Kinesthetic City

In Kinesthetic City, author SanSan Kwan explores the contentious nature of Chineseness in diaspora through the lens of moving bodies as they relate to place, time, and identity. She locates her study in five Chinese urban sites--Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, New York's Chinatown, and the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles--at momentous historical turning points to parse out key similarities and differences in the construction of Chineseness. The moving bodies she considers are not only those in performances by some of the most well-known Chinese dance companies in these cities, but also her own as she navigates urban Chinese spaces. By focusing primarily on kinesthesia--the body's awareness of motion--to gather information rather than more traditional modes of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste, she highlights the importance of motion in the determination of space. In examining in these specific places at these precise historical moments, Kwan illuminates how moving bodies contribute to the production of those places and those moments. For Kwan, Chinese communities in diaspora provide particularly salient examples of how when and where our bodies are help to determine who we are. Whether engaged in otherwise unremarkable walking or in highly choreographed acts of political protest, human movement exists in dialogue with the kinesthetic of these city spaces, helping Chinese communities make meaning of themselves away from mainland China. As a whole, Kinesthetic City offers dance studies ways to extend movement analysis to study not only concert, folk or social dance, but also quotidian movement and urban flow.
"Kwan writes with a keen sensitivity to the micro-level kinesthetic forces of bodies in motion and the macro-level historical forces that shape place. The result is a series of nuanced and thoughtful readings of the politics of movement, location, and identity."--Anthea Kraut, Associate Professor, Department of Dance, University of California, Riverside

"SanSan Kwan gracefully captures both the experiential dimensions and the larger significance of movement and dance. Her engaging study of choreography and urban space inspires us to think about Chinese identity in original, dynamic, and generative ways."--Josephine Lee, University of Minnesota

PREFACE: SHANGHAI AND JIN XING DANCE THEATRE: CONCEALMENT AND EMERGENCE IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING ; INTRODUCTION: FEELING EACH OTHER MOVE: CHOREOGRAPHY AS SUBJECT AND METHOD IN A STUDY OF THE CITY ; CHAPTER 1: JAGGED PRESENCE IN THE LIQUID CITY: CHOREOGRAPHING HONG KONG'S HANDOVER ; CHAPTER 2: VIBRATING WITH TAIPEI: CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATER AND NATIONAL KINESTHESIA ; CHAPTER 3: AMERICA'S CHINATOWN: CHOREOGRAPHING ILLEGIBLE COLLECTIVITY ; EPILOGUE: KINESTHETIC CITY ; INDEX