{"product_id":"casual-assemblies-afterlives-of-maoist-performance-culture-in-beijing-s-public-parks","title":"Casual Assemblies: Afterlives of Maoist Performance Culture in Beijing’s Public Parks","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver the past thirty years, China's public parks have been turned into stages for amateur performances of socialist anthems by self-organized retirees who lived through the Mao era (1949-1976).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChallenging previous interpretations in terms of political expression or nostalgia, \u003ci\u003eCasual Assemblies\u003c\/i\u003e explores the seeming paradox of displaying political messages in the heart of the capital city while framing these gatherings as fun or self-entertainment – merely \u003ci\u003ewan’r\u003c\/i\u003e, in the language of parkgoers. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Beijing, this book takes these claims to non-seriousness seriously. For at stake in these gatherings is the possibility of being non-literal and reclaiming the sensuous pleasures of performing old tunes from “politics” (\u003ci\u003ezhengzhi\u003c\/i\u003e). This book theorizes casualness as a mode of engagement predicated upon the irrelevance of the correspondence between action and referential meaning. Through the making-casual of a cultural form once supposed to produce revolutionary commitment, parkgoers enact new experiences of being-in-public, togetherness, and shifting relationships to the Maoist past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book will be of value to readers with a keen interest in China, scholars and students in anthropology and Asian Studies, as well as travelers who have witnessed these phenomena firsthand.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Amsterdam University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56759670964568,"sku":"9789463725392","price":179.8,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9789463725392.jpg?v=1780035381","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/casual-assemblies-afterlives-of-maoist-performance-culture-in-beijing-s-public-parks","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}