Performing the self in contemporary rural China: voice from a villager

ABSTRACT

This paper provides the voice from a villager who participates in the art-led rural reconstruction in southwest China, and in so doing, to highlight the contemporary vernacular creativity embodied by villagers participating in art. Existing studies tend to understand villagers as merely responsive agents of the state-led or artist-initiated artistic practices, overlooking the inherent agency of villagers in artistic production. Drawing on the individualization thesis in Chinese society, this paper examines the project Yangdeng Art Cooperative in the rural area of Guizhou Province, China with a special focus on the individual perspective of villager Linghu. Findings show how Linghu's quest for self-identity infiltrates the collaborative practices with artists and gives rise to the autobiographic performance that is characterized by everydayness, improvisation, and relationality. Autobiographic performance of Linghu demonstrates an endogenous approach to artistic production and further concretizes a hybrid rurality that is always ongoing.

KEYWORDS:

• Art-led rural reconstruction
• villager participation
• autobiographical performance
• vernacular creativity
• endogeneity
• hybrid rurality

Acknowledgements

This paper draws on fieldwork conducted for the workshop Dream of Yangdeng Wire Bridge initiated by Yangdeng Art Cooperative. We would like to express our gratitude to all the artists and villagers of Yangdeng Art Cooperative. Our special appreciation goes to Linghu for sharing his life story with the first author of this paper; and to artist Lou Jin for his support of the research. We are deeply thankful for the critical feedback and recommendations from two anonymous reviewers, which significantly contributed to the improvement of this manuscript. Our thanks also go to Clansie Cai Xiaoqian for her helpful suggestions and editorial insights during the review phase.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.