港大中文學院

2022/23 School of Chinese Research Student Seminar

自食與自悅——明清時期的江南女性服務業

Self-supporting and Self-entertaining: Women's Service Businesses in Jiangnan in the Late Imperial China

Speaker: Miss XU Ning

Date: April 11, 2023 (Tue)
Time: 17:30 - 18:45
Language: Putonghua

Mode of Delivery: 100% Face-to-face

Venue: CPD-3.29, Central Podium Level 3, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

雖然傳統中國並沒有所謂“服務業”的概念，但是在晚明以來經濟發達的江南市鎮之中已然湧現出具有服務業特質的新興行業，用以滿足人們的日常訴求。尤其值得注意的是某些行業甚至出現了女性從業者，並伴生了專為女性客戶提供上門服務的市場。這一市場的形成與發展，得益於分別作為服務者與消費者的兩個婦女群體，而她們往往來自於截然不同的社會階層。本報告將以兩個案例分析明清女性服務業中婦女在消費活動兩端的具體角色。一是在新興的女性美容行業中，女理髮師如何通過自食其力的技術性服務工作獲得了一定的生存資源。二是在更傳統的演藝市場中，新興的女性觀眾群體如何通過娛樂消費獲得了“婦職”要求之外的用於自悅的個人空間。上述兩個案例在闡釋明清江南婦女服務業的意義方面具有內在聯繫。

Although there was no such term as 'service business' in pre-modern China, commercial activities with service characteristics to satisfy personal needs largely emerged in the developed towns and cities of Jiangnan in the late Ming period. Particularly noteworthy was the involvement of working women in specific service businesses and, thus, forming a market designed for women clients. The formation and development of this market depended on two groups of women from distinct social classes, respectively, as service providers and consumers. Two cases will be used to analyze the roles of women at both ends of the consumption spectrum. The first is how female hairdressers in the emerging women's beauty business have gained certain life resources thanks to self-supporting service work. The second is how the emerging female audience of the commercial storytelling performances obtained a personal space for self-entertaining rather than being tied down to rigorous requirements of fuzhi (婦職) when applying the service consumption. The two cases are intrinsically related regarding the significance of women's service businesses in the Jiangnan in the late imperial China.

ALL are welcome*
*Pre-registration (Click HERE) is requested.