{"product_id":"casual-assemblies-afterlives-of-maoist-performance-culture-in-beijings-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\u003eexplores 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\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46840749850834,"sku":"9789463725392","price":281.5,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Kobo eBook","offer_id":46840749883602,"sku":"b26f1375-3628-3171-97e9-be09c9595491","price":84.13,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/1_d878501c-4f7d-4a1c-99a2-42eb9130033e.jpg?v=1780614149","url":"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/products\/casual-assemblies-afterlives-of-maoist-performance-culture-in-beijings-public-parks","provider":"Indigo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}