Passage to Manhood: Youth Migration, Heroin and AIDS in Southwest China
Shao-hua Li
Stanford University Press, 2010. pp248., US$ 22.95 (paperback).
Reviewed by Nicholas Bartlett, University of California-San Francisco
Shao-hua Liu’s Passage to Manhood: Youth Migration, Heroin and AIDS in Southwest China chronicles the tragic consequences of the efforts of Nuosu youth to improve their lives during the turbulent economic reforms of the post-Mao period. Her project explores how this group’s twenty-year involvement with the heroin trade is deeply shaped both by the unique history of the Nuosu and broader political and economic shifts in China. The book moves between compelling depictions of social suffering caused by heroin use and AIDS and a sobering critique of the programs mobilized to alleviate these epidemics.
Liu starts by making a strong case for understanding the Nuosu entanglement with heroin within a complex legacy of interactions between this rural minority community and the Han-dominated cities. Limu, the township located in a highland basin in Liangshan, Sichuan where Liu conducted her fieldwork, is home to a poor farming community that had limited contact with Han Chinese for much of the first half of the 20th century. The post-Liberation Communist government officially categorized the nearly two million Nuosu in Liangshan prefecture, along with several other groups scattered throughout Southwest China, as the “Yi” minority group after conducting surveys of non-Han populations. Since the late 1980s, young Nuosu men have engaged in a circular migratory pattern, generally spending between two and four months at a time in Chinese cities attempting to make money before returning home (66). Often lacking fluency in Mandarin, educational opportunities and social networks in the urban centers, many young migrant Nuosu workers supplement unsteady day labor jobs with participation in theft and other illicit activities. The Nuosu’s early presence in urban areas coincided with an increase in heroin flowing into the country from Southeast Asia. The Nuosu’s name for heroin, “yeyi”, is also their word for opium, a drug that helped fuel Liangshan’s economy in the first part of the 20th century (63). Before long, not only the young men who travelled to the cities, but also their families at home became involved in the consumption and distribution of heroin. It is hard to overestimate the impact of the heroin on this community: According to Liu, by the mid-1990s, 200 of the 1,200 residents in one Limu town had used the drug (65), and nearly every household had some connection to the heroin trade.
Much of Liu’s ethnography focuses on the various responses of local community leaders, state agents and international donors to the “dual epidemics” of heroin and HIV/AIDS. In the “Multivocal drug control” chapter, the author documents the history of a “grassroots” anti-drugs campaign implemented through Nuosu kinship structures rather than local police. Reliant on Nuosu rituals and the often brutal use of force by local leaders and family members to treat addicted heroin users and clamp down on villagers involved in the heroin trade, this campaign briefly succeeded in greatly reducing the drug trade in one Limu village. However, subsequent Chinese state party officials’ attempts to promote this “local” model of drug control to surrounding areas failed to replicate early successes as disparate interests overpowered attempts to marshal collective action (101).
HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs also struggled to take hold in Limu. Liu shows how the top-down management style at the China-UK Project, a bilateral partnership funded by the British government and managed from the provincial capital, neglected to adequately engage local stakeholders before implementing needle exchange, income generation, and anti-retroviral treatment programs. Each of these programs subsequently failed to meet their targets. Most devastatingly, she discusses how a public awareness campaigns attempting to “transplant the global anti-stigma agenda”(167) into the township actually served to produce new forms of discrimination in a community that had initially been highly accepting of HIV_ villagers due to the strong bonds of the lineage kinship system and a local ritual healing system that had absorbed AIDS symptoms into existing disease etiologies (171,173). Whether demonstrating the continued relevance of Cultural Revolution-era relations between Han and Nuosu, examining the ongoing effects of the state’s decision to promote privileged local enterprises in the 1980s, or describing the resiliency of local medical practices despite the introduction of socialist medicine by Han barefoot doctors and the more recent privatization of healthcare, Liu’s account does a commendable job of documenting the ways in which the past shapes (and in one case, literally haunts (4-8)) current efforts to attend to pressing social ills.
Liu also offers a powerful account of the social suffering she witnesses. Gathering the stories of several cousins from one large Nuosu family, she explores the ways in which the intersection of heroin use, incarceration and disease continues to take a heavy toll on a community that lacks the resources to effectively deal with these problems. Even a task as straightforward as bringing home the remains of those who die while working in far-away cities presents great difficulties for family members who, unable to afford the services of urban funeral homes, are arrested when attempting to perform their own cremation ceremonies (77). The gap between the optimistic youthful search for “fun and adventure” (72) that fuels migration and the pain and suffering that often result from this travel is a stark reminder of how the Nuosu continue to struggle to find sustainable ways of participating in China’s booming market economy (20, 190).
Following Victor Turner, Liu suggests that we understand the migratory patterns of Nuosu youth as a rite of passage, with the risk-taking and consumptive behaviors associated with travel to cities constituting a liminal stage on the path to a “glorified manhood” fueled by the yearnings for a better life (53). The personal trajectory of heroin use related by her informants appears to symbolize the broader fate of the Nuosu’s engagement with Reform era economic opportunity as early euphoria gives way to increasing dependency and misery. Liu grimly concludes that “no definite end to (the dual epidemics of heroin and HIV) seem within reach” (186).
This reader believes that alternative understandings of the relationship between heroin and this “rite of passage” are worth considering. Firstly, Liu’s account hints at, without explicitly exploring, how the Nuosu’s relationship to heroin may be shifting. The total number of active heroin users in Limu in 2005, due at least in part to the high rates of morality in preceding years, is already a fraction of what it was just a decade before (66, 75). In many other parts of the country, the dramatic increase in the price of heroin and the broad national scale-up of methadone maintenance treatment in the last seven years have contributed to what many believe is a significant decrease in overall heroin consumption. Additionally, as stories of the dependency, misery and suffering of heroin users circulate, the drug has increasingly become associated with the aging “1970s generation” and eschewed by younger users who prefer “new-style” (xinxing) drugs such as ecstasy and methamphetamines. It is quite possible that Nuosu youth could continue to be drawn to cities (80) without having their lives become entangled with the particular complications associated with heroin use in China.
A second point that could have been further explored is the alternate narratives that drop out of Liu’s account in her emphasis on the suffering of long-time heroin users and AIDS patients. With local elders and party officials caught up in the rush to sell heroin in the 1990s and well-constructed homes belonging to individuals with known connection to the industry (66), the heroin trade appears to have been one of the few sectors of the new economy that measurably improved the material quality of life in Limu during the Reform era. The reviewer wonders if, given the degree to which heroin in the past was a highly lucrative business for variously-situated members of the Limu community, some Nuosu might hold different understandings of heroin’s position in the local economy. Could certain roles in the heroin trade come to be tolerated over others, and what, if any, sense of regret do those who secured conspicuous wealth during the booming heroin trade in the 1990s feel today? If we understand heroin productive not merely of suffering, but also of new forms of sociality and re-configured relationships between the Nuosu and China’s developmental trajectory, the decision by the “most talented” (75) to become involved in the heroin economy may not need to be interpreted exclusively as a detour from the “drive to become modern” (12), but also a sign of a world in which the community’s moral compass of right and wrong, as well as the status of modernity itself, are far from clear.
Nicholas (Nick) Bartlett is a PhD candidate in the Joint Medical Anthropology program at the University of California, San Francisco and Berkeley. His dissertation research explores the intersection of history, memory, and recovery among a community of longtime Chinese heroin users. He previously worked in the public health field on drug-related issues, also primarily in China.
An Interview with Medical Anthropologist Shao-hua Liu
Contributing Editor
Ritu G. Khanduri
I will say medical anthropology stands out in our contemporary world because it is a sub-field of anthropology that combines knowledge and concerns of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities as well as crisscrosses the boundary of history and culture. It confronts the personal well-being of individual human beings, as well as the universal meanings of humanity. Both social relevance and academic reflexivity are at the core of medical anthropology. I myself find the knowledge and concern of medical anthropology help me both pursue a critical academic career and an engaging life beyond the ivory tower.
RK: Congratulations on the Junior Researcher Award from your Institute. What contribution does this award recognize?
SHL: This Junior Research Investigators Award is sponsored by Academia Sinica starting in 1996 and is meant to enhance the research potential of young scholars in both Academia Sinica and other research institutions in Taiwan. Application is open to scholars throughout Taiwan in three academic divisions (life sciences, physics and mathematics, and humanity and social sciences) and under the age of 42. Each year at most five scholars from each field are selected to be recipients of this most prestigious award for junior scholars. This award emphasizes the significance of research publication. Each applicant can submit 1-3 representative works for a rigorous review process.
RK: What does your work involve in the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica?
SHL: Academia Sinica is a pure research institute sponsored by the Taiwanese government and my major work in its Institute of Ethnology is to do research based on topics of my own choice and to publish scholarly works within and beyond Taiwan. Besides research, Academia Sinica faculty members are allowed to teach maximally 4 credits of course per semester, depending on a university’s invitation and the researcher’s willingness to teach. As for myself, I teach one course a year mainly in two universities: the National Taiwan University and Soochow University.
My research lies mainly in the field of medical anthropology, in relation to globalization, modernity and gender, and with a regional focus on China. My medical anthropological research uses diseases such as AIDS, drug use, or leprosy as the vantage point to analyze the nature and trajectories of contemporary social change in China, as well as individuals’ life experiences and transformations within social change. In addition, I also examine the development of public health in China to understand the roles external forces such as the state and the global market played in shaping social change. Starting in 2012, I will also launch a new project on community health and resilience among Taiwanese indigenous peoples in the shadows of social and natural calamities.
Academia Sinica is the leading academic institution in Taiwan, and many academic societies or associations are sponsored by its discipline-based institutes. For instance, since 2007, Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology (TSAE) has been housed in the Institute of Ethnology (IOE). TSAE’s current president is also the director of my institute (IOE), Prof. Shu-min Huang, and I have been serving as the secretary for TSAE since 2007, the year my employment at IOE began. TSAE has launched a grand annual meeting for members, similar to the AAA yet in a much smaller scale. In 2009, TSAE also collaborated with Society for East Asian Anthropology of American Anthropological Association and hosted a joint annual meeting. This specific meeting attracted over 400 participants, including 200-some scholars from abroad. In addition, I also served as the secretary to host the 2nd preparatory meeting for the founding of a regional society for anthropology in East Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
RK:Can you tell us about your introduction to the Chinese translation of Ruth Behar’s Vulnerable Observer? Why was this particular book translated?
SHL: My introduction to Ruth Behar’s work is to position her significance, topic and writing style within the development of anthropology since the 1980s. In essence, I focus on the significance of gender, emotion and reflection upon human suffering conveyed in this book in order to inspire readers, both with or without anthropological background. Although this book was published in English over ten years ago, there have not been that many anthropological books of this kind published in Taiwan. This book was chosen for translation in Taiwan because of the wise decision of its translator and editor (Mr. En-lin Huang) who was trained in anthropology in Taiwan.
RK: Are you planning a Chinese translation of your recent book, Passage to Manhood ?
SHL: Yes. I feel obliged to have it published in Chinese too for the convenience of local people who helped me complete this research and who are concerned about their society. Some publishing houses in Taiwan and China have urged me to do so. I have decided to work on the Chinese version on my own, namely, not to have it translated by someone else. I feel that it’s more appropriate for me to write it in my mother tongue. I expect to finish the rewriting project in a year.
RK: How is the anthropology curriculum organized in your institute?
SHL: As I said earlier, my institute is purely research-based. So there is no anthropology curriculum in my institute. But we do organize an AnthroCamp every year which usually provides 3-4 day training workshop for senior undergraduates and graduates. As for the annual theme of workshop, it depends on the responsible organizers’ arrangement. In 2008, I was assigned to organize a special AnthroCamp which focused on writing enhancement for junior scholars (below the assistant professor level) and advance doctoral students enrolled in related programs of anthropology in Taiwan. In this special workshop, we invited editors-in-chief of five well-known anthropology journals in the US and UK (e.g., American Anthropologist, Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, Human Organization, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, etc.). In total, these senior editors commented on participants’ working papers or grant proposals, all in English, one on one.
As for my own teaching courses, I have taught three subjects: “Anthropology of Social Suffering,” “Medical Anthropology,” and “Altruism: Perspectives of Medical Anthropology.”
RK: When I contacted you, you were conducting fieldwork in a leprosy village. Is this a new project? What is a leprosy village?
SHL: During my previous research on heroin use and HIV/AIDS in Southwest China (2002-2009; my new book Passage to Manhood was the completion of this previous research), I have also collected data on leprosy control in the same region. Upon my employment in my current institute, I began a new project on leprosy in China. So far, counting by funding supports, I have conducted research on leprosy in China for nearly four years. I plan to complete my fieldwork in two years and will begin to write about my findings by the end of this year.
Leprosy villages are where cured or present lepers stay, in some cases even with their healthy family members. The People’s Republic of China began its massive campaigns on leprosy control starting in the late 1950s. Confirmed lepers (leprosy is a term used in China; the other term, Hansen’s disease that is commonly used elsewhere, is not adopted in China) were confined for treatment or simply quarantined in the so-call leprosaria. Some leprosaria are hospital-based; many other are just like secluded villages. Local health workers or residents simply call them “leprosy villages.”
RK: What exciting directions and questions are animating medical anthropology today?
SHL: I will say medical anthropology stands out in our contemporary world because it is a sub-field of anthropology that combines knowledge and concerns of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities as well as crisscrosses the boundary of history and culture. It confronts the personal well-being of individual human beings, as well as the universal meanings of humanity. Both social relevance and academic reflexivity are at the core of medical anthropology. I myself find the knowledge and concern of medical anthropology help me both pursue a critical academic career and an engaging life beyond the ivory tower. Critical and reflexive thinking of the ethics, tension, approaches, possibilities and limits that a medical anthropologist may face in researching life, death, disease, health and well-being of people in every walk of life is a never-ended and challenging ethical/moral task. I appreciate the value of medical anthropology very much. Currently, medical anthropology is rather under-developed in Taiwan and I hope to promote this field here. So I have organized the first medical anthropology workshop in Taiwan and invited over twenty scholars who have used medical anthropological approaches to present and discuss papers. I will help establish and operate a research group under the theme of medical anthropology in my institute soon in order to continue the endeavors of expanding this field.
Shao-hua Liu during fieldwork in Southwest China
RK: The World Council of Anthropological Association supports a Publication Initiative and has a web forum for international journals and translations. Are there connections with anthropology publication in Taiwan?
SHL: In Taiwan, we also have the Taiwan Social Science Citation Index (TSSCI) database which is the equivalent to SSCI. It collects and evaluates many quality journals of social sciences published here. In general, scholarship in Taiwan has been globalizing well and such internationalization drive will continue to extend and expand. For example, Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology has recently become a member of WCAA. It will be a big push for us if the major anthropology journal, Taiwan Journal of Anthropology, which is sponsored by my institute and which publishes both Chinese and English articles and book review, can be included in the WCAA publication initiative.
Ritu Gairola Khanduri is an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington. She read history at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and anthropology at the University of Texas-Austin. Her research foci include media, history, science in colonial and contemporary India. She has also written on and continues to explore Hindu images in the diaspora and Gandhi. Ritu’s book manuscript is an ethnography of newspaper cartooning in India.
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本帖最后由 代启福 于 2011-11-26 14:56 编辑 ]
