Irony, cynicism, and the Chinese state

213 Pages·2015·2.297 MB·English

by  Hans Steinmüller, Susanne Brandtstädter

Irony, Cynicism and the Chinese State
UnprecedentedsocialchangeinChinahasintensifiedthecontradictionsfaced
by ordinary people in everyday life. They may find themselves drawing on a
number of different moral frameworks, being caught between official and
popular discourses, and encountering radically different representations of
China’s past and its future.
This volume deals with irony and cynicism in social life and local commu-
nities in China, and specifically in relation to the state of the People’s
Republic of China. It collects ethnographies of irony and cynicism in social
action, written by a group of anthropologists who specialise in China. They
use the lenses of irony and cynicism – broadly defined to include resignation,
resistance, humour, ambiguity and dialogue – to look anew at the contra-
dictions faced by the Chinese people and at popular responses to them. The
various contributions are concernedwith both the interpretation ofintentions
in everyday social action and discourse, and the broader theoretical con-
sequences of such interpretations for an understanding of the Chinese state.
Asastudyofironyand cynicism inmodernChinaandtheirimplicationon
the social and political aspects of everyday life, this book will be of huge
interest to students and scholars of Chinese anthropology, social and cultural
anthropology, Chinese culture and society and Chinese politics.
Hans Steinmüller is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology,
London School of Economics, UK. He is the author of Communities of
Complicity: Everyday Ethics in Rural China (2013).
Susanne Brandtstädter is a China anthropologist and Chair of the Anthro-
pology of Globalization at the University of Cologne, Germany. She is the
authorof Falsificaciones,Derechos yProtestas (2015) andco-editorof Rights,
Cultures, Subjects and Citizens (2013).
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