Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture

Lisa Rofel

Published by Duke University Press 2007

Desiring China

Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture

Lisa Rofel
Edited by: Judith Halberstam and Lisa Lowe

In the series Perverse Modernities: A Series Edited by Jack Halberstam and Lisa Lowe

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822389903

Overview
Contents

About this book

An ethnography of gender, sexuality, and consumption in post-socialist China.

Author / Editor information

Lisa Rofel is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China After Socialism and a coeditor of Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State.

Reviews

“Brilliant and wide-ranging, Desiring China deftly interweaves analysis of the production of post-socialist citizen-subjects in China with a transformative critique of the literature on ‘neoliberalism.’ This tour de force is theoretically expansive, ethnographically rich, and a compelling read. It deserves a broad audience in cultural studies, anthropology, queer and feminist theory, Asian studies, and contemporary theory.”—Dorinne Kondo, University of Southern California

“This is a brilliant ethnography of how emotions unleashed by neoliberalism are configuring post-Tiananmen culture. With wit and sparkle, Lisa Rofel introduces us to young Chinese who live for the moment, experimenting with sex, love, and cosmopolitanism, without (ever) forgetting their love of culture and of nation. Desiring China is an exciting work of cultural interpretation, and it is an innovative guide for studying the cultural practices and political possibilities in globalizing China.”—Aihwa Ong, author of Neoliberalism as Exception and coeditor of Privatizing China

“Desiring China is an exciting and important new work that pushes the boundaries of ethnography and offers new critical frameworks for discussions of neoliberalism and culture.”

-- Patti Duncan NWSA Journal

“Desiring China will surely take its place as an indispensable work that scholars in queer studies, cultural studies, and Chinese studies have been ‘desiring’ for a long time.”

-- Alvin Ka Hin Wong GLQ

“Lisa Rofel’s volume is distinguished by its explicit engagement with U. S. politics through an extensive examination of China-in-transformation. Rofel’s analysis centers on public cultural spheres and foregrounds the thesis that globalization is no longer external to China but internal to its economic and cultural productions of commodities, public spheres, subjectivities, and desire.”

-- Yan Hairong Journal of Asian Studies

“This book is theoretically expansive and ethnographically rich, weaving discussions of the production of post-socialist subjectivities with critiques of the literature on ‘neoliberalism.’ It should be welcomed by a wide range of scholars who have an interest in cultural studies, China and Asian studies, queer and feminist theory, and contemporary theory.”

-- Tiantian Zheng The China Quarterly

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Yearnings: Televisual Love and Melodramatic Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
2. Museum as Women’s Space: Displays of Gender Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
3. Qualities of Desire: Imagining Gay Identities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
4. From Sacrifice to Desire: Cosmopolitanism with Chinese Characteristics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
5. Legislating Desire: Homosexuality, Intellectual Property Rights, and Consumer Fraud Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
6. Desiring China: China’s Entry into the WTO Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Coda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 264

eBook

Published: May 10, 2007
ISBN: 9780822389903