ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the theory of performative translation as a potential analytic model for exploration of the transmission, proliferation and mutation of the dancing body in a contemporary online mediascape. Dance, arguably, is one of the most prominent phenomena in contemporary popular culture. Revolving around the circulation of popular dance, contemporary popular culture is decidedly body-centred and visually-oriented. In other words, the dancing body in the popular field is often alluded to as naive or superficial. Mandopop has been condemned through a discourse of superficiality and therefore provides an ideal testing ground for the hypothesis of 'superficial profundity'. The dancing body, in this sense, can denaturalize the cultural discourses and body politics, at the same time questioning the aesthetic category. Aesthetic categories concerning mimetic practices, including imitation and parody, have long been contested issues since the initiation of Western philosophy.
