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On the Geopragmatics of Anthropological Identification explores the
discursive spaces of our speaking position, or what has routinely
been referred to in the literature as the poetics and politics of
writing culture. At issue here are its problematic underlying
notions of cultural identity, authorial subjectivity and
postcolonial critique. Contrary to the widespread assumption that
cultural studies and the social sciences share a common discourse
of culture and society, Allen Chun argues that 'modern'
disciplinary practices and axioms have in fact produced inherently
incompatible theories. Anthropology's ethical relativism has also
created obstacles for a critical theory of culture and society.
Examining the cultural, political, economic, technological and
institutional aspects of popular music throughout Asia, this book
is the first comprehensive analysis of Asian popular music and its
cultural industries. Concentrating on the development of popular
culture in its local socio-political context, the volume highlights
how local appropriations of the pop music genre play an active
rather than reactive role in manipulating global cultural and
capital flows. Broad in geographical sweep and rich in contemporary
examples, this work will appeal to those interested in Asian
popular culture from a variety of perspectives including, political
economy, anthropology, communication studies, media studies and
ethnomusicology.
The effects of globalization have led to accentuated social
inequality in most first-world countries, above all the U.S. and
U.K. International trade and capital flows have tended to
redistribute income in ways that aggravate inequality in advanced
industrialized nations where relative income levels of the salaried
middle class and the working class are being eroded, resulting in a
downward mobility of these classes. At the same time, unwaged forms
of labor, including forced labor and slavery, in poorer regions
more and more replace wage labor in developed countries. Informed
by an anthropological, humanistic perspective, the contributors in
this provocative volume offer critical analyses and alternative
visions.
Examining the cultural, political, economic, technological and
institutional aspects of popular music throughout Asia, this book
is the first comprehensive analysis of Asian popular music and its
cultural industries. Concentrating on the development of popular
culture in its local socio-political context, the volume highlights
how local appropriations of the pop music genre play an active
rather than reactive role in manipulating global cultural and
capital flows.
Unlike many studies on globalization which highlight functional
disjunctures of 'cultural imperialism', "Refashioning Pop Music in
Asia" stresses that it is the local context which imbues specific
meanings for different audiences, in turn allowing a creative
synthesis that makes pop music a unique channel through which
cultural identity, political resistance, social expression and
personal desire can be experienced. Popular musical expression in
Asia-its meaning and its practice-cannot be reduced to the State,
market, tradition or to a simple appropriation of Western forms,
rather, it is at the juncture of the local and global that an
aesthetic refashioning of traditional and pop music genres emerge.
Broad in geographical sweep and rich in contemporary examples, this
work will appeal to those interested in Asian popular culture from
a variety of perspectives including, political economy,
anthropology, communication studies, media studies and
ethnomusicology.
Contents: Tables Preface Maps Introduction: The Field of History in the Field 1. Earthbound Anthropologies in 'Structure' of Chinese Society 2. The Changing Meaning of Colonial Policy on Land in the New Territories of Hong Kong 3. The Changing Meaning of Land in Colonial Hong Kong 4. The Meaning of Tradition in a Progressive Society 5. Culture's Colonialism: The Future of Method Bibliography Appendix Index
This book began as a year-long ethnography of a school in Taiwan in
1991 then evolved more into a historical sociology of national
formation and its cultural mindset.  Cultural
nationalism is a widely debated but poorly understood
process.  Contrary to prevailing perceptions, the Cold
War may have given way to a more progressive open society, but the
politicization of ethnicity hardened a more deeply entrenched
cultural frame of mind. Instead of liberating an indigenous
reality, Taiwanese consciousness has ironically polarized the
political dead ends of reunification and independence. Â In
the final analysis, the ethnography can serve as a paradigmatic
case study for critical cultural studies. There are clear
ramifications also for a comparative study of the cultural politics
of other Chinese speaking or Asian societies and their histories.
Unstructuring Chinese Society is a culmination of long term field
work and archival research that challenges existing theories of
social organisation and cultural change. The book makes new sense
of historical contradictions, political conflicts and deep seated
social transformations that have underlined the experience of
colonial rule and the practices of local institutions in Hong Kong
over the past century. By focusing on the ongoing interactions of
discourse, practices and global-local relations in cultural terms,
Unstructuring Chinese Society puts forth a fresh perspective in the
field of historical anthropology, while addressing ongoing critical
concerns in postcolonial theory and our understanding of tradition
and modernity.
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