This talk examines a world of Dionysian undifferentiation between social equals in China, which discards accumulated time through shared sensory indulgence. While the sensory has long been recognised as an important element in the production of sociality in China, it is the temporal aspects of embodied experience that are key to understanding its significance.. In Lushan, people commonly seek experiences of immediate presence with others through acts of feasting, gambling, singing, and gossiping, all of which are key to the characteristically Sichuanese ethos of ‘life enjoyment’. Mutual recognition through engagement in ‘pure sociability’ (Simmel) is the defining feature of this ethos and is a way for self and other to ascertain their place in time. The performative enactment of ‘pure sociability’ renders particular histories, wealth, ambitions, status, and individuality insignificant because they suggest discordant temporal horizons.

Speaker
Dr. Angel Naydenov
Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Institute for the Humanities, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Angel Naydenov’s research examines the entanglements of time, value, and selfhood in rural China. His book manuscript, Rhythms of Realisation: Time, Value, and Recognition in the Mountains of Southwest China, is based on 17 months of fieldwork in Sichuan and explores the dominant value pursuits through which subjects seek self-realisation and thus find their way in time.