From Provocation to Celebration: A Study on the Change of Flash Mob and its Development in Taiwan

• Main Authors: CHEN, CHAO-HSIN, 陳照欣
• Other Authors: LIN, WEI-YU
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/c6q8jz

碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 戲劇創作與應用學系碩士班 === 106 === Flash mob is an emerging phenomenon prevails in metropolises all over the world, and its history has been lasted for more than a decade since 2003. The initial flash mobs took place in New York, featured a big crowd suddenly doing something pointless, inexplicable in public places full of people. At that time, flash mob seemed provocative to social norms due to its obscure motives and ambiguous appeals. As time passes, flash mob combined with large-scale games gradually became fun, entertaining activities that opened to everyone. In recent years, flash mob that mixed with different art forms has become increasingly popular in Taiwan. This kind of flash mob is splendorous and it always has a joyous atmosphere. In addition, it has been more and more often that government agencies, mainstream art and cultural institutions use flash mob for promotional purpose. Flash mob has changed a great deal, from a negative, non-mainstream phenomenon that seemed provocative to social norms to a positive, celebrating one that supports collective values. Originated in New York and then to the whole world, it has been spreading in Taiwan, too. After exploring the development of flash mob from 2003 to date, the researcher found that the change of this phenomenon is significant, and is worth investigating as well. In addition to the exploration of flash mob's development, Richard Schechner's Performance studies and Victor Turner's Liminality theory were also applied to analyze the change of this phenomenon as a kind of performance and a kind of collective activity in human society respectively, and to find out the implication of the change. The research discovered that flash mob has changed from the events with low narrativity to the events with high narrativity, and it also has changed from a "liminoid phenomenon" to a "liminal phenomenon." This change also represented the different relations between "showing doing" and "explaining showing doing." In different societies, humans' collective cultures and values are always shifting. As this research progressed, the researcher obtained a synopic comprehension of flash mob's development. Moreover, through analyzing the change of flash mob, the researcher could reveal a proper angle to objectively interpret successions of different cultural phenomena in open societies.