Decentering and Centering East Asian Dance: Language and Location in Transnational Dance Research

Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia is “the first book-length publication in English” (p. 2) presenting academic research on East Asian dance. Composed of sixteen chapters contained by an introduction and a coda, this anthology emerges from the growing field of East Asian dance research, a previously underrepresented area in Anglophone academia. The editors explain how a series of working groups, conferences, research programs, roundtables, and panels held in and supported by US-based institutions has synthesized the participants’ diverse research interests into a focused discourse. Drawing both from critical area studies (East Asia) and critical dance studies, Corporeal Politics stresses the politics of East Asian dance. As a dance researcher who studied in the US and currently works in Korea, I see this anthology—and my review—dancing to the English tune. With reference to the geographical range included within the term “East Asia,” this book mainly covers China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and North and South Korea. Emily Wilcox’s “Introduction” challenges the conception of East Asian dance within the confines of national borders as engineered by an ecology of nation-centered projects and funding (p. 7). Accordingly, about half of the chapters explicitly address international influences and intrusions, highlighting the area’s constructed nature. However, the other half of the chapters provide studies within a single nation, accurately highlighting that the nation cannot be ignored in dance analysis, as arts and culture is a “subsidized market” that relies heavily on national support. Considering that dance has been shaped by state policy and even plays a role in national propaganda, I read the chapters focusing on a singular national context as a reflection of how, globally, the state greatly influences dance. In terms of temporal span, the book covers dance from ancient times up to the digital technologies of the present day with a more elaborated focus on the twentieth century, accentuated by the world wars, imperialism, and