07.05.24: Vortrag im Ethnologischen Kolloquium von Prof. Dr. Biao Xiang
2. Mai 2024, von Franziska Neubauer
Prof. Dr. Biao Xiang (Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung) zum Thema:
The Curse of Proving
“You are wonderful, and nobody except yourself can judge your potential”, your boss tells you. “Please just prove it”. If you fail to prove yourself according to given criteria, you are of course still wonderful, but just have to go somewhere else. In this talk I review how “self actualization”, a buzzword in the 1980s China, is replaced by the notion of “self proving” by the 2000s. Various aspects of life, especially among educated urban youths, are turned into the object of evaluation by administrative apparatus, commercial entities and people themselves. The proving culture essentializes both individualist value ("you are wonderful”) and systemic evaluation (“you are nobody till proven”). And it displaces means of inter-personal validation such as admiration from peers, popularity among friends, and reputation among colleagues. The proving culture is effective in both mobilizing and in controlling population, which has created widespread exhaustion and self-doubt.
Wir freuen uns sehr auf den Vortrag, zu dem wir alle interessierten Personen herzlich einladen.
Das Kolloquium findet immer dienstags im großen Seminarraum des Instituts statt:
Institut für Ethnologie
Seminarraum 222, 2. OG
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Westflügel
20146 Hamburg