Embodied cultural identities and physical activity: Square Dance and traditional chinese performance “Er’renzhuan” among second-generation Zanryu Koji in Osaka
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v80.119462Keywords:
Bicultural identity, embodied practice, Er'renzhuan, physical activity, Zanryu KojiAbstract
Introduction: The Zanryu Koji are Japanese nationals separated from their families in wartime Manchuria and raised in northeast China. Their second-generation descendants experience a form of double cultural displacement upon repatriation, making them an underexamined community in research on physical activity and identity.
Objective: This study examined the role of square dance (guangchang wu) and Er'renzhuan in constructing and maintaining embodied cultural identity among second-generation Zanryu Koji in Osaka, Japan.
Methodology: A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed. A cross-sectional quantitative survey incorporating five validated Likert subscales was administered to 30 participants (N = 30). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sub-sample of ten participants (n = 10). Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Spearman rank-order correlations; qualitative data through six-phase thematic analysis.
Results: The Embodied Cultural Expression subscale yielded the highest mean score (M = 4.39, SD = 0.72), substantially higher than Japanese Integration Experience (M = 3.50). A positive shift in cultural identity was reported by 83.3% of participants. Thematic analysis identified four themes: embodied cultural memory, identity reaffirmation through practice, community solidarity and mutual aid, and intergenerational transmission burden.
Discussion: Findings aligned with Merleau-Ponty's habit-body framework and Bourdieu's bodily hexis. The study extended Farrer's Tokyo dance ethnography and Smith et al.'s review by documenting a mutual-aid function in practice communities that exceeds conventional wellbeing measures.
Conclusions: Physical cultural practice functioned as a central mechanism for maintaining embodied identity among second-generation Zanryu Koji in this exploratory study.
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