Anthropologie en partage: Chinese worlds in images, January 26 and 27

Event organized with the special support of the French Institute for Research on East Asia-IFRAE (Inalco-Université de Paris-CNRS), the laboratory of ethnology and comparative sociology-LESC (Université Paris Nanterre), China-Korea-Japan-CCJ (CNRS-EHESS), the Institut d'Asie orientale-IAO (Université Lumière Lyon 2), Centre de Recherche Interuniversitaire Expérience Ressources Culturelles Éducation-EXPERICE (Université Paris 8).

Contacts: aafmc.anthropologie@gmail.com; catherine.capdeville@inalco.fr

Thursday January 26 and Friday January 27, 2023 - Maison de la Recherche - Auditorium Dumézil
Inalco, Maison de la Recherche, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris.

Free admission subject to availability.

Anthropologie en partage. Chinese worlds in images

PROGRAM

• Thursday, January 26, 2023 - 2:00-6:00 pm

Traditional technical knowledge in present-day China

2:00-3:40 pm: Ayi, film by Aël Théry and Marine Ottogalli (2019, 1h08)
Ayi is 50 years old, with laughing eyes and hair down to her back. She comes from a rural province in eastern China and doesn't have the residency permit that would allow her to work legally in Shanghai. Yet she has been a street food vendor for 20 years, in the heart of a neighborhood slated for imminent destruction. Ayi and her companions battle to maintain their livelihood and avoid the municipal police, amid the chaos of an ultra-modern city that is working to extinguish practices deemed unhealthy and expel the undesirable population they embody.

Projection followed by 30 minutes of discussion in the presence of Aël Théry, anthropologist, research fellow at INRAE - CMH (Centre Maurice Halbwachs) - ael.thery@inrae.fr
Coffee break (20 minutes), 15h40-16h00

16h-18h : Yaodong. Petit traité de construction, film by Élodie Brosseau, co-written with Caroline Bodolec (2012, 1h29)
It's in the Shaanbei region, in the loop of the Yellow River, that yaodong are built. These vaulted dwellings, originally troglodyte and now built against the mountain, are built without an architect's plan, according to skills handed down orally. The stages of construction follow the precise work of master stonemasons, master carpenters, fengshui masters and laborers, all living in yaodongs with their families. An encounter with these inhabitants, their rituals, their history... that gradually brings to light a snapshot of today's "yaodong culture".
Projection followed by a 30-minute discussion in the presence of Caroline Bodolec, anthropologist, CNRS research director at UMR CCJ (UMR 8173), bodolec@ehess.fr

• Friday, January 27, 2023 - 09:00-18:30

Today's Taoist rituals

9:00-11:00: Bored in Heaven, film by Kenneth Dean (2011, 1h20)
Chinese New Years in Putian, Fujian, China. In this new millennium, temples are dwarfed by high rises, the God of Theater sings karaoke and robots dance under neon signs. Massive processions lead gods from one temple to another through towns and villages across the Putian Plain. Shot on location, this unique documentary explores ritual sensation. Exploding fireworks, massive feasts and processions, Taoist rituals and ecstatic trance make up a compelling display of local power in the villages of Southeast China. A new world for a new China?

Projection followed by 40 minutes of discussion (by videoconference) with Kenneth Dean, historian, professor at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore (NUS) - kenneth.dean@mcgill.ca

Coffee break (20 minutes), 11:00-11:20

11:20-13:00 : Maître Feng, un moine taoïste dans la Chine d'aujourd'hui, film by Adeline Herrou (2018, 1h10)
This ethnographic film portrays a Taoist monk from the Ziyang region of Shaanxi, central China, who entered the Taoist religion "in the China of yesteryear". He was forced to return to secular life during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and worked in the fields for fifteen years. In the early 1980s, he was able to resume his life as a monk. Recognized as an eminent master as far away as Beijing, he chose to turn down offers of prestigious positions to devote himself to rebuilding temples destroyed during the long period of religious prohibition.

Projection followed by 30 minutes of discussion in the presence of Adeline Herrou, anthropologist, CNRS research director at LESC (UMR 7186) - adeline.herrou@cnrs.fr
Lunch break (1:00 pm-2:00 pm)

2:00 pm-4:40 pm: 妙峰山朝山進香 - Pilgrimage to the mountain of Pic merveilleux. 400 years of history, film by Patrice Fava (2015, 2h)
Miaofengshan has been the most famous holy mountain in the Beijing region for 400 years. After a 50-year hiatus, the pilgrimage was reauthorized in the 1990s and attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims and a hundred or so procession theaters who, for a fortnight, come to worship Bixia yuanjun, the Madonna of the Dawn Clouds who is also Beijing's protective Holy Mother. Considered the cradle of ethnological studies in China, the Miaofengshan pilgrimage has been the subject of countless theses, books and articles, yet has never been filmed. The filmmaker, who took part in the pilgrimage for twenty years, has attempted to reconstruct its long history by giving a voice to the leaders of the troops and associations who are committed to reviving it while respecting its rules and authenticity. Kristofer Schipper writes of this pilgrimage: "For me, the Miaofengshan is, in more ways than one, the 'marvellous summit' of Chinese culture. It is an immense act of civilization. Miaofengshan belongs to those sacred places in China where the ancient tradition of rites, games, dances and legends has remained spontaneously alive".

Projection followed by 40 minutes of discussion (by videoconference) with Patrice Fava, anthropologist, associated with the Beijing Center of the École Française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), at Renmin University's Taoist Research Center and the Institut Français de Recherches sur l'Asie de l'Est (IFRAE) - patrice.fava@foxmail.com

Coffee break (20 minutes), 4:40pm-5:00pm

Minority populations in Chinese historical propaganda films

5:00pm-6:30pm: Ethnography or propaganda? 1950s and 1960s Chinese documentaries from the Chinese Historical Ethnographic Film Series (1957-1966), Catherine Capdeville with contributions from Inalco Chinese Studies students.

After viewing and discussing the dozen or so films in this series with students in the L3 "Local Societies in China" course in autumn 2022, the latter will present, in cooperation with master's and doctoral students, a collective talk on some of these films focusing on the minority societies of the Dulong, Kucong and Wa, located on the borders between China and Southeast Asia. Based on these examples, the distinction between ethnographic film and propaganda film will be explored.

Projection followed by a discussion in the presence of students and Catherine Capdeville, anthropologist, professor (INALCO / IFRAE) - catherine.capdeville@inalco.fr

The meetings will be followed by a convivial drink on the occasion of Chinese New Year, starting at 6:30pm.

Organizers:
Caroline Bodolec (CNRS UMR CCJ),
Catherine Capdeville (INALCO / IFRAE),
Gladys Chicharro (Univ. Paris 8 / Experice),
Adeline Herrou (CNRS LESC),
Claire Vidal (Univ. Lumière Lyon 2 / IAO)