Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Published in:
Creative Aspiration and the Betrayal of Promise? The Experience of New Creative Workers Read chapter Read first chapter

2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

6. Working the Field: Career Pathways Amongst Artists and Writers in Shanghai

Authors : Xin Gu, Justin O’Connor

Published in: Pathways into Creative Working Lives

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

This chapter explores the social space available for creative subjects in China, based on interviews with artists and writers in Shanghai. We argue that the space for creative autonomy is configured differently in China to the way it is presented within Western creative labour studies. Autonomy in China rests on a sense of serving the public good rather than on Romanticism’s free creativity, and links to a state project are long-standing. Building on Bourdieu’s notion of the creative field, we suggest that the state adds a distinct parallel polarity to that of restricted versus commercial production. Outside of both commerce and state-sanctioned art there is a very precarious space of independent cultural activity, less to do with censorship than the absence of a socially sanctioned space for an ‘artistic’ subject.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe




 

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
previous chapter Young Women’s Aspirations and Transitions into, through and away from Contemporary Creative Work
next chapter In the Orbit of the Art Biennial: Reflecting on the Networks of Donors, Mediators, Artists and Curators
Footnotes
1
Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP150101477): Working the field: creative graduates in China and Australia.
 
Literature
Banks, M. (2009). The politics of cultural work. London: Palgrave.
Banks, M. (2017). Creative justice: Cultural industries, work and inequality. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Banks, M., & O’Connor, J. (2017). Inside the whale (and how to get out of there): Moving on from two decades of creative industries research. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(6), 637–654.CrossRef
Banks, M., Gill, R., & Taylor, S. (Eds.). (2013). Theorizing cultural work. London: Routledge.
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Bourdieu, P. (1996). The rules of art: Genesis and structure of the literary field. Cambridge: Polity Press.CrossRef
Conor, B., Gill, R., & Taylor, S. (Eds.). (2015). Gender and creative labour. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell/The Sociological Review.
Costas, J., & Fleming, P. (2009). Beyond dis-identification: A discursive approach to self-alienation in contemporary organisations. Human Relations, 62(3), 353–378.CrossRef
Du Gay, P. (Ed.). (1997). Production of culture/culture of production. London: Sage.
Gu, X., & O’Connor, J. (2018). (Un)design, commerce and artistic autonomy: Site-specific art in China. In G. Coombs, A. McNamara, & G. Sade (Eds.), Undesign: Critical practices at the intersection of art and design (pp. 137–149). London: Routledge.CrossRef
Hesmondhalgh, D., & Baker, S. (2011). Creative labour: Media work in three cultural industries. London: Routledge.
Keane, M. (2012). China’s new creative clusters. Governance, human capital and regional investment. London: Routledge.
Lash, S., & Urry, J. (1994). Economies of signs and space. London: SAGE.
McRobbie, A. (2002). Clubs to companies: Notes on the decline of political culture in speeded up worlds. Cultural Studies, 16(4), 516–531.CrossRef
McRobbie, A. (2016). Be creative: Making a living in the new culture industries. Cambridge: Polity Press.
O’Brien, D., Laurison, D., Miles, A., & Friedman, S. (2016). Are the creative industries meritocratic? An analysis of the 2014 British Labour Force Survey. Cultural Trends, 15(2), 1–16.
O’Connor, J., & Gu, X. (2018). Creative clusters and the creative milieu in China. In L. Lim & H.-K. Lee (Eds.), Routledge handbook on cultural and creative industries in Asia (pp. 177–192). Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRef
O’Connor, J., & Gu, X. (2020). Red creative: Culture and modernity in China. London: Routledge.
Ross, A. (2003). No collar: The humane workplace and its hidden costs. New York: Basic Books.
Ross, A. (2009). Nice work if you can get it: Life and labour in precarious times. New York: New York University Press.
Taylor, S., & Littleton, K. (2012). Contemporary identities of creativity and creative work. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.
Metadata
Title
Working the Field: Career Pathways Amongst Artists and Writers in Shanghai
Authors
Xin Gu
Justin O’Connor
Copyright Year
2020
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Book
Pathways into Creative Working Lives

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38245-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-38246-9

Copyright Year: 2020

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38246-9_6

Premium Partners

    Image Credits