Research — 叶浥Yeyi

Forms of Care and Non-Textual Knowledge:
Embodied Practices in Southwest China
2023–present

This long-term research develops through three interconnected strands:
Research-Based Practice ↗
Game-Based Narrative ↗
Visual Works ↗

Research Sites / Fieldwork:
Bai communities, Dali (2023–2024); Mosuo communities, Yunnan and Sichuan (2024–present); Akha communities (2025–present)

Methods & Media: Photography, moving image, writing, independent publishing, fieldwork, field participation and observation, oral accounts, field notes, archival research, and archive-building.

地方民俗实践中的照护、具身经验及非文本知识
2023年至今，中国西南地区

这一长期研究在艺术方向通过三个项目持续展开。
1.基于研究的艺术实践 2.基于游戏的叙事 3.阶段性视觉作品。
Research-Based Practice ↗
Game-Based Narrative ↗
Visual Works ↗

研究地区与田野阶段：
大理白族地区（2023—2024）；云南、四川摩梭社群（2024年至今）；阿卡社群（2025年至今）

方法与媒介： 基于镜头的图像方法、动态影像、游戏叙事、声音采集、写作、出版方法、田野工作、口述材料、在地笔记、档案研究与档案建构。

01. Research

The project spans three fieldwork contexts in Southwest China and examines how women sustain the material conditions, social relations, and forms of knowledge through which public life, local ritual, and cultural transmission become possible. It focuses on forms of care and labour that have long been naturalised, marginalised, or left without formal recognition within local social and cultural life.

The research began in 2023 with archival research into the Lianchi Hui, a women-led devotional association in the Bai region of Dali, followed by fieldwork in Dali in 2024. The initial inquiry focused on women’s chanting practices, ritual participation, collective organisation, and the spatial and material traces through which religious practice and everyday life overlap. It considers how the women of the Lianchi Hui connect domestic and public life, allowing local belief, ritual, and social relations to continue according to locally grounded rhythms.

From 2024, fieldwork among Mosuo communities in Yunnan and Sichuan extended the inquiry towards the everyday labour that supports ritual, family life, and communal relations. Moving between publicly presented scenes of sacred and folk culture and the realities of domestic life, the research gradually shifted from visible ceremonial moments to the longer processes of preparation, care, maintenance, and restoration that make them possible. In 2025, research among Akha communities opened a further direction concerned with textile practices and bodily memory, examining how patterns, gestures, techniques, and material judgement are learned and transmitted through observation, repetition, and everyday practice.

Across these contexts, the project attends to care and preparation, textile work, cooking, spatial arrangement, repair, community organisation, and post-event restoration. Rather than treating these activities as secondary or auxiliary, it examines how they organise relationships, sustain ritual and everyday life, and carry experience and knowledge through bodies, voices, objects, and repeated practice.

The research is developed through field participation and observation, photography, moving image, oral accounts, field notes, nonfiction writing, independent publishing, and archival research. These methods are used to trace relationships among labour, bodily experience, material processes, and the ways knowledge enters, or remains outside, formal records.

Across the three fieldwork contexts, the project asks which forms of labour remain excluded when local culture enters public view through performative and representational scenes, and how women’s repetitive practices and bodily knowledge enable cultural life to continue across time. Drawing on feminist theories of social reproduction and care labour, it approaches domestic responsibilities, maintenance, textile labour, and community organisation as integral forms of cultural practice.

项目跨越西南三地讨论民俗实践及地方社会中的女性如何通过长期被自然化、边缘化或未被正式命名的照护行为及劳动形式，生产公共生活、地方仪式及文化传承得以发生的物质条件、社会关系和知识基础。

项目始于2023年我对大理白族地区莲池会的档案调研，并于2024年进入田野。
莲池会是由当地中老年女性组建的民间信仰组织。最初的研究从她们从本主庙宇仪式中的唱诵、活动协作，以及庙宇空间中宗教与日常生活交叠的物质痕迹出发，试图理解莲池会阿妈们如何联通公共生活及家庭生活，使大理的地方信仰、仪式及地方生活得以按照本地节律展开。

2024年起，项目及田野工作进入云南、四川摩梭社群，穿梭于创造出的神圣民俗场面及摩梭本地的真实家庭生活之间。时间性及亲密性将我的目光从仪式现场转换至神圣生活背后的劳动结构及劳动形式中。镜头也从外部景观转移至那些表演场景及仪式前后。被定义为「家务」「搭把手」等女性事务及她们的劳动形式及时刻，在此时不只进入我的镜头及语言，也重塑了我的观看位置。

2025年，研究沿着纺织实践与身体记忆进入阿卡社群，进一步理解知识如何存在于身体及纺织之中：族群记忆的图案如何被织物承载，针线技艺如何在观察、手势与重复中习得，具身知识又如何在日常劳作中传递。

三个田野章节共同将项目带向一个持续的问题：
当一种地方文化以表演性场景进入公共观看视野时，哪些使其得以发生的劳动被排除在文化生产的正式叙述之外？女性劳动者的重复实践与身体知识，如何构成地方文化跨越时间持续存在的基础？地方生活的谁在承担这些「不具备民俗故事性」的劳动、照护及未命名的工作形式？
系统及档案如何命名这些行为和时刻，又或许现在的语言是否不足以去命名这些具体的劳动、具体的行为，和具体的传递。地方文化却就在这些未被命名中流动。

项目回应这份未被命名的流动，将家庭事务、照护工作、针线劳动、社会组织事务理解为兼具维护性与生产性的地方实践及文化时刻。它们维持具体事务的运行，也持续组织人与人之间的关系，又使经验与知识通过身体、声音、物件和反复实践被记住与传递。具身知识由此被放回劳动内部：它形成于具体的动作、节奏、判断与记忆之中，并在持续实践中得到保存。

项目借鉴女性主义社会再生产理论与照护劳动研究，将这些通常被描述为辅助、家务或维护的行为，理解为地方文化持续生成的核心。「传统文化」并非作为静止被保存，项目理解文化是在对身体、服饰、空间、器物和关系的反复维护中被重新生产的。

01. Practice Overview

02. Conference

Presenter, B/ordering the Global: Transnational Feminist Critiques from Asia, an international conference organized by the Asian Center for Women’s Studies at Ewha Womans University.

研究小组参与学术会议「构建全球秩序：来自亚洲的跨国女权主义批评」
参会地点：梨花女子大学；组织方：亚洲女性研究中心；

2026.7.9 Panel 1-1.

03. Publish Project

Role: Writing/Interview/Editing/Photography/Co-Design
Design collaboration with: Will He;

出版项目进行中，围绕图像生产、田野笔记、在地采访书写及后期编辑。
如有讨论需求请联系邮箱（邮件处理时长3-5天）

出版项目启动：2026.5

04. Selection of Activity 2024-2026

01. 「从民族织绣、非遗与民俗仪式中编织大理在地性」分享会
Sharing Session
Ethnic Embroidery, Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Folk Rituals of Dali
Location: online
Organized by Matters

02.「沪沽湖摩梭人成人礼」在地影像分享会及讨论会
Field-based Image Sharing Session
Location: Yunnan, Wallabi
Organized by Mosuo Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum

03.「人与土地，场域中的山有四季」分享会&拼贴工作坊
People and Land: Mountains Across the Seasons Workshop
Location: Yunnan, Kunming
Work with Jiang / ShuQing

04.「摩梭人亲属结构与照护劳动」分享会
Sharing Session
The Mosuo, Kinship Structures, and Care Labour Sharing Session
Location: Damoyu Community
Organized by Alex

05. 中文写作 Writing in Chinese 2023-2025

「织绣纹样中承载了民族女性手工艺者对生活世界的具象之物的叙述...通过纺织这一行为，民族语言、精神信仰和文化习俗被传递。年轻女性和母系长辈的时间线就此交叠，过去的故事被针线联通至当下」

「关心民族的技艺与文化遗产的留存与发展，就要关心与理解到在具体付出劳动的个人，其中包括技的传承人，也包括物的守护者...指引着我在民族技艺的研究里去找寻到可视的、真实的、具体的女性」

「正是这样一块柔软却结实的布料，能够承托起的是与生命相关的文化内容，看似宏大的生命命题，却以具体的物得以在人与人间传递...」

Research Practice Based on Fieldwork(2023–2026)

01.
Research I
Bai Benzhu Culture, Folk Rituals, and Lianchi Hui

2023-2024
Location: Dali, Yunnan
Read more Bai_Lianchi Hui

/

研究一
白族地区本主文化、民俗仪式与莲池会

2023-2025
地点：云南，大理

该部分以大理白族地区的莲池会及本主信仰相关实践为主要现场，关注中老年女性宗教组织在庙宇维护、诵经、供品筹备、丧葬协助与节庆仪式中所承担的持续劳动，以及这些劳动如何支撑地方信仰、仪式秩序与日常关系。

02.
Research II
Mosuo Kinship, Coming-of-Age Rituals, and Care Labour

2024-2026
Location: Lugu Lake Region, Yunnan–Sichuan Border
Collaboration with:
Mosuo Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum;
Mosuo People's Museum (Yunnan Provincial Museum Branch);
Read moreMosuo_Care Labour

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研究二
摩梭人母系亲属结构、照护劳动与社群联结

2024-2026
地点：云南，泸沽湖地区；四川，利家咀
合作：摩梭非遗博物馆；摩梭人博物馆（云南省博物馆分馆）

该部分以泸沽湖周边摩梭村落为现场。

关注成人礼、亲属结构与日常照护实践之间的关系。研究从家庭、仪式与地方生活中的女性网络进入，观察生产、照护、关系维系等劳动形式如何构成社群生活中的底层结构。

03.
Research III
Akha Migration History, Textile Work, and Material Knowledge

2025-
Ahka_ (still building

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研究三
阿卡社群迁徙历史与织绣劳作

2025-

阿卡部分则从织绣、服饰、手工艺等劳作方式进入，关注手工技艺如何作为身体经验、材料知识与代际传递的方式，被嵌入女性劳动、地方审美与非文本知识的保存之中。

Yeyi 叶浥