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“Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan” with Marc L. Moskowitz
October 19, 2018 @ 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Free
Professor Marc L. Moskowitz, University of South Carolina
Funeral strippers work on Electric Flower Cars (EFC), which are trucks that have been converted to moving stages so that women can perform as the vehicles follow along with funerals or religious processions. EFC came to Taiwan’s public attention in 1980 when newspapers began covering the phenomenon of stripping at funerals. There is a great deal of debate about whether this should be allowed to continue. In Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, one often hears middle and upper class men complain about the harmful effects of this rural practice on public morality. In contrast, people in the industry see themselves as talented performers and fans of the practice say that it makes events more exciting. Dancing for the Dead follows this story, interviewing Taiwan’s academics, government officials, and people working in the EFC industry to try to make sense of this phenomenon.
Marc L. Moskowitz is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. Focusing on the intersection between gender, religion, and popular culture in Chinese-speaking Asia. He is a recipient of the ACLS-NEH, Chiang Ching-Kuo, Fulbright, and Fulbright-Hays Awards. He has published three monographs and edited two volumes, as well as directing two ethnographic films. He has also published in a range of journals, including the China Quarterly, Popular Music, Sexualities, and Visual Anthropology.
The event is sponsored by the Department of Religion, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, and the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of Florida