Bordering Work and Personal Life: Using “the Multiplication of Labour” to Understand Ethnic Performers’ Work in Southwest China

Abstract

This article explores how “the multiplication of labour” can be used as a theoretical lens to make sense of the blurred boundaries between work and non-work spheres. It does so by drawing on the experiences of ethnic performers in Southwest China. Ethnic performance becomes a site of border struggles, as performers struggle with their desirable performance and undesirable presence, as well as work’s colonising effect over their personal lives. “The multiplication of labour” points to work’s diversification, meaning that performers are expected to do multiple aspects of labour at the same time, many of which are unrecognised and unremunerated. It also captures work’s intensification, which is shown not only through the prolonged working hours but also in how work intrudes into the most intimate areas of performers’ personal lives. In resistance, ethnic performers engage in a more playful and reflexive self-making, which is nevertheless constrained by ethnicity and gender.