I. Thinking about the importance of communication and understanding
There are so many contradictions in this book, which I think is ultimately due to the lack of understanding and communication between them. There is a lack of effective communication and exchange between China and the world, between the higher and lower levels of the government, between the government and the people, and between the Han and Yi people. For example, there have been many disputes between Han nationality and Yi nationality in history, and the relationship is not very good; After the reform and opening up, language barriers and cultural differences among ordinary people have brought about mutual incomprehension. For example, the stigma of AIDS appears in Nordic society, and the "briefcase concept" of interveners is hard to blame. For example, the non-governmental anti-drug organizations in Sunuo society gradually lost their effectiveness, and the government did not communicate effectively with traditional authorities such as Yi leaders and Degu. For example, the failure of the needle exchange program exposed the lack of communication between health institutions and public security institutions and between the government and the public. Simply instilling the "known" information into the "unknown" will not help improve the community's ability to solve problems by itself. If all parties have patience, listen to each other, understand each other and achieve effective communication and consultation, will everything be different?
2. Understanding of the author
After reading this book, I was surprised that Liu Shaohua, as a woman, was able to persist in conducting social surveys in a harsh environment, and was moved by her concern for others "except using aliases and appropriately adjusting the levels of some cadres or the ages of some people". She is not lacking in femininity and perseverance, and inadvertently shows some chivalry that ordinary senior intellectuals do not have in the book. Out of curiosity about her life, I went to check her related information. She is a "second generation" in Taiwan Province Province (when the Kuomintang lost to Taiwan Province Province, Liu Shaohua's father was a soldier), and she is a "literary youth". She is a reporter of Hong Kong Ming Pao in Taiwan Province, mainly covering social news. In this way, I think her character in the book has a reasonable explanation, and her chivalry may be contaminated from Ming Pao.
She said: The original intention of writing this book is to hope that the life of Liangshan and my Sunuo brothers can be widely known. Although her readers have different views on her book, she did achieve her goal, which is very remarkable.
Three. Excerpts from this book and learning.
1. This book tells me that there is also "medical ethnography", which focuses on the cultural interpretation of special diseases or physiological phenomena, and seeks the root causes of health problems through disasters to understand society. As stated in the preface, this book analyzes the material process of social change, gives insight into the structural roots of social disasters, and witnesses the intertwined dialectics of modernity and tradition, globalization and region, and life and death. Among them, proper nouns and proverbs, such as the study of continuity, the study of reality, the method of observing through ceremonies, the proximity of experience, and the local viewpoint, can be called the grand narrative of the twentieth century, which set off a global social change in human history with an unprecedented gesture and entered the "post-traditional order." All these make me feel novel.
From beginning to end, I haven't been able to turn myself into an author to read this book as before. I am always unfamiliar with this book and can't immerse myself in reading. In the process of reading, "Is this really the case? What is Liangshan like? " These two problems have been bothering me. There is a feeling of looking at our country from an international perspective. For example, the author calls this book Medical Ethnography in Post-socialist Transformation, China is a field where diversified modern forces compete with each other in modernization transformation, Liam's double epidemic shows the unfortunate miniature caused by global modernity in marginal areas, and the modernity plan in extreme political spectrum, etc. The alienation of language and the exposure of problems in the specific implementation of reform and opening up make people have to think. The outside world has such views on China, how to correct our problems, what problems have been solved now, and how to minimize the unnecessary losses caused by the reform in the future. After all, there is a big time difference between the writing age of this book and the time I read it. What specific problems remain to be solved.
3. In the era of globalization, this individualism is characterized by the fundamental incompleteness of the self. In the pursuit of free choice, young people are actually still subject to greater structural restrictions, but they can only face each other. This situation appears in the global risk society, that is, the institutional imbalance between rooted individuals and global problems. We have gained some freedom and lost some protection in modern society.
4. When you really put aside your preconceptions, unload many heavy rules and regulations that have been instilled, and stay in this specific environment, you can learn about a land, a nation, a religion and the unique culture that thrives in this time and space, just like exotic plants that can only grow in Sri Lanka. Perhaps it is not understood, transplantable and incomplete, but it is self-contained, rooted in this land, and adhered to and believed by this group of people who were born and died in Sri Lanka.
Perhaps we feel a metaphor from God-tuberculosis is like a shy woman, while syphilis is like a wild man. When AIDS appeared, it was another negative representative of human civilization, but here, we seem to see the metaphor of men and women in this morbid unity.
In just 30 or 40 years, we watched helplessly as the wave of modernization swarmed from the coastal port cities of the motherland, swept across the southeast, flooded into the main areas of South China, Central China, North China and Northeast China, soared and spread all the way to the Sichuan Basin, along rivers, roads and canyons, and extended to the most remote corner between mountains.
We are experiencing the pain of dual transformation of the country and the world. The problems revealed in the book are top-down bureaucracy, state agents (grass-roots cadres and executors) lacking cultural knowledge, changing governance methods of local governments, and fragmented executive departments. However, we are slowly solving this problem. Many practices will have some problems, but they are the best solutions in their social situations. From a big perspective, they are in line with the overall interests of the country, so the losses brought to a small number of people are slowly making up. Our future can be expected.
Some readers may say, "The only pity (like the feeling after watching Road) is that what can we ordinary people do for such a schizophrenic country now? ! I find it difficult to answer this question. Even if you have countless answers in your mind, even if you have countless ideas about this book, it won't help if you just shake your head and sigh ... "Put aside this book and look at the current development. There is a time lag between us and this book. We are solving the problem. We are different from the year described in the book. Society changes too fast, the world and society are flat enough, and a lot can change in a year.
6. The book says that "creating models is often used to rationalize its poor governance" is similar to Scott's "miniaturization" project of authoritarian countries. This kind of problem does exist in the whole country, whether during the people's commune period or after the reform and opening up. These models first became famous by themselves, and then became models with the support of the state.
I think this is very similar to the experimental method of this year's Nobel Prize winner in economics, and it is indeed successful in a small scale. However, when successful methods are put into a wide range of areas in the country, the social situation has changed and uncontrollable factors have increased, and the model is spiritual encouragement. We should adjust measures to local conditions and not be lazy.
4. The nearest reading association
I have been thinking about what factors are needed for a successful field survey. I have read China by the Yellow River, Primate of Park Avenue and The Road to Adult, and made a brief analysis.
First, everyone needs an accident. Just like all anthropologists go into a strange world to do fieldwork, for example, Nesti Martin was accosted by a senior member of the Upper East Side before he gradually integrated into the society of the North Soviet Union, and Liu Shaohua was accidentally "damned" before he opened the door to integrate into the society of the North Soviet Union. But is this an accident? I don't think so. If an individual does not have a certain accomplishment and unique personality charm, "luck" is unlikely to come. "Accidental" is actually excellent professional knowledge and cultivation.
Second, a certain number of contacts. Liu Shaohua has friends who work in academic circles and government departments in her research field. Professor Cao Jinqing entered the Central Plains through the "acquaintance society" network of friends and classmates of the Party School. Venesti Martin's in-laws live on the Upper East Side.