‘Cuteifying’ spaces and staging marine animals for Chinese middle-class consumption

ABSTRACT

In this paper, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Zhuhai is considered an aestheticised space for the growing Chinese middle class. Located within the booming and fast-urbanising Pearl River Delta, the theme park is a sizeable project consisting of rides, marine mammal enclosures and a well-equipped state-of-the-art circus. Utilising ethnography, including visitor interviews, and discourse analysis of websites, mobile apps and promotional materials, the theme park is found to deploy animal motifs in three key ways: as spectacular backdrops for amusement rides, as objects of biodiversity-based edutainment and as highly personified agents in visitor relations. Building on existing literature on decontextualised animal display – where emphasis on the provision of a natural habitat is replaced by simulated and actual proximity of animals to the visitors – I argue that the ‘out-of-situ’, cuteified and hyperreal stagings of Chimelong's animals have been shaped by two further China-specific processes. The first is the engagement with the theme park space as a sanitised and safe environment for a then one-child policy inspired child-centred visitation. The second refers to the retail-oriented consumerist experiences demonstrated by the new Chinese middle class. Both processes have brought about an aestheticising endeavour in line with the idealisation of other (Chinese) middle-class spaces, and have positioned Chinese theme parks as key nodes in our understanding of leisure and tourism spaces and of middle-class landscapes in contemporary China. Such an examination is made at a juncture where and when abuse of marine mammals is allegedly on the rise, and sheds light on the social processes shaping the popularity of such experiences in contemporary China.     

To the rhythm of shopping—on synchronisation in urban landscapes of consumption

This paper contributes to the ongoing reappraisal of the 'publicness' of public space, a project begun in relation to many different spaces and from a variety of perspectives. The research presented here examines the major motivations and debates leading up to the creation and consequent opening of two of Liverpool's most prominent urban parks, Sefton Park and Stanley Park, in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Evidence is taken from the Minutes of various Town Council Meetings and Sub-Committee Meetings as well as from Liverpool's news media of the period (1858–1872). Attention is therefore focused on the contests and debates that are connected to official action and policies, highlighting the differing values which were seen to attach to the public space of urban parks in Liverpool and the roles it was believed they could play. There are obvious inequalities in the provision of public space in Liverpool in the nineteenth century, illustrating how the city built class parks. Interlocking systems of oppression of gender, class and ethnicity meant that accessibility to Liverpool's urban parks was, and still is, subject to the complex ways in which these worked together. Indeed there are many parallels between the nineteenthcentury urban experience and ongoing contemporary debates regarding public space and its accessibility. Cet article ajoute aux discussions courantes visant à réexaminer la notion de 'public' en ce qui àtrait à l'espace publique, un projet relié à différents espaces et différentes perspectives. Les recherches ici présentées examinent les motivations principales et les débats qui ont menéàla création et ouverture de deux des plus importants parcs urbains de Liverpool, les parcs Sefton et Stanley, à la fin des années 1860 et début des années 1870. Le matériel àl'appui est tiré des notes de réunions des Conseil and Sous-Conseil Municipaux et des médias de Liverpool de l'époque (1858–1872). La discussion porte principalement sur les conflits et débats rattachés aux actions et politiques officielles, mettant l'emphase sur les valeurs divergentes associées à l'espace urbain de Liverpool et au rôle que cet espace devrait jouer. Il est évident qu'il existe des inégalités marquées dans la distribution de l'espace publique à Liverpool au dix-neuvième siècle et ceci démontre que la ville a bâti des parcs destinés à certaines classes. Des systèmes d'oppression inter-reli´s axés sur la classe, le sexe et l'ethnicitédémontrent que l'accès aux parcs urbains de Liverpool était, et est toujours, sujet à l'imbrication complexe de ces éléments. Este papel contribuye a la continuada nueva apreciación de la 'naturaleza pública' del espacio público, un proyecto iniciado con relación a muchos espacios diferentes y desde una variedad de perspectivas. La investigación que presentamos aquí examina los principales motivaciones y debates que llevaron a la creación y consecuente inauguración de dos de los parques urbanos más importantes de Liverpool; el parque Sefton y el parque Stanley, a finales de los años 60 y a principios de los años 70 del siglo diezinueve. Las pruebas vienen de las actas de varias Reuniones del Consejo Municipal, de reuniones de la subcomisión y también de la prensa de Liverpool de la época (1858–1872). Por lo tanto el enfoque es sobre las contiendas y debates, unidos a acción oficial y políticas, que destacan los diferentes valores atribuidos al espacio público de los parques urbanos de Liverpool y los papeles que se creía que tenían. Hay desigualdades muy evidentes en la provisión de espacio público en Liverpool en el siglo diezinueve, lo cual demuestra que construyeron parques distintos para las distintas clases sociales en la ciudad. Los intertejidos sistemas de opresión de género, clase y etnicidad hacían que el acceso a los parques urbanos de Liverpool fuera, y siga siendo, sujeto al complejo funcionamiento de éstos en conjunto.     

Curriculum reform: a transformation or consumption model for politics and international relations?

For decades, politics and international relations (PaIR) programs across Australia have taken a smorgasbord or student consumption approach to curriculum development. This article examines whether, with the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), there has been a systematisation and transformation of curriculum. It surveys 21 programs and majors in the field offered at 10 universities. It analyses directions in program structure, content and to a lesser extent delivery in order to discover whether there is a shared picture of graduate outcomes. The model of curriculum as a product students’ select elements of to consume has largely continued and there has been no disciplinary debate about direction. This may well result in marginalisation if PaIR cannot successfully attract enough new students or influence regulatory debates, which will likely expand given the ongoing massification of higher education in Australia.     

‘Just looking’: domestic workers' consumption practices and a latent geography of Beijing

The post-socialist Chinese city has been an important site to explore the formation of modernity in its everyday shape and manifestations. A common way of understanding urban experiences is through the prism of consumption. Rural migrants in the city cannot compare with urban residents in terms of their consumption level, but they are seen to be equally enthusiastic in partaking in consumption, and their identities are also believed to be (re)shaped by consumption practices. Drawing on several years' extensive ethnographic research in Beijing, this article suggests that these scenarios cannot adequately account for the diversity and complexity of rural migrants' experience in the consuming city. In this article, I put forward a methodological argument for considering the lived spatiality of ethnographic subjects in conceiving and considering consumption. Then, through an investigation of how migrant domestic workers use urban spaces, I consider the ‘dialectic of freedom and constraint’ which marks their agency and their individual choices and decisions. Finally, I explore the social production of space by considering migrant domestic workers' ‘subversive’ behaviours within rather than in opposition to the capitalist commercial logic and space. This discussion demonstrates that consumption practices are at the same time spatial practices, and despite the many obstacles and constraints, migrant domestic workers are actively availing themselves of the opportunities that the city has to offer. This creative process is crucial if we are to gain a new and more nuanced understanding of consumption as a social practice. I further argue that it is also a process by which rural migrants hold on to their sense of dignity and self-respect in an environment of exclusion and discrimination.     

Drinking in the dark: shedding light on young people’s alcohol consumption experiences

Abstract

This paper draws on 12 months of ethnographic research to explore the drinking experiences of young people, aged 15–24, living in the suburban case study locations of Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK. This paper moves beyond the contemporary geographical imaginary of alcohol consumption as a city centre issue, to explore suburban indoor and outdoor drinking cultures. Through paying attention to atmospheres of darkness and lightness, I show how drinkscapes are active constituents of young people’s drinking occasions, rather than passive backdrops. More than this, I illustrate how young people transform dark and light drinkscapes, thereby shaping the drinking practices of themselves and others. Through looking at the interplay between the curating of an atmosphere, and the experience of that atmosphere when bodies, and practices are inserted into it, this paper offers a different take on the ‘drinking at home is bad, drinking in public spaces is good’ argument, with original policy suggestions.     

Re-investigating fish consumption in Greek antiquity: results from δC and δN analysis from fish bone collagen

One of the frequently encountered issues in ancient Greek dietary reconstructions through isotope analyses has been the apparent unimportance of fish protein in human diets. The significance of this observation is amplified by the abundant ichthyofaunal remains, iconographic evidence and literary information on fish and fishing, pertaining to almost all sites and time periods of Greek antiquity. In this project, we measured for the first time isotopes from a large number of fish bones from Greek sites dating from the Mesolithic to the Classical times, aiming to investigate whether this absence is an artefact of the methodology or whether it reflects a reality of restricted fish consumption. Results show that regional trends are stronger that temporal ones in fish isotope values. The range of values overlaps with terrestrial resources, making it difficult or impossible to reject fish consumption based on isotope data alone. This variability proposes a reconsideration of the amount of fish in ancient Greek diets specifically for each site and amplifies the importance of interdisciplinary studies, especially for regions with variable ecological resources.     

Made in China: import,distribution and consumption of Chinese porcelain in Copenhagen c. 1600–1760

Excavations in a refuse dump area in Copenhagen, dated c. 1650–1760, have produced large quantities of Chinese porcelain which reveal considerable consumption of Oriental porcelain in the city, pre-dating the establishment of direct trade with China. The character of the porcelain dated to the first 30 years of the Danish China trade may indicate a socially wider consumption of Chinese porcelain than has been generally assumed. When comparing archaeological and documentary data, a differentiated picture of the import, distribution and consumption of Chinese porcelain in the Danish capital emerges.     

When ‘Angelino’ squirrels don’t eat nuts: a feminist posthumanist politics of consumption across southern California

Eastern fox squirrels (Sciurus niger), reddish-brown tree squirrels native to the eastern and southeastern United States, were introduced to and now thrive in suburban/urban California. As a result, many residents in the greater Los Angeles region are grappling with living amongst tree squirrels, particularly because the state’s native western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus) is less tolerant of human beings and, as a result, has historically been absent from most sections of the greater Los Angeles area. ‘Easties,’ as they are colloquially referred to in the popular press, are willing to feed on trash and have an ‘appetite for everything.’ Given that the shift in tree squirrel demographics is a relatively recent phenomenon, this case presents a unique opportunity to question and re-theorize the ontological given of ‘otherness’ that manifests, in part, through a politics whereby animal food choices ‘[come] to stand in for both compliance and resistance to the dominant forces in [human] culture’. I, therefore, juxtapose feminist posthumanist theories and feminist food studies scholarship to demonstrate how eastern fox squirrels are subjected to gendered, racialized, and speciesist thinking in the popular news media as a result of their feeding/eating practices, their unique and unfixed spatial arrangements in the greater Los Angeles region, and the western, modernist human frame through which humans interpret these actions. I conclude by drawing out the implications of this research for the fields of animal geography and feminist geography.     

‘Looking alright,feeling alright’: emotions,sizing and the geographies of women's experiences of clothing consumption

Recent work within geographies of consumption has focused on the practices of consumption as a means to find out ‘what people do when they go shopping’. This paper argues that few of these accounts of consumption have considered the significance of emotions in understanding the intricacies of consumer experience. Drawing on material from research about women's experiences of clothes shopping this paper, therefore, utilizes recent work in the social sciences which understands emotions not as inherent or as induced by practices or commodities and instead emphasizes the intersubjective nature of emotions whereby emotions ‘are self‐reflective, involving active perception, identification and management on the part of individuals’ (Lupton : 16). In short, this view posits that the consumer has the capacity to ‘manage’ or to experience and re‐experience emotions in particular consumption moments. Such an understanding offers a conceptualization which does not conceive of women's engagements with consumer culture within a victim/resistance dichotomy, instead uncovering geographies of consumption in which women may feel uncomfortable or depressed in a particular moment but then engage in practices through which they experience that moment differently. These emotional experiences are explored through considering the significance of the spatialities of the changing room, shop floor and the corporeal space of the ‘sized’ body, and the consumption practices of cheating, coping and connecting.     

Working the Yucatán in the neoliberal landscape: household management,consumption and the lives of intellectual elite women

This article examines the lives of academic women in Mérida, the state capital of the Yucatán in southern Mexico. In particular, I consider the relationship between work – including household management – and consumer practices in light of Mérida's changing socioeconomic climate. I address how women's lives have been impacted by the neoliberal restructuring of Mexico's political economy and what these changes mean to their experience of university life, household management styles and consumption practices. I point out how labor and consumption are deeply interrelated cultural practices, which have acquired new meanings in the neoliberal landscape. Accordingly, consumption practices must be understood in connection with women's social and professional identities.     

Carnem et circenses – consumption of animals and their products in Roman urban and military sites in two regions in the northwestern provinces

This paper investigates the consumption of animals and their products in the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire. A regional approach was used, comparing two research areas: the northern part of modern Switzerland and the central part of the modern Netherlands. These two regions have different histories, backgrounds and landscapes. Our aim was to find out whether these different histories and backgrounds led to different consumption patterns and to what extent they correspond to Roman-style nutrition. Furthermore, we looked for developments over time in consumption of meat and exploitation of livestock. A data set consisting of over 282,000 fragments of cattle, sheep/goat and pig from 188 samples from military sites, urban centres and vici was collected. Our study identified both differences and similarities in consumption and exploitation patterns. Differences can be explained by the regional character of each research area, while similarities suggest wider economic developments in the Empire and general supply strategies of the Roman army.     

What is on the craftsmen’s menu? Plant consumption at Datrana,a 5000-year-old lithic blade workshop in North Gujarat,India

The exploitation of lithic resources was an important aspect of prehistoric resource exploitation strategies and adaptation. Research has mostly focused on technological and spatial aspects of lithic factory sites, often overlooking how these sites were integrated within local socioecological dynamics in terms of food acquisition and consumption. The aim of this paper is to study plant consumption at Datrana, a 5000-year-old lithic blade workshop in North Gujarat, India, in order to understand its occupants’ subsistence strategies. The results of archaeobotanical, mineralogical and soil pH analyses show that the occupants of this factory site were consuming local crops but not processing them, suggesting that either (a) food was being processed in other areas of the site or (b) it was acquired in a ‘ready-to-consume’ state from local food-producing communities. This study highlights the integration of a lithic factory site within its surrounding cultural and natural landscape, offering an example of how the inhabitants of a workshop interacted with local communities to acquire food resources.     

Ritual practices and collective consumption of animal products at the Iron Age rural settlement of Mas Castellar de Pontós (Girona,Spain) (5th–4th centuries BC)

Abstract

Animals have played an important role in certain ceremonies or rites in the past. During such activities, animals may have been alive, dead or been used as raw material. The disposal of detritus from these practices can lead to the formation of faunal assemblages with a particular taxonomic and anatomic composition. At the Iron Age ‘Mas Castellar de Pontós’ site (Girona, Spain), associations of archaeological materials excavated from Pit feature FS362 were suggestive of deposits arising from collective ceremonial consumption. Analysis of the 1309 mammal remains recovered from this feature is used to determine the nature and dynamics of the ceremony. At the same time, the relationship of these faunal remains with the other archaeological materials recovered in the pit will allow light to be shed on the significance and importance of these ceremonies in the framework of the social and political relations that governed the life of the inhabitants of this settlement.     

Traditional post-harvest processing to make quinoa grains (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Chenopodium quinoa</Emphasis> var. <Emphasis Type="Italic">quinoa</Emphasis>) apt for consumption in Northern Lipez (Potosí, Bolivia): ethnoarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses

The aim of this paper is to generate information to assist in the archaeobotanical recognition of post-harvest processing activities related with different enhancement and consumption patterns of quinoa in the Central Andes. Enhancement of the grains involves what local people call “mejorado de los granos”. Their main purpose is to reduce as far as possible the presence of saponins, a toxic metabolite, in the grain. Ethnobotanical data were recorded in the village of Villa Candelaria (Southern Bolivian highlands) through the application of standard ethnographic techniques. The types of grain enhancement vary depending on the meal that people want to prepare. We registered three different quinoa enhancements based on intended consumption, (1) as a whole seed, (2) in soups or (3) as pitu (a kind of toasted refined flour). Laboratory analysis aimed at identifying distinctive features of grains in different processing stages, as well as evaluating the effects of charring. For both desiccated and charred remains, quinoa processed for pitu can be distinguished from that for whole seed/soup. As a case study, archaeological grains of the pre-Inka site of Churupata, located 3 km from Villa Candelaria, were interpreted as quinoa prepared for consumption as whole seed/soup.