Leisure And Power In Urban China

Leisure and Power in Urban China is the first comprehensive study of leisure activities in a medium size Chinese city. Hitherto, studies of Chinese leisure have focused on holidays, festivals and tourism. This, however, is a study of the kinds of leisure that take place on regular workdays in a local environment of Quanzhou city. In doing so, Leisure and Power introduces leisure studies to China studies, and data from China to the field of Leisure studies. Based on interviews with people from all walks of life and case studies from bookshops, internet bars, Karaoke parlours, streets and public squares, Rolandsen brings to attention the importance of fun and socializing in the lives of Chinese urbanites. Central to the study is the contrast between popular practices and official discourse. Rolandsen provides in-depth analyses of the moralist "PRC leisure ethic" so characteristic of official Chinese publications and news media. Using examples from everyday life as a contrast, this study demonstrates that official propaganda has but little influence on how Chinese individuals lead their lives. Taking leisure as a point of departure, this book describes the new kinds of interaction between the local party-state and the population it seeks to govern. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, Leisure Studies, Urban Studies and Asian Studies in general.

The last two decades have been an exciting and richly productive period for debate and academic research on the city. The SAGE Handbook of New Urban Studies offers comprehensive coverage of this modern re-thinking of urban theory, both gathering together the best of what has been achieved so far, and signalling the way to future theoretical insights and empirically grounded research. Featuring many of the top international names in the field, the handbook is divided into nine key sections: SECTION 1: THE GLOBALIZED CITY SECTION 2: URBAN ENTREPRENEURIALISM, BRANDING, GOVERNANCE SECTION 3: MARGINALITY, RISK AND RESILIENCE SECTION 4: SUBURBS AND SUBURBANIZATION: STRATIFICATION, SPRAWL, SUSTAINABILITY SECTION 5: DISTINCTIVE AND VISIBLE CITIES SECTION 6: CREATIVE CITIES SECTION 7: URBANIZATION, URBANITY AND URBAN LIFESTYLES SECTION 8: NEW DIRECTIONS IN URBAN THEORY SECTION 9: URBAN FUTURES This is a central resource for researchers and students of Sociology, Cultural Geography and Urban Studies.

In Men and Masculinities in Contemporary China, Geng Song and Derek Hird offer an account of Chinese masculinities in media discourse and everyday life, covering masculinities on television, in lifestyle magazines, in cyberspace, at work, at leisure, and at home. No other work covers the forms and practices of men and masculinities in contemporary China so comprehensively. Through carefully exploring the global, regional and local influences on men and representations of men in postmillennial China, Song and Hird show that Chinese masculinity is anything but monolithic. They reveal a complex, shifting plurality of men and masculinities—from stay-at-home internet geeks to karaoke-singing, relationship-building businessmen—which contest and consolidate “conventional” notions of masculinity in multiple ways.

Economic liberalisation processes and the rapid development of the private sector are widely visible signs of over thirty years of reform policies in the People’s Republic of China. Nevertheless, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has managed to preserve the basic political institutions of the Leninist Party-state, including its own unrestrained position of political power. Against this background, this book investigates the interrelationship between processes of marketisation and commercialisation, and the stability of the CCP regime. The aim of the book is to complement existing literature on adaptive governance in China and on the reasons for the CCP regime’s relative stability, while providing new information about the relationship between the Chinese party-state and private entrepreneurs. Taking case studies from the film and music industries, the book gives a detailed account of the political and economic history of these industries in China, with special attention given to the role played by private production companies as intermediaries between artistic creation, political and ideological constraints, and the market. A historical institutionalist approach is employed to trace the effect of Chinese policies on popular culture and the institutions of administrative, economic, political and ideological control over the film and music industries back to the 1950s, revealing the mechanisms and prospects of CCP hegemony in the cultural sector. Examining the effects of the marketisation and commercialisation processes on the communist regime and vice versa, this book also offers a fresh perspective on the origins of today’s Chinese popular cultural mainstream. It will therefore be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese politics, Chinese culture and media and Chinese government-business relations.

Ken Roberts’ Social Theory, Sport and Leisure offers a clear, compact primer in social theory for students needing to engage with the application of sociological perspectives to the study of sport and leisure. Written in a straightforward style and assuming no prior knowledge, the book offers a fresh and easy to read overview of sociology’s contribution to sport and leisure studies. Ordered chronologically, each chapter: Focuses on the work of a major social theorist and their most influential ideas Provides helpful historical and biographical detail to set the person and their thinking in contemporary context Identifies questions in sport and leisure on which the theory can shed useful light Considers how the ideas can be, or have been, applied in the study of sport and leisure Works as a self-contained unit, enabling students and lecturers to use the book flexibly according to their needs. Written by an outstanding sociologist of leisure and sport, this intelligent yet jargon-free textbook enables students to get to grips with a wide range of important concepts and understand their diverse applications. As such, it is essential reading for any course designed to explore the place and meaning of sport and leisure in society.

Studies of Hong Kong media primarily examine whether China will crush Hong Kong’s media freedom. This book however traces the root problem of Hong Kong media back to the colonial era, demonstrating that before the resumption of Chinese sovereignty there already existed a uniquely Hong Kong brand of hyper-marketized and oligopolistic media system. The system, encouraged by the British colonial government, was subsequently aggravated by the Chinese government. This peculiar system is highly susceptible to state intervention and structurally disadvantaged dissent and marginal groups before and after 1997. The book stresses that this hyper-marketized media system has been constantly challenged. Through a historical study of media stigmatization of youth, this book proposes that over the years various counter forces have penetrated the structurally lopsided Hong Kong media: independent, public, popular and news media all make occasional subversive alliances to disrupt the mainstream, and news media, with a strong liberal professionalism, provide the most subversive space for challenging cultural hegemony. The book offers an alternative and fascinating account of the dynamics between hegemonic closure and day-to-day resistance in Hong Kong media in both the colonial and post-colonial eras, arguing that the Hong Kong case generates important insights for understanding ideological struggles in capitalist media.

This book offers a stimulating introduction to the Hokkien music drama known as liyuanxi ('pear garden theatre'), heir and current expression of one of China's oldest unbroken xiqu ('Chinese opera') traditions. It considers the genre's history prior to the 20th century, its signal successes before and after the Cultural Revolution, and its national prominence today. Beginning with an analysis of the form's aesthetics and techniques, it proceeds to an overview of its rich and distinctive narrative repertoire, including several dramas unique to the genre. Josh Stenberg illustrates liyuanxi's distinctive musical and narrative qualities and presents the performance art's place, not only in Chinese drama and theatre history, but also in the culture of the historic port city of Quanzhou and the broader Hokkien region and diaspora. This study focuses on the work of the only professional theatre troupe in the genre, the Fujian Province Liyuanxi Experimental Theatre (FPLET), and examines the practice of director and leading actor Zeng Jingping, whose performances have focused attention on the genre's expression of women's desires and ambitions, and on her colleague, playwright Wang Renjie. It argues that new scripts engage with the issues of contemporary China while respecting the genre's traditions and conventions, and have led to rewritings of traditional repertoire by younger female authors. Stenberg's book skilfully demonstrates how a traditional theatre can adapt and thrive in a contemporary society, providing an indispensable introduction while whetting the appetite for the genre's exhilarating live performances.