Description
Book SynopsisReveals how citizens strategically imagine, produce, and critique a new moral economy in which the market and neoliberal logic are pre-eminent
Trade Review"Lijiang Stories is much more than a set of stories. It is a careful exegesis of the many strands that, woven together, have become today’s Lijiang. The accessible prose and fascinating range of skillfully analyzed, ethnographically nuanced “stories would make this an excellent text for courses on contemporary China."
-- Tami Blumenfield * China Quarterly *
"Lijiang Stories is a well-informed page-turner, an ethnographic monograph in the classical sense of the word. Ethnographically rich and theoretically engaging….[A] wonderful case for any comparison of neoliberal policies and their effects today….[W]onderfully vivid…[A] pleasurable lecture for both specialists and a larger public."
-- Carolina Ivanescu * Social Anthropology *
"Chao’s ethnographic approach digs beneath the surface to uncover the underlying power of state and capital and to illustrate everyday life as an outcome of conflicts and compromises between individuals and structural forces. . . . Chao presents a living picture of Lijiang in which individuals are brought into the orbit of development driven by state and private investors."
-- Xiaobo Su * China Journal *
"Though not a typical ethnography, Lijiang Stories is informed by a good deal of ethnographic research. Chao’s interpretations of her stories illuminate the shifting meanings of ethnicity, gender, class and national identity in an era of profound social change. . . . Lijiang Stories is a valuable addition to the growing scholarship on Chinese minorities in the post-socialist era."
-- Susan K. McCarthy * Pacific Affairs *
Table of ContentsForeword by Stevan Harrell
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Maoist Shaman and the Madman
2. Dongba Culture and the Authenticization of Marginality
3. Ethnicizing Myth, Bride Abduction, and Elopement
4. Biopolitics: Fox Stench, Gender Boundaries, and the Moral Economy of Postsocialism
5. Marketing Difference: Dog Meat, Court Cases, and Ethnopreneurs
Conclusion | Forgetting the Madman and Remembering the Ancient Tea Horse Road
Notes
References
Index
