Description
Book SynopsisAs China has downsized and privatized its state-owned enterprises, severe unemployment has created a new class of urban poor and widespread social and psychological disorders. In Unknotting the Heart, Jie Yang examines this understudied group of workers and their experiences of being laid off, "counseled," and then reoriented to the market economy.
Trade ReviewWith this book, Yang makes an important contribution by exploring the subjectivities of unemployed workers in China and by making visible the often hidden ideological struggle between the state and the unemployed workers over the interpretation of dislocation and unemployment.
-- Ofer Sharone * ILR Review *
Unknotting the Heart offers invaluable information and insights into the lived experiences of laid-off workers and the state's responses in China. Being the first book-length ethnography on the recent rise of Western psychotherapy in China, it will be of great interest to scholars in China studies, medical anthropology, and psychology.
-- Hsuan-Ying Huang * Pacific Affairs *
