Description:
As critical voices question the quality, authenticity, and value of people, goods, and words in post-Mao China, accusations of emptiness render things open to new investments of meaning, substance, and value. Exploring the production of lack and desire through fine-grained ethnography, this volume examines how diagnoses of emptiness operate in a range of very different domains in contemporary China.
Brief description:
Mikkel Bunkenborg is an associate professor in China Studies at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen.
Review Quotes:
"...an impressive, if short, volume. Harking back to structuralist ethnography's attention to semiotic detail, its case studies show the importance of comparative ethnography built on linguistic, conceptual, and methodological rigour. Each chapter provides a rich array of Chinese keywords that warrant further attention, particularly in terms of their social the oretical implications...[This volume] showcases the conceptual breadth and linguistic rigour of the anthropology of China coming out of Europe today, synthesizing much of the existing literature and connecting it to well-presented case studies." - Anthropos