Private Life under Socialism: Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949-1999

by Yunxiang Yan

For seven years in the 1970s, the author lived in a village in northeast China as an ordinary farmer. In 1989, he returned to the village as an anthropologist to begin the unparalleled span of eleven years’ fieldwork that has resulted in this book—a comprehensive, vivid, and nuanced account of family change and the transformation of private life in rural China from 1949 to 1999. The author’s focus on the personal and the emotional sets this book apart from most studies of the Chinese family. Yan explores private lives to examine areas of family life that have been largely overlooked, such as emotion, desire, intimacy, privacy, conjugality, and individuality. He concludes that the past five decades have witnessed a dual transformation of private the rise of the private family, within which the private lives of individual women and men are thriving.

Genres: China, History, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Read For School, Asia

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2003

Reviews

[Vik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting read about how private space is being negotiated in the public sphere.

[Chunchun · Rating 5 out of 5]

以黑龙江的一个村庄为田野调查对象，展示国家干预退出后，私领域逐渐崛起，私人情感、性别力量、代际关系、邻里距离等在小村庄发生变化。与此同时，国家的影响没有彻底离开，比如计划生育政策，比如利己的村干部；但由于没有为老百姓提供公共参与的途径，所以村民从集体合作社抽离后，完全退到private home，强调reciprocity，确实产生了egoism，但是没能孕育出公民意识，反而抛弃了某些传统伦理道德。
作者在宝贵的青春年华呆在这个村庄多年，后来多次往返田野调查，如果具备nostalgia情怀也是人之常情，但是全书感觉还是尽量抛弃这些情感，以学者的身份去互动和思考。另外一点值得学习，作者一开始就说“I do not intend to portray this rural community as representative of Chi-nese society as a whole. ”后文的讨论也紧紧围绕Xiajia村的境况展开，较好避免了质性研究很容易窥一斑而知全豹式的“过度解读”。
我能想到的不足之处在于作者的informants究竟是哪些，因为感觉不同篇章下的案例有几回是同一个人提供的或同一个人的案例，过少的案例则是“过度解读”的表现之一。

[风花 · Rating 5 out of 5]

作者在conclusion里主要强调了后毛时代社会的“个人化”趋势，这种趋势由国家政策、个人能动和市场变化与消费主义等有关，但由于后毛时代国家权力后撤但依然严厉禁止个人参与政治过程，导致了人们只能撤退回家庭。由此而来了对公共价值和公共道德的漠不关心，以及对物质极度渴望的egoism“自我中心主义”。

大体来说，是很精准的观察，不过在一些细微之处仍有可商榷之处。例如，作者把公社时期由国家主导的“公社集体娱乐活动”也视作“public”，虽然作者强调了它的国家主导的“爹亲娘亲不如毛主席亲”性质，不过是否可以用“public”来形容还是值得怀疑的。

第二点就是“个人主义”和编户齐民制度下的“个人原子化”主义可能是需要做出区别的。

第三点是我补充的一点，就是消费主义的问题，一直以来“消费占中国GDP的比例过低”一直被视作中国经济的基本特点，而消费主义与消费不成比例的悖论可能也可以被视作“新自由主义不在中国”对的例证。

以及，本书可能需要和作者近几年刚主编的“新家庭主义”一块读，能反映出时代的某些有趣特征。（注：本书汉译本有删减）

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more of a 2.5, but I will round up because it does make some pretty sound arguments and it destroys a lot of stereotypes I think a western would have about Chinese life today. It isn't a page-turner though and the author tends to make excessive amounts of repetitions that drove me more than a little crazy (but were expected from an ethnography).

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Appreciate this book for the insights into the time period of my parents' childhoods, although not in the same place! Fascinating about changes in living space, filial piety, family, marriage and birth culture... Especially the "unintended" consequences of the socialist gov : they supposedly dismantled loyalty to the family in order to promote loyalty to the state, but when the socialist state left, there was a void unfortunately filled by consumerist capitalism.

Well written, easy to read. I enjoyed the quips the author added on their personal interpretation or how they had to navigate interviewing the locals (I can only imagine)! Also what an interesting life pathway for the author (lived in the village previously, then went to university, and came back to study the villagers).

I give it a high rating based on my personal interest ☺️

[Christina Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding ethnography and great writing--author frequently uses first person and narrates how he obtained information: "One evening in the late summer of 1997 I was talking with . . . ." Very fascinating account of the development of more individualism in marriage and family life in a Chinese village and irony of the fact that a collectivist state encouraged developments that ultimately led to this individualism.

[John NM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuanced and counterintuitive look at the evolution of the private sphere in rural Chinese village. Fascinating interplay between the seismic political shifts and intimate decisions. Academic styling, so not going to be a page turner for many. But still fascinating.

[Tuna Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

first ethnography ive read and i love it!

[王棕 · Rating 5 out of 5]

@自藏

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

read it for class. but it's super interesting even for people not as into china. the author, Yan, spent like 14 years doing field research into the the private lives of people in a small village in northern china. so there is a lot of information about the social and private life changes that have taken place since Mao's communists revolution. some of the changes Yan discovered are shocking and would certainly make Confucius to role over in this grave.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last book of this semester on Modern China but also one of the most fun book to read. The emotional dimension of Chinese rural family comes alive through this book. You feel it, taste it, smell it, and hear it.
The only thing lacking is a more balanced gender perspective and a larger context. But overall, it's a top-notch anthropological study with a historical depth.

[Ren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a class but really interesting

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for class. It's fine.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good anthropologists embrace their own perspectives as part of their analytical lenses, instead of guarding the so-called “objectivity.”