Streetlife China

An extraordinary collection of 'snapshots' of contemporary Chinese life in translation with commentary.

Michael Dutton (Author)

9780521637190, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 January 1999

324 pages, 80 b/w illus. 4 tables
24.6 x 18.9 x 1.7 cm, 0.58 kg

'As always, there are two Chinas: the official and the unofficial. and while experts dissect every word that Beijing's bosses say, the ordinary Chinese on the street are doing what they've always done: going about the struggle of daily life, whether selling Mao badges or posters (regaining popularity), finding a life partner, or - for under one percent of the population, 'an awful lot of people' - resorting to crime. Dutton's text is mesmeric in weaving these diverse backstreet threads into mainstream visions.' The Weekend Australian

This imaginative and incisive collection of pieces about life in contemporary China reveals, like a series of snapshots, a picture of the lives of ordinary people and the rules and rituals that govern their daily existence. Key themes surface: in particular, the emergence of a consumer culture driven by the market, and the way in which this intersects with the 'floating population' of vagrants, prostitutes, and liumang (hooligans). We see how, in turn, the official strategies of the state deal with this perceived social disorder and how the street responds. Underlying much of the discussion of contestation and transformation is the notion of human rights. There will be no better introduction to the discourses of contemporary China, and few more entertaining, vivid, and stimulating accounts of shifts in cultural life and politics.

Streetlife Subalterns
Part I. Rights, Traditions, Daily Life and Deviance: 1. Rights and traditions
2. Daily life in the work unit
3. Defining 'outsiders', labelling Liumang
Part II. The 'Strategies' of Government and 'Tactics' of the Subaltern: 4. Analysis
5. Government strategies I
6. Government strategies II
7. Subaltern tactics and government response
Part III. Naming, Framing, Marking: 8. Naming
9. Framing
10. Marking
Part IV. The Architecture of Life: 11. City space
12. Social relations and the architecture of life
13. Out of the work unit
14. Changing landscapes, changing mentalities
Part V. Stories of the Fetish: 15. Chairman Mao
Part VI. Market Trainings.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]