Global Liminal and Meta-urban Spaces in Asian Cities
In this lecture, Dr Mary Mazzilli from Nanyang University of Technology will lay the claim that China's first special economic zone Shenzhen represents the global liminal meta-urban space in Asia par excellence because of its position, history and urban development.
Transcultural ‘Performative’ Experiences of Architectural and Urban Spaces through the Analysis of Guerrilla Performances and Digital Literature from Shenzhen.
By Dr Mary Mazzilli from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore
The first special economic zone in China and the first to experiment with extensive urban planning, Shenzhen still stands as an important example of Chinese modernity, of China opening to the West, China taking center-stage in the global economy.
Fat Bird, an independent theatre company in Shenzhen founded by Yang Qian, Chinese playwright, and Mary O’Donnell, American China-based anthropologist, is an atypical albeit not uncommon example of multilingual and transcultural agency. Their work combines theatrical activities in urban spaces and cultural interventions, through the digital medium, to reflect upon urban and social changes.
This paper investigates Fatbird guerrilla performances – illegal (with no official permission) site-specific performances and O’Donnell’s blog, Shenzhen Noted. The latter functions as an archive and commentary of architectural and urban changes in Shenzhen yet also creates alternative urban imaginaries.
Dr Mazzilli will use an ethnographic approach, 'one that highlights the experiential quality of performance from 'the inside' as labour' (This is inspired by Martin Holbraad and his project Performance, Theatre and Ethnography of the Imagination- UCL Anthropology, London). She employs the term 'performance' in its wider sense where the act of writing, especially writing on the internet, becomes an act of performance.
This paper aims to demonstrate that within the colossal urban settings there are what I call liminal meta-urban spaces where the terms, liminality and meta-urban, are a re-worked definition based on Homi K. Bhaba’s idea of nation-space. These spaces defy cultural and national boundaries and can be easily associated with any big city. However, I claim here that Shenzhen represents the global liminal meta-urban space in Asia par excellence because of its position, history and urban development.
Dr Mary Mazzilli
Dr Mary Mazzilli is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Nanyang Technological University – Singapore. She earned a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in Chinese and comparative literature for a doctoral thesis titled Gao Xingjian versus Martin Crimp in between Modernism and Postmodernism.
She was a visiting lecturer in English Literature (women’s writing and gender studies) at Goldsmith College 2007/08 and in Chinese and Taiwanese cinema at SOAS 2009/10. She has published articles on Chinese contemporary theatre, comparative literature and reviews on academic journals. Her research interests cross disciplines and cultures with a strong focus on comparative studies: she is now working on a new research project, the connection between theatre, urbanism and architecture in southern China, as well as co-editing a new anthology of essays Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Embodiment, Corporeality, and Desire (Bridge21 Publications), forthcoming in the autumn of 2013.
Registration
Lunch will be provided, registration is therefore required. Please use the registration form below.