’s Republic of China; questions of identity in Xinjiang; Kazakhstani perceptions of China and the Chinese; Chinese Muslims in Malaysia; and the growing Chinese diaspora in Africa. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

China boasts many great musical traditions, these traditions have made an indelible mark on Chinese culture that has been felt by every generation.