The Grace of Suppression: Femininity and Gendered Performativity in the Chinese Folk Dance
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Abstract
Chinese folk dance, with its rich tapestry of regional traditions, offers a captivating lens through which to explore the construction and suppression of femininity. This narrative review synthesizes existing literature to examine how dances such as the Han Sleeve Dance, Dai Peacock Dance, Uyghur Sama Dance, Tibetan Guozhuang Dance, and Han Ribbon Dance embody gendered performativity—the repeated enactment of gender through culturally scripted roles. The study investigates how delicate movements, symbolic aesthetics like silk and lotus flowers, and rigid choreography construct femininity as an ideal of grace and restraint, often masking underlying suppression. A systematic search of academic databases and dance-specific journals yielded 25 peer-reviewed sources spanning imperial China to the present, analyzed through a framework of performativity and feminist critique. Findings reveal that female dancers are consistently cast in ornamental, supportive roles, their agency curtailed by physical constraints (e.g., restricted steps), emotional collectivism, and patriarchal norms rooted in Confucian and socialist ideologies. While historical audiences praised this restraint as virtuous, modern perspectives, particularly among women, critique it as oppressive, with subtle resistance emerging in contemporary reinterpretations. The paradox of grace—where elegance conceals control—emerges as a central theme, highlighting dance as both a cultural artifact and a site of gendered power. This review bridges Western theory with Chinese contexts, challenging universal narratives of performance and affirming cultural specificity. It underscores the tension between tradition and transformation, offering insights for gender studies, performance scholarship, and future feminist explorations of Chinese folk dance.
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