Using intimacy as a lens on the work and migration experiences of ethnic performers in Southwest China
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Date
06/08/2020Author
Mao, Jingyu
Metadata
Abstract
This research explores how the lens of intimacy can be used to understand
migration and inequalities and demonstrates the value of such a theoretical
lens. It does so by focusing on the experience of a group of rural to urban,
ethnic minority migrant performers in Southwest China, who perform ethnic
songs and dances as part of their work at different venues such as
restaurants and tourist sites.
Ethnic performance is a site of encounter where minority, rural, feminised
service providers interact with Han, urban, masculinised customers, and
such physical proximity may render their social distance even more
significant. It is also an important site where performers encounter various
bordering processes relating to the rural-urban divide, ethnicity and gender.
Six months’ participant observation and 60 in-depth interviews were used to
understand various types of “intimacy negotiations” performers undertake
regarding their emotions, sense of self, and relationships with significant
others. While intimacy as a concept in sociology usually refers to the quality
of closeness in relationships, this research uses this concept in more than
one way, and explores how it can be used as a theoretical and
methodological tool to explore broader social structures.
By adopting an intimacy lens to explore how migrant performers encounter
the various bordering processes, this research points out how inequalities
profoundly impact on people’s emotions, sense of self and relationships. This
approach also leads us to consider ethnicity as something we do, rather than
something we are. I therefore propose the concept of "ethnic scripts” to refer
to the culturally normative assumptions about ethnicity in China, which
deeply shape the ways that migrant performers do ethnicity. Further, the lens of intimacy reveals the ways that work closely intersects with informants’
personal lives, as well as the importance of taking emotions seriously in
understanding social inequalities.