Lijiang, a once-sleepy market town in southwest China, has become a
magnet for tourism since the mid-1990s. Drawing on stories about
taxi drivers, reluctant brides, dogmeat, and shamanism, Emily Chao
illustrates how biopolitics and the essentialization of difference
shape the ways in which Naxi residents represent and interpret
their social world.
The vignettes presented here are lively examples of the cultural
reverberations that have occurred throughout contemporary China in
the wake of its emergence as a global giant. With particular
attention to the politics of gender, ethnicity, and historical
representation, Chao reveals how citizens strategically imagine,
produce, and critique a new moral economy in which the market and
neoliberal logic are preeminent.
Emily Chao is professor of anthropology at Pitzer College,
Claremont, California.
"Chao explores several facets of modernization and ethnic
revival, including changing gender roles and marriage practices,
disputes about ethnic authenticity, and the rapid economic changes
that have reshaped the region. She has a delightful authorial
voice, deep experience in the region, and a good eye for the
humorous incident or important minor detail." -Sara Davis, author
of "Song and Silence: Ethnic Revival on China's Southwest
Borders"
"These are good stories told to maximum theoretical effect. Chao
writes clearly and fluently, with the result that her stories are
page-turners and her sophisticated theoretical points are easily
comprehensible." -Stevan Harrell, author of "Ways of Being Ethnic
in Southwest China"
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