Why I find clubbing in Shanghai depressing - James Farrer

James Farrer

Sociologist James Farrer, and author of Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City has been clubbing for decades in Shanghai. But lately, the fun is gone, he tells an NPR reporter while cruising the city.

NPR:

Farrer says this is a turnaround from the early days of clubbing in Shanghai when there was room to dance and for people from different walks of life to connect. Now, they just sit in groups and stare at their cell phones. Farrer finds it depressing. 

"You see people not really communicating with each other," he says. "You see dance clubs where, quite frankly, almost nobody is dancing. It's all about you controlling your space, hanging out with your friends and showing off your money to a very limited number of people." 

Farrer says it's also a sign of how stratified China's richest city has become. It's now past 1 a.m. I thank Farrer for the tour and he walks back toward his hotel. I hop in a taxi and head home. Along the way, I think about how the city's nightlife has re-emerged in the past two decades, creating opportunities for people to come together, but also — as in the case of our last stop – to stand apart.

More at NPR.

James Farrer is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you looking for more experts on cultural change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

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Chinese women discovered adultery, and it is big - James Farrer

James Farrer

Adultery has traditionally been a male thing. But in China - as the socialist country claimed their women were equal to men - women have expanded their equality also into adultery, says professor James Farrer, an eminent scholar on China´s sexuality in the Atlantic.

The Atlantic:

Why would Chinese women demonstrate a greater propensity for adultery than women in France, where sexual attitudes are often portrayed as remarkably liberal? Or than American women, who are bombarded by infidelity in TV shows and movies, not to mention among the celebrities that star in such entertainment?

“China is a society that has emphasized women’s independence and women’s equality,” says Farrer. “Socialism was not a passing thing. It had a big impact on the way that women saw themselves. So Chinese women feel as though they have a right to the things that Chinese men have a right to. And when you talk to women about infidelity in China, they will often say, ‘Well, men do it. Why can’t we?’”...

Another phenomenon associated with infidelity in China involves women married to partners whose income is modest. These women are sometimes interested in “trading up” should the chance arise. “I would say that working-class women who are not happy with their marriages are sometimes actually looking for a better deal rather than just trying to enjoy themselves,” Farrer says.

“And then there is the phenomenon of women who are married to men who have money but are not available, are not around, and they are looking for affection,” Farrer adds. “And there, I think it is more looking for some kind of sexual or romantic fulfillment rather than just trading up.” For Chinese women, opportunity may come in the form of participation in the country’s labor force. “One thing that China has is very high rates of female labor-force participation,” Farrer says. “So women work, and women who are out in the labor force have more chance to meet men, and therefore far more chance to hook up with somebody, and women sitting at home have less chance.” According to World Bank statistics, 70 percent of China’s female population (aged 15-64) participated in the country’s workforce in 2012, compared to 84 percent of the male population. Some of these young women are working far from their hometown and their parents’ disapproving gaze, away from the responsibilities of children, and sometimes separated from their romantic partner. In China, Farrer says, sex has traditionally been seen as something that comes later in life and is earned. “In the West and even in Japan, sex is seen as sort of like child’s play. It is something that young people get up to, a thing people do for amusement,” he notes. “In China, it is seen as something that adults do.” “It is more legitimate for a guy who has already made a lot of money to indulge himself in this kind of stuff because he has already made it, whereas young people, who don’t have any resources, any money or social status, should be working hard to get that stuff and shouldn’t be fooling around,” Farrer continues.

More in the Atlantic. 

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US: Distracted from the China-Japan struggle - James Farrer

James Farrer

The attention of the US is unfortunately drawn to the middle-east, as the Gordian knot of territorial claims of China and Japan continue to hamper international relations, writes Tokyo-based scholar James Farrer in Policy Innovations. 

James Farrer:

China meanwhile has experienced its own a political transition. Last week we saw the emergence of a new Politburo headed by Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, both of whom we might expect to harbor some positive feelings towards America. Xi sends his daughter to Harvard University. Li is a graduate of Beijing University who has translated law texts from English. 

The Chinese transition does little, though, to reassure the world about China's relations with America's closest ally in the region, Japan. The problem in China is deep-seated popular sentiment. As seen in the fierce anti-Japanese protests in September 2012, many Chinese protesters displayed a gut-level hatred of Japan that went beyond the usual politics. Whether profound anti-Japanese feeling is the result of post-1990s Chinese nationalist education campaigns, as many Japanese analysts argue, or the direct legacy of Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s, as many Chinese claim, is a moot point. Both are true. Japan brutally invaded China, and the Chinese Communist Party has unrelentingly used anti-Japanese propaganda as political cover for its own atrocities and failings. 

The immediate problem is that many Chinese people are simply unwilling to stomach any kind of compromise with Japan on territorial claims. And China's young, disproportionately male population is restless, angry, and overtly itching for military conflict. No Chinese politician wants war with Japan, but if war erupts—by accident, or by provocation—no Chinese politician could afford to back down. Forget the old Maoist categories of "left" and "right." Chinese politics, too, is driven forward by a nationalist and populist right wing, one younger and potentially more volatile than the aging right wing that is leading the rightward charge in Japan.

More in Policy Innovations.

James Farrer is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

This week, on November 22, the China Weekly Hangout is about the future of nuclear power in China. You can register at our event page here. (Two weeks earlier we missed the change in daylight saving time in the US and had to cancel.) First part will focus on the resumption of building nuclear power stations, the second part of the chances NIMBY protests can derail this ambitious program. Planned participants: Richard Brubaker and Chris Brown.

You can access all editions here.

The China Weekly Hangout discussed on November 1 the US-China relations. Featuring: Janet Carmosky, Greg Anderson and Fons Tuinstra

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First sex, a precious gift in China - James Farrer

James Farrer

James Farrer compares the attitude of premaritial sex of Japanese and Chinese youth. Both accept sex in a dating relationship, but in China sex is part of a carefully planned deal making and seen as a highly valuable gift. ChinaShmina summarized the article.

ChinaShmina:

In China sex prior to marriage is linked to the concept of female’s chastity and male’s responsibility. Chinese (both males and females) base their judgments on the reactions of imaginary male (“future husband”) – “What would he think knowing that he wasn’t first?” 

As one of Farrer’s interviewees said:

Boys certainly don‘t want to eat somebody else‘s left-over dish, do they? 

In this sense Chinese woman’s decision to have sex is a kind of sacrifice and first sex is a valuable gift. Not only Chinese women but also Chinese men often hesitated whether to have sex if the woman was virgin... 

For Chinese young adults the requirement for having sex is the comparatively high level ofcommitment in relationships. It is most usually expressed through promises “to work hard, buy a house, or take the other traveling or as vows, such as I‘ll love you forever or I‘ll make you happy for a lifetime”. Even if these promises haven’t been voiced, there is often a mutualcommitment to the common future. 

Premarital sexual relationship, however, does not automatically qualify as engagement and Chinese accept that “sometimes things don’t work out.”... 

Many Chinese interviewees in Farrer’s research expressed the opinion that sex is appropriate only for people who have almost finished their education and are economically independent. 

It is probably the result of relative intolerance of Chinese education institutions towards the intimacy (dating) between students. Japanese, on the other hand, regard the high school years as appropriate time to start the sexual activity.

More in ChinaShmina

The original article is not yet online available. James Farrer, Gefei Suo, Haruka Tsuchiya, Zhongxin Sun. 2012. ―Re-embedding sexual meanings: a qualitative comparison of the premarital sexual scripts of Chinese and Japanese young adults ‖ Sexuality & Culture. Vol. 16, No.1, pp. 1-24.

James Farrer is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.  

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