Fighting for breath : living morally and dying of cancer in a Chinese village

342 Pages·2013·2.7 MB·English

by  Anna

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