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Being Together at a Distance, Talking and Avoiding Talk: Making Sense of the Present in Victory Square, Tianjin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2021

Isabelle Thireau
Isabelle Thireau*
Affiliation:
Centre for Studies on Modern and Contemporary China (CECMC), School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, France. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This paper explores a “public gathering” which took place every evening from 1991 to 2017 in Victory Square (Shengli guangchang 胜利广场), a public square in Tianjin. The essay opens with an analysis of the type of publicness that stems from the way participants “do things together.” It then describes how a specific public realm appears through the way participants “talk together.” It finally suggests that even if they are overrun with doubt, indeterminacy and anxiety, or embedded in a specific distance-based sociality, the conversations on Victory Square are not a minor, secondary activity. On the contrary, they take place on a common stage where participants interact with one another, reveal themselves as unique individuals and discuss their everyday affairs and common practices. Grasped as an “intermediary public sphere,” this type of gathering engenders and reinforces not only shared meanings and evaluations but also practical knowledge whose validity goes beyond this situated gathering.

摘要

摘要

本文以天津市持续了二十多年（1991—2017）在胜利广场这个公共广场的一种 “公共聚会” 为观察点。作者尝试以 “中介性公共领域” 的视角，理解观察到的社会现象。在参与者健身或 “一块做” 的时候，在他们如果愿意的话 “一块说” 的时候，不同的距离，不同的参与方式，不同的期待同时展示，导致一个特定的公共性类型的出现。研究表明，即使它们被疑惑, 不确定和焦虑所充斥，在胜利广场上展开的对话也不是一种次要的活动。恰恰相反，它们发生在一个共同的舞台上，参与者在这个舞台上相互交流，展现自己作为独特的个体，谈论自己共同的事务。这样的聚会不仅使共同的意义和评价得以实现，而且使社会现实得以稳定。

Keywords

Tianjinintermediary public spherepublic gatheringpublic realmindeterminacystrangerssocial reality天津中介公共领域公共聚会公共领域不确定性陌生人社会现实
Type
Special section: “Revisiting the Public Sphere in 20th- and 21st-century China”
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 246 , June 2021 , pp. 428 - 446
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Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London, 2021

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