Papers by Penn Tsz Ting Ip
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Geographica Helvetica, 2024
In this short intervention addressing the impact of crises on geographical knowledge practices, w... more In this short intervention addressing the impact of crises on geographical knowledge practices, we, members of GenUrb (a multi-sited, longitudinal, partnered urban research project), ask, "what counts as crisis?", sketching out epistemological and methodological points about our project's engagement with this call. We query the adeptness of dominant Eurocentric epistemologies in addressing crises, adopting the work of Bedour Alagraa, who places crises firmly within a historical-geographical colonial framing that conceptualizes crises not through rupture but through continuation. We illustrate the utility of this epistemological framing of crisis, honing in on the everyday violence that women continually experience, with our research in the cities of Cochabamba, Delhi, Georgetown, Ibadan, Ramallah, and Shanghai, showing that one in every two women participants had experienced intimate partner violence. We further ask what crises mean for the methodologies we adopt, specifically concerning questions of the co-production of knowledge and methods.
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journal of popular television, 2024
This article sheds light on the media representations of successful women using the theorization ... more This article sheds light on the media representations of successful women using the theorization of affective economies. We focus on four female characters in three popular television series: Andy in Ode to Joy (2016–17), Su Mingyu in All Is Well (2019) and Luo Zijun and Tang Jing in The First Half of My Life (2017). First, we begin by using television content analysis to examine the ways women are subjected to the paradoxical cultural values that stigmatize unmarried women as shengnü (‘leftover women’) while promoting the neo-liberal ideal of duli nüxing (‘independent women’). Second, to explore the affective economies of successful women and how feelings and cultural values are circulated among the female audience, we conduct an in-depth analysis of interviews with 21 female viewers in China. Third, we employ feminist critical discourse analysis to examine how these popular television dramas reflect changing gender norms in China, where new types of relationships are now deemed acceptable. We argue that these series have represented changing gender norms that successful women can achieve happiness by securing a ‘carefree’ romantic relationship, replacing marriage as the new happy ending.
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Emerging Media, 2024
Hanfu, an attire newly reinvented by China's youth, has been revived as traditional Chinese attir... more Hanfu, an attire newly reinvented by China's youth, has been revived as traditional Chinese attire and further reconstructed as a symbol of China's emerging cultural identity. During the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the annual National Costume Day, launched in 2018 by the Chinese Communist Youth League, transitioned into an online event on Bilibili, an emerging media platform in China. Known as the online Hanfu ceremony, this National Costume Day comprised self-produced short films contributed by Hanfu supporters who created videos during the lockdown. This article employs a case study approach focusing on the online Hanfu ceremony to delve into the impacts of such an event in the wake of a national health crisis. Its results indicate that Hanfu served as an affective apparatus to gather Chinese people online, evoking feelings of nationalism through the notion of cultural confidence. By assembling as a community online via Bilibili, younger Chinese people were able to experience a sense of belonging and affective moments of attachment. Such positive affective sentiments provided solace and cohesion, aiding individuals in navigating the collective ordeal of COVID-19, thereby serving the nation through configuring Hanfu as an affective apparatus—a tool for constituting solidarity.
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Journal of Gender Studies , 2024
Since the 1970s, Marxist feminists have extensively discussed social repro- duction to argue that... more Since the 1970s, Marxist feminists have extensively discussed social repro- duction to argue that women’s unwaged domestic labour is a form of exploitation deriving from capitalism. This article focuses on the socialist socio-historical context to explore the social reproduction performed by lower working-class women in Shanghai during the COVID-19 outbreaks. To probe the pandemic interruptions to social reproduction, a COVID-19 Diary-Writing Workshop was conducted in 2020 to collect diaries written by destitute and disadvantaged women (pinkun funü) living in the Workers’ New Villages. By delving into the women’s affective lives, the article shows that women not only contributed to community through their volunteerism in social reproductive labour but also sacrificed for their families in a time of crisis. Moreover, women endured mental stress as the main performers of social reproductive work, and communal ser- vices provided by neighbourhood committees helped relieve the stress of household chores and resolved tensions related to food shortage. Our findings confirm scholars’ longstanding argument that communal sup- port policies can alleviate the gendered exploitative nature of social reproductive labour, and shed light on the roles of the remaining struc- tures of socialist communal organization and infrastructure.
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Routledge eBooks, Mar 9, 2018
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Inter-asia Cultural Studies, Oct 2, 2017
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European Journal of Cultural Studies
This article sheds light on the intricate relationship between the revival of Hanfu, traditional ... more This article sheds light on the intricate relationship between the revival of Hanfu, traditional couture from the Han Dynasty, and rising Chinese nationalism among Chinese youth living in the United Kingdom. Mobilizing the theoretical tool ‘affective economies’, we explore how particular feelings and values are assigned and attached to Hanfu, and thereby circulate among young Chinese migrants. We begin by examining the Hanfu movement to interrogate how Hanfu is reinvented based on a selective historicity of the past, serving as a specific cultural product for China’s rejuvenation. We then move on to analyze a series of in-depth interviews conducted between December 2019 and July 2020. We probe the lived experiences of young Hanfu supporters, who are members of the UK Han Culture Association, and the cultural events organized by the Association, in order to scrutinize the ways Hanfu conjures up an imagined community suffused with nationalism. Drawing upon on the affective economies o...
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Social & Cultural Geography
Drawing on GenUrb’s comparative research undertaken in mid-2020 with communities in five cities—C... more Drawing on GenUrb’s comparative research undertaken in mid-2020 with communities in five cities—Cochabamba, Bolivia, Delhi, India, Georgetown, Guyana, Ibadan, Nigeria, and Shanghai, China— we engage in an intersectional analysis of the gendered impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in women’s everyday lives. Our research employs a variety of context-specific methods, including virtual methods, phone interviews, and socially-distanced interviews to engage women living in neighbourhoods characterized by under-development and economic insecurity. While existing conditions of precarity trouble the before-and-after terminology of Covid-19, across the five cities the narratives of women’s everyday lives reveal shifts in spatial-temporal orders that have deepened gendered and racial exclusions. We find that limited mobilities and the different and changing dimensions of production and social reproduction have led to increased care work, violence, and strained mental health. Finally, we also find that social reproduction solidarities, constituting old and new circuits of care, have been reinforced during the pandemic.
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Global Media and China, 2020
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European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2019
On the basis of fieldwork conducted in Shanghai, this article explores how Chinese rural-to-urban... more On the basis of fieldwork conducted in Shanghai, this article explores how Chinese rural-to-urban migrant women cope with the stigmatization they face as a result of conflicting gender norms regarding singlehood and marriage in their home communities and in Shanghai. We focus on how migrant women legitimate their relationship status as single, married or having a boyfriend in relation to these norms. Our findings reveal that migrant women, while not rejecting existing norms outright, actively pre-empt or counteract the stigmatization of their singlehood or of the fact that they live apart from their husband using coping strategies that exploit their position in between the urban context and their rural hometowns in intricate ways.
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Journal of Urban Affairs, 2023
Women of the lower working-class in Shanghai are seemingly invisible in Chinese urban scholarship... more Women of the lower working-class in Shanghai are seemingly invisible in Chinese urban scholarship. Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2021 in Shanghai, this article sheds light on the social lives of lower working-class women dwelling in the Workers’ New Villages in the wake of rapid urbanization. Mounting a threefold conceptual exploration of grassroots urbanism, genderscapes, and guanxi (social connectivity), the article develops and coins the term grassrootscapes to explicate grassroots women’s sociospatial relations with housing units, the community, and the city. Probing these multi-layered horizons to trace women’s life trajectories and gendered experiences, the article discerns how sociospatial dynamics of grassrootscapes are produced under a socialist system, in which women’s day-to-day suffering is a by-product of market reforms. Socialist workers’ housing is employed as a case study to show how the conceptualization of grassrootscapes can be a useful tool to examine the social transformation brought about by the drastic changes in urban policies in globalizing cities.
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European Journal of Cultural Studies , 2022
This article sheds light on the intricate relationship between the revival of Hanfu, traditional ... more This article sheds light on the intricate relationship between the revival of Hanfu, traditional couture from the Han Dynasty, and rising Chinese nationalism among Chinese youth living in the United Kingdom. Mobilizing the theoretical tool 'affective economies', we explore how particular feelings and values are assigned and attached to Hanfu, and thereby circulate among young Chinese migrants. We begin by examining the Hanfu movement to interrogate how Hanfu is reinvented based on a selective historicity of the past, serving as a specific cultural product for China's rejuvenation. We then move on to analyze a series of in-depth interviews conducted between December 2019 and July 2020. We probe the lived experiences of young Hanfu supporters, who are members of the UK Han Culture Association, and the cultural events organized by the Association, in order to scrutinize the ways Hanfu conjures up an imagined community suffused with nationalism. Drawing upon on the affective economies of Hanfu, we discern the following three key findings: First, we argue that there are both positive and negative affective attachments to Hanfu, such as homesickness, loneliness, alienation, happiness, pride and beauty, which impinge on migrant bodies, assigning values to Hanfu and the Hanfu-related cultural events. Second, we show through the analysis of the fieldwork materials the paradoxical desire for chuguo (going abroad) and huiguo (returning to the nation) in the hearts of the young migrants. Finally, we argue that Hanfu circulates as a 'mnemonic thing' that signifies a specific imaginary of Ancient China, where young migrant’s aiguo (love of the nation) sentiments are then ‘stuck’ to this reinvented fashion.
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Social & Cultural Geography, 2022
Drawing on GenUrb’s comparative research undertaken in mid-2020 with communities in five cities—C... more Drawing on GenUrb’s comparative research undertaken in mid-2020 with communities in five cities—Cochabamba, Bolivia, Delhi, India, Georgetown, Guyana, Ibadan, Nigeria, and Shanghai, China— we engage in an intersectional analysis of the gendered impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in women’s everyday lives. Our research employs a variety of context-specific methods, including virtual methods, phone interviews, and socially-distanced interviews to engage women living in neighbourhoods characterized by under-development and economic insecurity. While existing conditions of precarity trouble the before-and-after terminology of Covid-19, across the five cities the narratives of women’s everyday lives reveal shifts in spatial-temporal orders that have deepened gendered and racial exclusions. We find that limited mobilities and the different and changing dimensions of production and social reproduction have led to increased care work, violence, and strained mental health. Finally, we also find that social reproduction solidarities, constituting old and new circuits of care, have been reinforced during the pandemic.
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European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2019
On the basis of fieldwork conducted in Shanghai, this article explores how Chinese rural-to-urban... more On the basis of fieldwork conducted in Shanghai, this article explores how Chinese rural-to-urban migrant women cope with the stigmatization they face as a result of conflicting gender norms regarding singlehood and marriage in their home communities and in Shanghai. We focus on how migrant women legitimate their relationship status as single, married or having a boyfriend in relation to these norms. Our findings reveal that migrant women, while not rejecting existing norms outright, actively preempt or counteract the stigmatization of their singlehood or of the fact that they live apart from their husband using coping strategies that exploit their position in between the urban context and their rural hometowns in intricate ways.
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Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 2017
This article studies rural migrant women working in the Shanghai beauty parlour industry, focusin... more This article studies rural migrant women working in the Shanghai beauty parlour industry, focusing on how this industry emphasises affective labour and articulates it along lines of migration, gender and seniority. The analysis looks at three types of female beauty workers: apprentices, senior beauticians, and entrepreneurs. Bringing together Hardt and Negri’s (2004) theorisation of affective labour and Yang Jie’s (2011) notion of aesthetic labour, this article investigates how the affective and aesthetic labour demanded from these migrant women affects their minds and bodies, and their position and value in the marriage market. On the basis of fieldwork conducted in Shanghai, the article begins by exploring the ways in which the demand of Shanghai beauty parlour industry for affective labour impacts the ability of rural migrant women to enter into other forms of affective relationships. It goes on to argue that affective labour in this industry is not wholly negative, but modifies bodies and minds in ways that can be both oppressive and enabling, depending on, among other things, the beauty worker’s level of seniority. Finally, the article proposes that, in the beauty parlour industry, there is a reciprocality with affective labour that includes the workers as well as the clients.
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Books by Penn Tsz Ting Ip
Routledge, 2024
Doing Feminist Urban Research introduces the reader to the newly emerging 21st-century global lan... more Doing Feminist Urban Research introduces the reader to the newly emerging 21st-century global landscape of feminist urban research. It showcases decolonising practices, partnerships and teamwork, new standards such as EDI, geo-ethnographic methodologies, software-enhanced qualitative data analysis, and knowledge mobilisation.
This book delves into both the institutional and lived realities of the practice of feminist urban research for the 21st century via the insights of the GenUrb transnational research project. Through refection exercises based on real-life examples, it covers feminist methodologies and research techniques, critically examining the ‘feld’ through comparison and feminist geo-ethnographies. It guides readers through navigating the politics of decolonising research, working across diferences, and embracing feminist ethics and activism. The book also explores data through the practices of translation, data management, data analysis, and the use of NVivo. And it further introduces professional standards, including EDI, collaboration with partners, engagement in teamwork, the handling of crises, such as pandemics, and knowledge mobilisation, including utilising social media. Accompanying web resources will assist scholars and students with additional audio fles and documents.
This book’s practical guidance will help those starting to contemplate and engage in qualitative feminist urban research as well as those teaching the practice and politics of research. It will appeal to practitioners in urban studies, geography, gender and women’s studies, sociology, anthropology, global studies, and development studies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
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Papers by Penn Tsz Ting Ip
Books by Penn Tsz Ting Ip
This book delves into both the institutional and lived realities of the practice of feminist urban research for the 21st century via the insights of the GenUrb transnational research project. Through refection exercises based on real-life examples, it covers feminist methodologies and research techniques, critically examining the ‘feld’ through comparison and feminist geo-ethnographies. It guides readers through navigating the politics of decolonising research, working across diferences, and embracing feminist ethics and activism. The book also explores data through the practices of translation, data management, data analysis, and the use of NVivo. And it further introduces professional standards, including EDI, collaboration with partners, engagement in teamwork, the handling of crises, such as pandemics, and knowledge mobilisation, including utilising social media. Accompanying web resources will assist scholars and students with additional audio fles and documents.
This book’s practical guidance will help those starting to contemplate and engage in qualitative feminist urban research as well as those teaching the practice and politics of research. It will appeal to practitioners in urban studies, geography, gender and women’s studies, sociology, anthropology, global studies, and development studies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
This book delves into both the institutional and lived realities of the practice of feminist urban research for the 21st century via the insights of the GenUrb transnational research project. Through refection exercises based on real-life examples, it covers feminist methodologies and research techniques, critically examining the ‘feld’ through comparison and feminist geo-ethnographies. It guides readers through navigating the politics of decolonising research, working across diferences, and embracing feminist ethics and activism. The book also explores data through the practices of translation, data management, data analysis, and the use of NVivo. And it further introduces professional standards, including EDI, collaboration with partners, engagement in teamwork, the handling of crises, such as pandemics, and knowledge mobilisation, including utilising social media. Accompanying web resources will assist scholars and students with additional audio fles and documents.
This book’s practical guidance will help those starting to contemplate and engage in qualitative feminist urban research as well as those teaching the practice and politics of research. It will appeal to practitioners in urban studies, geography, gender and women’s studies, sociology, anthropology, global studies, and development studies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.