Sex, Death and Hierarchy in a Chinese City: An Anthropological Account (review)

144 China Review International: Vol. ?, No. ?, Spring 1994 ship) which has changed. It is contradictions of this sort—between the stated goals and current structure of China's stock markets—which need to be analyzed for indications of the direction of future reform. Much of the information necessary for such an analysis is present in this book, but the author does not sufficiently help us with the task. Ellen Hertz University of California at Berkeley William R. Jankowiak. Sex, Death and Hierarchy in a Chinese City: An AnthropologicalAccount New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. xvi, 345 pp. Hardcover $45.00, paperback $17.50. copyright1994 by University of Hawai'i Press When I first saw the words "Sex, Death and Hierarchy" in the title ofWilliam Jankowiak's book, I expected a Freudian treatise postulating a deep Chinese psychological structure. Fortunately I was wrong. Sex, death, and hierarchy are just three of the racier topics covered by this wide-ranging urban ethnography. Marketing considerations aside, it could just as easily have been titled "Ethnicity, Kinship , and Conflict" or "Age, Class, and Gender." What holds the book together is a careful examination ofinteractions among Chinese ofdifferent ethnicities, genders , ages, and classes in a variety of urban social settings. The city in question is Huhhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (IMAR). Though not a particularly large Chinese city (population 492,011), it is the cultural and political center for the entire region. Huhhot contains the majority of the IMAR's universities and, because of its location near the border with Mongolia, also hosts a regional headquarters ofnational defence. Though located in the IMAR, Huhhot today is a predominately Han city, the 1982 census listing approximately 80 percent of the population as Han, 10 percent as Mongol, 5 percent as Hui (Muslim), and 5 percent as other. Denied the opportunity to do research in the Mongolian grasslands, Jankowiak spent thirty months in Huhhot between August 1981 and November 1983, and between June and August of1987. The setting ofJankowiak's research and the style of urban ethnography he undertook allowed him to broaden recent portrayals of China under Deng. Though there are studies of Chinese women, Chinese peasants, Chinese intellectuals, Chinese workers, Chinese minorities, Chinese youth, Chinese elderly, and so on, most of these works treat each group in isolation from the others. Jankowiak concentrates on interactions—between Han and Mongols, peasants and intellectuals, cadres and workers, women and Reviews 145 men, parents and children—and on the images and stereotypes these categories ofpeople construct ofthemselves and of each other. Moreover, instead ofexamining life within the work unit (an important butwell-worn strategy), Jankowiak focuses on the public and private domains ofthe nonwork world—homes, dorms, neighborhoods, restaurants, housing units, parks, markets, and streets. After a brieftheoretical introduction and a useful history ofthe city, Jankowiak begins his ethnography proper. Chapter 3 deals with Mongolian ethnicity. It examines the use ofMongolian language, Han and Mongol views on 'affirmative action', Han and Mongol stereotypes ofeach other, Mongol/Han intermarriage , and the interplay ofgender and ethnicity. Jankowiak portrays Huhhot Hans and Mongols as fundamentally alike, sharing similar "ethical and social obligations to one's family and friends, common criteria for assessing esteem and choosing a mate, shared notion of social hierarchy and structure, and lifegoals and overall worldview, among others" (p. 5). As in Dru Gladney's study ofMuslim ethnicity,1 Jankowiak emphasizes the role of state categorization and entitlement policies in the generation ofethnic difference and conflict. Chapter 4 examines Huhhotians' perceptions of social hierarchy. Jankowiak argues that "the Huhhotian conceptual order expanded from one organized in 1983, around four distinct cultural principles—extraordinary administrative authority /no administrative authority, academic knowledge/ignorance, the genteel/ the crude, and the ethical/the unethical—to include, by 1987, a new principle— money/no money" (p. 61). After laying out the divisions of ethnicity and social hierarchy, Jankowiak examines interactions and conflicts in public settings. Chapter 5 concentrates on neighborhoods—what the Huhhotian conceptions of a neighbor and a neighborhood are, quarrels among neighbors, and crime. Chapter 6, my favorite, presents twenty-three case studies ofpost-bicycle-accident arguments. Jankowiak focuses on how disputants of a particular gender, age...