Love's Uncertainty: The Politics and Ethics of Child Rearing in Contemporary China

Teresa Kuan

Published by University of California Press 2015

Love's Uncertainty

The Politics and Ethics of Child Rearing in Contemporary China

Teresa Kuan

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520959361

Overview
Contents

About this book

Love’s Uncertainty explores the hopes and anxieties of urban, middle-class parents in contemporary China. Combining long-term ethnographic research with analyses of popular child-rearing manuals, television dramas, and government documents, Teresa Kuan bears witness to the dilemmas of ordinary Chinese parents, who struggle to reconcile new definitions of good parenting with the reality of limited resources. Situating these parents’ experiences in the historical context of state efforts to improve "population quality," Love’s Uncertainty reveals how global transformations are expressed in the most intimate of human experiences. Ultimately, the book offers a meditation on the nature of moral agency, examining how people discern, amid the myriad contingencies of life, the boundary between what can and cannot be controlled.

Author / Editor information

Kuan Teresa :

Teresa Kuan is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Politics of Childhood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
2. The Horrific and the Exemplary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
3. “The Heart Says One Thing but the Hand Does Another” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
4. Creating Tiaojian, or, The Art of Disposition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
5. The Defeat of Maternal Logic in Televisual Space Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
6. Investing in Human Capital, Conserving Life Energies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
7. Banking in Affects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 272

eBook

Published: February 27, 2015
ISBN: 9780520959361