Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia (Studies in Dance: Theories and Practices)

In Corporeal Politics, leading international scholars investigate the development of dance as a deeply meaningful and complex cultural practice across time, placing special focus on the intertwining of East Asia dance and politics and the role of dance as a medium of transcultural interaction and communication across borders. Countering common narratives of dance history that emphasize the US and Europe as centers of origin and innovation, the expansive creativity of dance artists in East Asia asserts its importance as a site of critical theorization and reflection on global artistic developments in the performing arts. Through the lens of “corporeal politics”—the close attention to bodily acts in specific cultural contexts—each study in this book challenges existing dance and theater histories to re-investigate the performer's role in devising the politics and aesthetics of their performance, as well as the multidimensional impact of their lives and artistic works. Corporeal Politics addresses a wide range of performance styles and genres, including dances produced for the concert stage, as well as those presented in popular entertainments, private performance spaces, and street protests. Contents Acknowledgments Note on Translation and East Asian Names Introduction: Toward a Critical East Asian Dance Studies | Emily Wilcox Part 1: Contested Genealogies Chapter 1. Sexuality, Status, and the Female Dancer: Legacies of Imperial China | Beverly Bossler Chapter 2. Mei Lanfang and Modern Dance: Transcultural Innovation in Peking Opera, 1910s–1920s | Catherine Yeh Chapter 3. The Conflicted Monk: Choreographic Adaptations of Si fan (Longing for the Mundane) in Japan’s and China’s New Dance Movements | Nan Ma Part 2: Decolonizing Migration Chapter 4. Murayama Tomoyoshi and Dance of Modern Times: A Forerunner of the Japanese Avant-garde | Kazuko Kuniyoshi Chapter 5. Korean Dance Beyond Koreanness: Park Yeong-in in the German Modern Dance Scene | Okju Son Chapter 6. Diasporic Moves: Sinophone Epistemology in the Choreography of Dai Ailian | Emily Wilcox Chapter 7. Choreographing Neoliberal Marginalization: Dancing Migrant Bodies in the South Korean Musical Bballae (Laundry) | Ji Hyon (Kayla) Yuh Part 3: Militarization and Empire Chapter 8. Masking Japanese Militarism as a Dream of Sino-Japanese Friendship: Miyako Odori Performances in the 1930s | Mariko Okada Chapter 9. Imagined Choreographies: Itō Michio’s Philippines Pageant and the Transpacific Performance of Japanese Imperialism | Tara Rodman Chapter 10. Exorcism and Reclamation: Lin Lee-chen’s Jiao and the Corporeal History of the Taiwanese | Ya-ping Chen Part 4: Socialist Aesthetics Chapter 11. Choe Seung-hui Between Classical and Folk: Aesthetics of National Form and Socialist Content in North Korea | Suzy Kim Chapter 12. The Dilemma of Chinese Classical Dance: Traditional or Contemporary? | Dong Jiang Chapter 13. Negotiating Chinese Identity through a Double-Minority Voice and the Female Dancing Body: Yang Liping’s Spirit of the Peacock and Beyond | Ting-Ting Chang Part 5: Collective Technologies Chapter 14. Cracking History’s Codes in Crocodile Time: The Sweat, Powder, and Glitter of Women Butoh Artists’ Collective Choreography | Katherine Mezur Chapter 15. Fans, Sashes, and Jesus: Evangelical Activism and Anti-LGBTQ Performance in South Korea | Soo Ryon Yoon Chapter 16. Choreographing Digital Performance in Twenty-First-Century Taiwan: Huang Yi & KUKA | Yatin Lin Coda: To Dance East Asia | Katherine Mezur Contributors Index "Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia investigates the development of dance as a deeply meaningful and complex cultural practice across time, placing special focus on the intertwining of East Asia dance and politics and the role of dance as a medium of transcultural interaction and communication across borders. In Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia, leading international scholars investigate the development of dance as a deeply meaningful and complex cultural practice across time, placing special focus on the intertwining of East Asia dance and politics and the role of dance as a medium of transcultural interaction and communication across borders. Countering common narratives of dance history that emphasize the US and Europe as centers of origin and innovation, the expansive creativity of dance artists in East Asia asserts its importance as a site of critical theorization and reflection on global artistic developments in the performing arts. Through the lens of "corporeal politics"--The close attention to bodily acts in specific cultural contexts-each study in this book challenges existing dance and theatre histories to re-investigate the performer's role in devising the politics and aesthetics of their performance, as well as the multidimensional impact of their lives and artistic works. Corporeal Politics addresses a wide range of performance styles and genres, including dances produced for the concert stage, as well as those presented in popular entertainments, private performance spaces, and street protests."-- Provided by publisher