Fighting for breath : living morally and dying of cancer in a Chinese village PDF
Preview Fighting for breath : living morally and dying of cancer in a Chinese village
FIGHTING FOR LIVING MORALLY AND DYING OF CANCER IN A CHINESE VILLAGE anna lora-wainwright Fighting for Breath Fighting for Breath Living Morally and Dying of Cancer in a Chinese Village Anna Lora-Wainwright University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu © 2013 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 18 17 16 15 14 13 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lora-Wainwright, Anna, author. Fighting for breath : living morally and dying of cancer in a Chinese village / Anna Lora-Wainwright. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8248-3682-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Cancer—Social aspects—China—Langzhong Shi. 2. Cancer—Patients—Care—Moral and ethical aspects—China—Langzhong Shi. I. Title. RC279.C6L67 2013 362.19699’43200951—dc23 2012033973 University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Designed by Janette Thompson ( Jansom) Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc. For Gandie and all those fghting with cancer Contents Acknowledgments ix Guide to Key Places and People xiii Introduction 1 PArt 1: Foundations Chapter 1: Cancer and Contending Forms of Morality 17 Chapter 2: Te Evolving Moral World of Langzhong 51 PArt 2: Making Sense of Cancer Chapter 3: Water, Hard Work, and Farm Chemicals: Te Moral Economy of Cancer 91 Chapter 4: Gendered Hardship, Emotions, and the Ambiguity of Blame 117 Chapter 5: Xiguan, Consumption, and Shifting Cancer Etiologies 144 PArt 3: Strategies of Care and Mourning Chapter 6: Performing Closeness, Negotiating Family Relations, and the Cost of Cancer 177 Chapter 7: Perceived Efcacy, Social Identities, and the Rejection of Cancer Surgery 200 Chapter 8: Family Relations and Contested Religious Moralities 230 Conclusion 258 Appendix 1: Questionnaire (English Translation) 267 Appendix 2: List of Pesticides Used in Langzhong and Teir Health Efects 269 Notes 273 References 285 Index 313 Acknowledgments I was born and raised in a context where those who annoy us can be jokingly told to “go to China” (ma va’ in Cina!), much the same way as in the English language we may be told to get lost. China was a place of the imagination, a remote place where we symbolically send those we do not care to see again. My native region, the so-called third Italy, is a previously poor rural area made relatively wealthy by local textile indus- tries (most notably Benetton) since the mid-twentieth century. Many of these industries are now following that local dictum and being relocated en masse to China—a country that is no longer confined to the imagi- nation, but a real place where products and money are made. Having been sarcastically urged to visit China a fair few times in my teenage years, I eventually followed the advice. My experience in China has made me look at the small mountain village where I was raised in a dif- ferent light, more aware of how farming affected the landscape and of the journeys many took (and still take) in search for work. When I first settled in rural China for my doctoral research, I felt that the place I had moved to was real enough but also very remote from anything I had experienced before. The local Sichuanese accent sounded nothing like the Mandarin I had learned for three years. Adapting took a concerted effort. But that I succeeded in doing so is owed to all those local people who overcame their initial suspicions— Did I suffer from anything contagious? Was I going to eat their food? Could I really be trusted to harvest rice? And above all, Why had I come all this way just to live with them?—and welcomed me into their lives. The first thanks are for my extended host family, in particular my “sec- ond sister” Erjie, my Ganma and Gandie, my gan haizi, and all the other local families who shared their time, food, and life experiences with me. I do not name them, but I trust they all know who they are. Guo Lin, the first to welcome me and to show unfailing support, has been a reliable source of humor, and without him I would not have gained the respect
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