Deep China: The Moral Life of the Person

by Arthur Kleinman, Yunxiang Yan, Jing Jun

Deep China investigates the emotional and moral lives of the Chinese people as they adjust to the challenges of modernity. Sharing a medical anthropology and cultural psychiatry perspective, Arthur Kleinman, Yunxiang Yan, Jing Jun, Sing Lee, Everett Zhang, Pan Tianshu, Wu Fei, and Guo Jinhua delve into intimate and sometimes hidden areas of personal life and social practice to observe and narrate the drama of Chinese individualization. The essays explore the remaking of the moral person during China's profound social and economic transformation, unraveling the shifting practices and struggles of contemporary life.

Genres: China, Anthropology, Psychology, Nonfiction

322 pages, Hardcover

First published August 27, 2011

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

China's current generation has seen enormous changes, like but unlike collapsing 100 years of American history into 20. External value systems from Confucianism to Family/clan to Communism have given way to Unanchored individualistic materialism without religion or state value systems to leaven behavior. It's wrenching and this research-based psychological and anthropological tome posits a duality of "good for me" vs "good for state" duality that must be confusing to rationalize. Interesting deeper dive into the very recent changes in young China's psyche.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for those who want to understand Chinese culture on a deep level. The book tracks the effect of the enormous social and political changes China has undergone in the past few decades on Chinese internal experience and morality. It discusses notions of the self under authoritarian rule, and concludes that much of Chinese identity has been and remains marked by a "split-self": one which is acceptable to be seen by the outside world, and a self of inner desires and concerns which must remain hidden.

This is not light reading by any means, but deeply rewarding. I am no expert on Chinese history or culture but could more or less follow along, someone better versed in the country could probably get more out of it. I found it particularly fascinating as my partner is Chinese, and this book helped me to understand his family's experiences and how that has shaped him.

[Law Weining]

The collection of essays in Deep China is concerned with the Chinese moral being, contextualising it in historical developments (from pre-Mao period to the current state). It discusses individualism in the context of China and how it is linked to the idea of the “selfish” individual while contrasting it with a resurgence of morality and justice orientated towards the community (“altruism”). I wonder if more can be said about the “selfish”-individual and its links to this resurgence of a communal ethic and whether this tension exists within the individual or between different groups. This is addressed in the final chapter where Kleinman concludes with the reference to the divided self or the double consciousness (p. 285) of the Chinese subject who has to bear the “burden of contradiction, compromise, and irony… and negotiate… [it] in his or her own way” (p. 286). This divided self is an embodied reflection biopolitics of the state and the contradictory historical developments of state discourses as well as the agentic individual and the civic society.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for an Anthropology class at Purdue University. It was very interesting how the different authors were observing change among the Chinese due to both internal and external economic changes. It was easy to follow and presented many case studies as examples to support their claims. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning about Chinese society in the 21st century.

[Infiniteknot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a hard time initially liking this book, but the second go at it, I really appreciated the deep insight into how capitalism has impacted people's lives, especially those who are poor, living with mental illness, and HIV/AIDS.

[Jack Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good anthropological book for current China, though I read as a psychiatric reference...

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Left something to be desired, but much of it was really excellent!

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb book