Bodies | MUSEUM FATIGUE

Crowd Control at the Beijing Station Ticket Window

December 26, 2018 by Museum Fatigue

One of my earliest memories of life in China was fighting for tickets at railway stations and movie theaters where the idea of lines was a culturally alien one. Decades later while it is common to see folks in urban China line up for everything in a way that is familiar, some spaces are still being negotiated. As interfaces between the urban and rural, train stations remain just such a potential space. Urban China, however, has numerous examples of design […]

Categories: Bodies, China, Discipline, Uncategorized • Tags: Beijing Railway Station, design, queue

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Taiwan Election Sickness (March 21, 2000)

November 2, 2018 by Museum Fatigue

Many times over the years I have shared an anecdote with various colleagues who work in China about an article I once read in the Mainland Chinese newspaper, The Global Times, about “Election Sickness” in Taiwan during the second presidential election in March 2000. The article was memorable for its recounting of the deleterious effects that the democratic elections were having upon the bodies and minds of the electorate. I remembered clipping the article and saving it, but had forgotten […]

Categories: Bodies, Mythologies • Tags: democracy, election, sickness, Taiwan

The Window Washer As Chinese Culture

November 22, 2016 by Museum Fatigue

In the popular imagination “Chinese Culture” is something which emcompasses those different things which are unique to China. Chinese cultural things on display at tourist sites will likely include things like silk brocade, cloisonné, jade carvings, paper cuts, calligraphy and teapots. As a Nanjing taxi driver described to me last week there are also telling habits that can be used to distinguish Chinese from others: “Americans drink coffee and Chinese drink tea.” Of course, simple reflection on many of these […]

Categories: Bodies, China, Culture, Labor • Tags: fear of falling, window washing

Mystery Object #22: Pop Cowboy UniSex Shampoo

January 19, 2015 by Museum Fatigue

After a long day on the road, we checked in to our hotel in Pailn—a small town near the border with Thailand—and the first thing I wanted to do was take a shower. So, imagine my surprise when I found two mystery objects on the back of the toilet seat. On the front of the single use packages was written—”Pop Cowboy UniSex” featuring a cowboy and a cowgirl(?) together with the symbols ♀ and ♂ in pink. The cowboy even […]

Categories: Advertising, Bodies, Mystery Objects • Tags: cowboy, product, sexuality

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Why I Love the Gideon Bible People

September 22, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

Every school year begins with the anxiety of meeting new people, starting new classes and getting into the rhythms of higher education. For nearly as long as I have worked at our school it has also been the time of the return of the Gideons. During the first few weeks of school, before the weather gets too chilly, a few of them usually visit campus for a few hours in late morning to mid afternoon. They stand on the sidewalks […]

Categories: Bodies, Objects of Power, Space • Tags: belief, freedom of speech, Gideon Bible, public space, Religion

Mummy or Corpse?

August 3, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

For years the Field Museum in Chicago has had the desiccated naked body of a child on display—at child viewing level no less—in their Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit. For over a decade I have used this as an example in lectures in my Museums, Exhibitions and Representations class as an example of the power of museums to reframe objects. Put a dead body on the street and the police will be looking for a murderer, put it behind glass in a […]

Categories: Bodies, Exhibitions and Fairs, Exhibitions and Representation, Museums, Objects of Power, Representation • Tags: Ancient Egypt, Chicago, children, corpse, display, Egypt, Field Museum, Field Museum in Chicago, mummy, museum object

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Raise the Quality of Civilization (提高文明素质), Shanghai Pudong 1997

July 28, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

Categories: Bodies, Select Photos • Tags: 素质, governmentality, Shanghai, social quality

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Mystery Object #19: Breasts and Personal Technology

May 31, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

Subject to continual upgrade cycles and constant and dependable obsolesce, our personal technology resist the attachment and love that we develop for them. While we take them everywhere and learn to depend on them for communication, entertainment and even to find a bite to eat—the technology pushes back and resists our advances—never retaining the object-histories that might give them human meaning over time. With no history our personal technology never develop the patinas of value that speak to their interaction […]

Categories: Bodies, Gender, Mystery Objects, Technology • Tags: accessories, affection, breasts, crack chic, iPhone, mouse pad, personal technology, puni puni, steampunk

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Mystery Object #18: Foreigner Costume

May 30, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

“Hi, I’m a foreigner.” Over twenty years ago, while shopping at a store in Japan I came across a party novelty “foreigner” (gaijin) costume set–for dressing as a foreigner at parties. In this case it meant a specific kind of foreigner. The set came complete with a large white nose and two tape-on blue eyes. I immediately bought the kit figuring that I would use it in a future anthropology class. Unfortunately the costume got lost in some move or […]

Categories: Bodies, Mystery Objects, Race, Representation, Toys • Tags: blue eyes, costume, gaijin, nose

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Shen Yun Buys The Front Page—Promises Authentic, Beautiful, Old “Culture”

February 2, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

As if junk mail spam-bombing college faculty and advertisements stuck up on community bulletin boards everywhere weren’t enough—this morning I awoke to find that the front page of our local community newspaper, The Saint Paul Pioneer Press had an advertisement for Falun Gong’s Shen Yun dance troupe. These guys have some seriously deep pockets and lots of energy to get out their message. OK, technically the advertisement wasn’t *on* the front page, it was the front page—enveloping the whole Sunday […]

Categories: "Swords and Silk", Bodies, China, Mythologies • Tags: advertisement, culture, Falun Gong, Orientalism, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Shen Yun

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