Shanghai, 4-6 December, 2014. As part of the HERA project Creating the ‘New’ Asian Woman, this workshop will bring together academics, artists and activists.
The workshop marks also the start of an exhibition in Fei’s Contemporary Art Centre with the same title as the workshop, in which the artists Guo Qingling, Liang Yue and Lise Yuen present the work they made for this event.
The rapid reforms in China have resulted in increasing inequalities and disjunctures. While Shanghai is transforming into a global mega-city, like many other big cities in Asia, its dwellers are often confronted with a way of life enabled and disabled by precarity. This precarity is generally perceived to be along the lines of labour and class, characterised in Guy Standing’s term “The Precariat,” or those with short labour contracts and poor working conditions. These can be low skilled jobs, but also the emerging creative class and academic jobs increasingly fall under this rubric. Our focus is particularly on the intersections of such inequalities and disjunctures with gender.
In Precariously Yours we extend the notion of precarity towards the domain of gender, love and sexuality. In particular single women serve as a prism to explore the complexities surrounding precarity, urbanity and class. They are the ones that negotiate the changing gender roles in China, in which we can witness a conservative return of patriarchy, coupled to a perceived crisis of masculinity. For instance, the derogative term shengnü – “leftover women” – gestures towards a group of women whose singlehood at their late 20s seems to be enough to evoke intense stigmatization and reiteration of societal demands regarding love and family life.
Precariously Yours wonders: How do single women negotiate the multiple expectations and demands that society imposes upon them? What are their tactics of resistance against normative gender roles and expectations? How do they negotiate the gendering of urban space? How to love in a city that never stays the same? How to navigate through the city, as a young woman without getting lost or feeling unsafe? How to imagine the city as a more intimate and fragile space? What is to be lost and gained in remaining a single woman?
Precariously Yours explores these questions through an art exhibition, lectures and public debates, at the Fei Contemporary Art Centre in Shanghai. The workshop will particularly zoom in on how tropes like shengnü can be read as imaginations of a “new” Asian femininity, how different modes of loving and desiring are being explored in diverse creative and sexual cultures in Asian cities and how art and activism attempt to intervene in hegemonic understandings of love, gender and sexuality.
Precariously Yours engages not only with Shanghai, but also with other Asian cities as to foster a comparative approach and allow reflections upon the lives and hopes of single women in a rapidly changing Asia.
学术工作坊暨艺术展览
摇摇欲坠：性别，阶级，城市于当代上海
学术工作坊 (讲座语言 – 英文)：
2014年12月4日 上海市黄浦区圆明园路 133号 女青年会大楼 2楼
2014年12月5日 – 6日 上海市徐汇区五原路 212 弄 7号 元画廊
艺术展览 ：
2014年12月6日 – 12月27日（11:00–17:00；周日、周一休息）
上海市闸北区灵石路 709号 40栋 2楼（近万荣路）
Precarious是不少当代人的处境：不定不安不稳不测，尤其是生活在某些地方的，做某一类工作的，女的，单身的。十二月，HERA联合研究项目与非艺术中心合办的学术工作坊和展览，就是为了探索当代上海里，性别，阶级，以及城市之间的千丝万缕。
但怎样翻译precarious呢？网上居然给了这样的一个词“摇摇欲坠”。也许,正是如此。
在此次名为“摇摇欲坠”的工作坊和展览中，我们将“摇摇欲坠”这个概念延伸到性别、爱欲的领域。单身女性尤其可以作为探讨不确定性、都市性与阶层之间的复杂关系的一面棱镜。比如说充满贬损色彩的词汇“剩女”，它将矛头对准了那些进入20岁后半段尚未结婚的女性，以社会对爱情、婚姻、家庭的定义为名对这个人群施行污名化。
因此，“摇摇欲坠”不禁要问：单身女性是如何协商社会加诸她们的多重期许与要求的？她们采取何种战术对抗规范性的性别角色与预期？如何将这城市想象为更为亲密却又易碎的空间？保持着单身，何所失，何所得？
“摇摇欲坠”不只着眼于上海，亚洲其他都市同样被观照，从而培养一种比较的视野，以反思身处急剧变化中的亚洲单身女性的生存境遇与愿景。参加工作坊的学者，艺术家和公益人来自欧美，印度，还有中国大陆，台湾和香港。至于参与展览的艺术家则有梁玥、郭庆玲、袁丽莎。
敬致各位媒体友人：
我们诚邀您莅临报道本次艺术展开幕及学术工作坊的公开活动。详细信息请参见附件。
如有查询，请致电葉小姐：13122252089
主办方: 非艺术中心 及 HERA 联合研究项目
“文化碰撞”之创造“新”亚洲女性：纠缠的城市空间、文化碰撞及性别身份——上海与新德里[SINGLE]
赞助: 荷兰驻华大使馆
Research Workshop & Art Exhibition
Precariously Yours: Gender, Class, and Urbanity in Contemporary Shanghai
Research Workshop (Language – English):
4 December 2014 2F, No.133 Yuanmingyuan Rd, Huangpu District, Shanghai
5 – 6 December 2014 No. 7 Lane 212 Wuyuan Rd, Xuhui District, Shanghai. Meta Gallery
Art Exhibition:
6 – 27 December 2014 (11:00 – 17:00; Closed Sunday & Monday)
709 Lingshi Road (near Wanrong Road), Building No. 40-2F, Shanghai
Rapid reforms in China have resulted in increasing inequalities and disjunctures. While Shanghai is transforming into a global mega-city, like many other big cities in Asia, its dwellers are often confronted with a way of life enabled and disabled by precarity. This precarity is generally perceived to be along the lines of labour and class, characterised in Guy Standing’s term “Precariat,” or those with short labour contracts and poor working conditions.
In Precariously Yours we extend the notion of precarity towards the domain of gender, love and sexuality. In particular single women serve as a prism to explore the complexities surrounding precarity, urbanity and class. For instance, the derogative term shengnü – “leftover women” – gestures towards a group of women whose singlehood at their late 20s seems to be enough to evoke intense stigmatization and reiteration of societal demands regarding love and family life. Precariously Yours wonders: How do single women negotiate the multiple expectations and demands that society imposes upon them? What are their tactics of resistance against normative gender roles and expectations? How to imagine the city as a more intimate and fragile space? What is to be lost and gained in remaining a single woman?
Precariously Yours explores these questions through an art exhibition, lectures and public debates. The workshop will particularly zoom in on how tropes like shengnü can be read as imaginations of a “new” Asian femininity, how different modes of loving and desiring are being explored in diverse creative and sexual cultures in Asian cities and how art and activism attempt to intervene in hegemonic understandings of love, gender and sexuality. Precariously Yours engages not only with Shanghai, but also with other Asian cities as to foster a comparative approach and allow reflections upon the lives and hopes of single women in a rapidly changing Asia.
During the workshop, international scholars, activists and artists will share their experiences with colleagues in China. The exhibition will feature works by LIANG Yue, GUO Qingling and Lise YUAN.
Attention news editors:
You are cordially invited to cover the exhibition opening and some public events of the workshop. Please refer to attached programme for details.
For enquiries, please contact Ms Penn Ip on 13122252089.
Organisers: Fei Art Contemporary Centre and HERA Joint Research Programme
“Cultural Encounters” —- Creating the ‘new’ Asian woman: entanglements of urban space, cultural encounters and gendered identities in Shanghai and Delhi [SINGLE]
Sponsor: Netherlands Embassy and Consulates, China