Permeable Frames: Intersections of the Performance, the Everyday, and the Ethical in Chinese Street Singing

Horlor, Samuel

Abstract

Amateur performances of pop classics take place daily in various public spots in Wuhan, China. Audience members reward singers with cash tips; these practices are bound up in personal relationships established as the two parties socialise at and away from the events. Building on Goffmanian notions of frame shifting, I explore how performance, everyday, and ethical realms of experience intersect during these occasions. Boundaries between performance and everyday frames are indistinct in a physical sense and in how participants relate to each other. This in turn feeds into the integration of the performances in participants’ ethical lives. Rather than a shifting between these three frames, I see mutual permeability as the basis for the sociality here.

Citation

Horlor, S. (2019). Permeable Frames: Intersections of the Performance, the Everyday, and the Ethical in Chinese Street Singing. Ethnomusicology Forum, 28(1), 3-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2019.1590725

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 26, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Mar 14, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019
• Deposit Date: Mar 17, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 14, 2020
• Journal: Ethnomusicology Forum
• Print ISSN: 1741-1912
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-1920
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 3-25
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2019.1590725
• Keywords: Frame analysis, street performance, Chinese pop, Wuhan
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1335360