THE WOMEN OF QUYI by Dr. Francesca R. Sborgi Lawson ( 9781138234130 )

Item Details

Title:

THE WOMEN OF QUYI
LIMINAL VOICES AND ANDROGYNOUS BODIES

By:

Dr. Francesca R. Sborgi Lawson

Format:

Hardback

List price:

£155.00

Our price:

£139.50

Discount:

10% off

You save:

£15.50

ISBN 10:

1138234133

ISBN 13:

9781138234130

Availability:

Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.

Delivery rates

Stock:

Currently 0 available

Publisher:

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Pub. date:

16 February, 2017

Series:

SOAS Musicology Series

Pages:

198

Synopsis:

Why has the female voice-as the resonant incarnation of the female body-inspired both fascination and ambivalence? Why were women restricted from performing on the Chinese public stage? How have female roles and voices been appropriated by men throughout much of the history of Chinese theatre? Why were the women of quyi-a community of Chinese female singers in Republican Tianjin-able to become successful, respected artists when other female singers and actors in competing performance traditions struggled for acceptance? Drawing substantially on original ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the 1980s and 1990s, Francesca R. Sborgi Lawson offers answers to these questions and demonstrates how the women of quyi successfully negotiated their sexuality and vocality in performance. Owing to their role as third-person narrators, the women of quyi bridged the gender gap, creating an androgynous persona that de-emphasized their feminine appearance and, at the same time, allowed them to showcase their female voices on public stages-places that had been previously unwelcoming to female artists.This is a story about female storytellers who sang their way to respectability and social change in the early decades of the twentieth century by minimizing their bodies in order to allow their voices to be heard.

Illustrations:

17 black & white illustrations, 1 black & white halftones, 16 black & white

Publication:

Imprint:

Routledge

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

THE NARRATIVE ARTS OF TIANJIN: BETWEEN MUSIC AND LANGUAGE