Communities of Complicity/
Communities of Complicity/ everyday ethics in rural china
Steinmuller,Hans
- New York: Berghahh, 2013.
- 276
1 Front Matter i 2 Table of Contents vii 3 List of Illustrations viii 4 Acknowledgements x 5 Notes on the Text xiii 6 Introduction 1
Shouts cut through the morning mist: ‘One, two, … three!’, ‘Slower!’, ‘Come on!’. Eight men lift the ridgepole onto its socket on top of the roof. At this moment the yelling of the helpers is shot through and then drowned out by the noise of countless firecrackers. Display fireworks are ignited and hiss into the fresh morning sky. The helpers on the concrete roof of Yang Minghu’s house, all the relatives and neighbours in the front yard, everyone stands still in the smoke and noise. Slowly the smoke clears, and the wooden roof truss appears on top of the second
7 Chapter 1 A Remote Place from Three Angles 36
In the 43rdyear of the reign of the Kangxi emperor (1704 CE), the poet and playwright Gu Cai embarks on a long journey into the mountains west of Yichang. He carries letters of invitation from his friend Kong Shangren, to visit Xiang Shunnian, the head of the chief-tainship Rongmei. These chieftainships (tusi) do not have a Mandarin administration like the rest of the Empire, their populations speak languages partly incomprehensible to Chinese-speakers from the plains, and their rulers often cannot read and write Chinese. But the rulers of Rongmei and the other chieftainships in the region have been vassals
8 Chapter 2 Gabled Roofs and Concrete Ceilings 67
The first road in Zhongba on which vehicles could drive was built at the end of the 1960s, but this road was paved with asphalt only in the 1990s. Until then, people used to carry all their goods and agricultural products on their backs. The main criterion for the location of a house then was its distance to the market town. When people came to this area as migrants in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they often settled as extended families in hamlets together. The geographical conditions in the mountain regions did not favour bigger settlements, and so there are
9 Chapter 3 Work Through the Food Basket 98
Most of the slopes and paddy fields of Zhongba are now covered with tea shrubs, planted in uniform rows. Interrupted only by some small groves, the dark green of the tea leaves is the dominant colour of the landscape throughout the year. In Fragrant Forest, two stripes of paddy fields stick out: straw cobbles in autumn and winter, irrigation water covering the fields in spring, bright green rice plants in early summer that dry into a withered yellow before harvest, all provide a stark contrast to the tea shrubs surrounding them. Just outside the Yao family hamlet, these two fields
10 Chapter 4 Channelling Along a Centring Path 130
Like many others of his age, Wang Wei stopped studying at the age of sixteen after he finished middle school. Two years later, a relative helped him to find work as a waiter in Shanghai, where he stayed for the next six years doing odd jobs. He started out cleaning and serving in a restaurant, worked as an electrician, later found a job in a massage parlour, and finally in the reception of a medium-sized hotel. Shortly after he returned to Zhongba for the Spring Festival in 2006 he met Song Yan, Song Haomin’s daughter, and they became a couple
11 Chapter 5 The Embarrassment of Li 154
Firecrackers were going off throughout the first night that I spent in Bashan, 15 November 2005. Every now and then, a new tirade of firecrackers reverberated, echoing through the entire valley. A huge funeral was going on in a house not too far from the hostel in the market town where I spent the night; the noise finally reached its peak at dawn, when the coffin was carried out of the market town to the place where it would be buried.
Later I became accustomed to the firecrackers and the ‘funerary dirge’ (ai yue) announcing funerals all over the valley
12 Chapter 6 Gambling and the Moving Boundaries of Social Heat 176
Just about two weeks after my arrival in Zhongba village, some young men offered to teach mezha jinhua.Zha jinhua- ’bash the golden flower’ - is a card game similar to poker but with only three cards for each player. The gamblers, usually half a dozen or more, take turns putting money on the table, each betting on the combination of cards in front of him. Everyone must put in at least one Yuan as an ante, a basic amount at the beginning to enter the betting round. As in poker, each player has three options: to increase the highest
13 Chapter 7 Face Projects in Rural Construction 198
In the novelAn Ordinary World,Lu Yao writes about rural life and politics in central China from 1976 to 1983, the years between the end of the Maoist era and the beginning of ‘reform and opening’. In 1980, Old Gao, a senior leader in the central government, comes to visit the small town where he was born, and announces that he wants to meet his former classmates from middle school. Many of them are peasants and very poor, and the local cadres of the county are afraid that they will give a very poor picture of the situation in
14 Conclusion Everyday Ethics, Cultural Intimacy, and Irony 223
In this book I have explored everyday ethics in contemporary rural China, by giving an ethnographic description of family and work relations, popular ritual, and the local state. Chapter 1 set the stage of this ethnography. In the historical and spatial context in which Bashan is located, we have seen how remote it is in relation to various centres: the civilizational centre of the empire, the central government of the People’s Republic, and the capitalist metropolises of contemporary China. Whilst in this first chapter I have emphasized the similarities of such ambiguities in imperial and contemporary times, chapters 6 to
15 Appendix A Newspaper Report 234 16 Appendix B Expenses for the Construction of a House 237 17 Apppendix C List of Money-Gifts And Tasks 239 18 Appendix D: Subsidies Given to Three Households 241 19 Glossary 243 20 Bibliography 257 21 Index 271
303.3720951 / STE/C
1 Front Matter i 2 Table of Contents vii 3 List of Illustrations viii 4 Acknowledgements x 5 Notes on the Text xiii 6 Introduction 1
Shouts cut through the morning mist: ‘One, two, … three!’, ‘Slower!’, ‘Come on!’. Eight men lift the ridgepole onto its socket on top of the roof. At this moment the yelling of the helpers is shot through and then drowned out by the noise of countless firecrackers. Display fireworks are ignited and hiss into the fresh morning sky. The helpers on the concrete roof of Yang Minghu’s house, all the relatives and neighbours in the front yard, everyone stands still in the smoke and noise. Slowly the smoke clears, and the wooden roof truss appears on top of the second
7 Chapter 1 A Remote Place from Three Angles 36
In the 43rdyear of the reign of the Kangxi emperor (1704 CE), the poet and playwright Gu Cai embarks on a long journey into the mountains west of Yichang. He carries letters of invitation from his friend Kong Shangren, to visit Xiang Shunnian, the head of the chief-tainship Rongmei. These chieftainships (tusi) do not have a Mandarin administration like the rest of the Empire, their populations speak languages partly incomprehensible to Chinese-speakers from the plains, and their rulers often cannot read and write Chinese. But the rulers of Rongmei and the other chieftainships in the region have been vassals
8 Chapter 2 Gabled Roofs and Concrete Ceilings 67
The first road in Zhongba on which vehicles could drive was built at the end of the 1960s, but this road was paved with asphalt only in the 1990s. Until then, people used to carry all their goods and agricultural products on their backs. The main criterion for the location of a house then was its distance to the market town. When people came to this area as migrants in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they often settled as extended families in hamlets together. The geographical conditions in the mountain regions did not favour bigger settlements, and so there are
9 Chapter 3 Work Through the Food Basket 98
Most of the slopes and paddy fields of Zhongba are now covered with tea shrubs, planted in uniform rows. Interrupted only by some small groves, the dark green of the tea leaves is the dominant colour of the landscape throughout the year. In Fragrant Forest, two stripes of paddy fields stick out: straw cobbles in autumn and winter, irrigation water covering the fields in spring, bright green rice plants in early summer that dry into a withered yellow before harvest, all provide a stark contrast to the tea shrubs surrounding them. Just outside the Yao family hamlet, these two fields
10 Chapter 4 Channelling Along a Centring Path 130
Like many others of his age, Wang Wei stopped studying at the age of sixteen after he finished middle school. Two years later, a relative helped him to find work as a waiter in Shanghai, where he stayed for the next six years doing odd jobs. He started out cleaning and serving in a restaurant, worked as an electrician, later found a job in a massage parlour, and finally in the reception of a medium-sized hotel. Shortly after he returned to Zhongba for the Spring Festival in 2006 he met Song Yan, Song Haomin’s daughter, and they became a couple
11 Chapter 5 The Embarrassment of Li 154
Firecrackers were going off throughout the first night that I spent in Bashan, 15 November 2005. Every now and then, a new tirade of firecrackers reverberated, echoing through the entire valley. A huge funeral was going on in a house not too far from the hostel in the market town where I spent the night; the noise finally reached its peak at dawn, when the coffin was carried out of the market town to the place where it would be buried.
Later I became accustomed to the firecrackers and the ‘funerary dirge’ (ai yue) announcing funerals all over the valley
12 Chapter 6 Gambling and the Moving Boundaries of Social Heat 176
Just about two weeks after my arrival in Zhongba village, some young men offered to teach mezha jinhua.Zha jinhua- ’bash the golden flower’ - is a card game similar to poker but with only three cards for each player. The gamblers, usually half a dozen or more, take turns putting money on the table, each betting on the combination of cards in front of him. Everyone must put in at least one Yuan as an ante, a basic amount at the beginning to enter the betting round. As in poker, each player has three options: to increase the highest
13 Chapter 7 Face Projects in Rural Construction 198
In the novelAn Ordinary World,Lu Yao writes about rural life and politics in central China from 1976 to 1983, the years between the end of the Maoist era and the beginning of ‘reform and opening’. In 1980, Old Gao, a senior leader in the central government, comes to visit the small town where he was born, and announces that he wants to meet his former classmates from middle school. Many of them are peasants and very poor, and the local cadres of the county are afraid that they will give a very poor picture of the situation in
14 Conclusion Everyday Ethics, Cultural Intimacy, and Irony 223
In this book I have explored everyday ethics in contemporary rural China, by giving an ethnographic description of family and work relations, popular ritual, and the local state. Chapter 1 set the stage of this ethnography. In the historical and spatial context in which Bashan is located, we have seen how remote it is in relation to various centres: the civilizational centre of the empire, the central government of the People’s Republic, and the capitalist metropolises of contemporary China. Whilst in this first chapter I have emphasized the similarities of such ambiguities in imperial and contemporary times, chapters 6 to
15 Appendix A Newspaper Report 234 16 Appendix B Expenses for the Construction of a House 237 17 Apppendix C List of Money-Gifts And Tasks 239 18 Appendix D: Subsidies Given to Three Households 241 19 Glossary 243 20 Bibliography 257 21 Index 271
303.3720951 / STE/C