G Hizi
Biographic Data
| ID | 23760 |
|---|---|
| NAME | G Hizi |
| GIVEN NAMES | G |
| FAMILY NAME | Hizi |
| SIGNATURE | HIZI G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cologne |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7567-0875 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 31 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Well-Being Entrepreneurship and the Moral-Emotional Landscape of Reform-Era China
Since the launching of economic reforms in China, diverse forms of expertise and educational programs have promoted the pursuit of well-being. In this article, we introduce the concept of “well-being entrepreneurs” to analyze charismatic agents who shape conceptions and practices in this field. These individuals carve out niche enterprises within the tensions—and sometimes convergences—between state-led campaigns and market trends, asserting thei…
Basketball Masculinities in Chinese Television Dramas and Rural Competitions
Cliché anthropologists and the interactive probing of aspirations under market expansion
There was a moment in my fieldwork in China when I was prompted to rethink my position in relation to my interlocutors and the values they brought into play. More specifically, I became aware that their image of Western foreigners matched my profile as a wandering anthropologist with incoherent life trajectories. This was so even though, to some degree, they had difficulty translating their image of me into their social reality. Through my resear…
The psychological imagination of the social in contemporary China
Psychological expertise has developed in market economies along with the priority of individualised, self-responsible and productive citizenship, thus directing people’s evaluative glance inwards. Yet psychology, as a field of knowledge production, also interprets and classifies wider socioeconomic processes, including defining the emotional experience of different structural conditions. Extending the concept ‘the psychological imagination’ (Nehr…
Zheng Nengliang and Pedagogies of Affect in Contemporary China
This article examines the role of affect in market-driven self-cultivation. Drawing on a study of extracurricular workshops for interpersonal skills in urban China, I describe programs that prioritize momentary excitement, associated with the state-endorsed colloquialism zheng nengliang (positive energy), while distinguishing this experience from the common registers of the exterior world. I define these settings as ‘pedagogies of affect’, activi…
Zheng Nengliang and Pedagogies of Affect in Contemporary China
This article examines the role of affect in market-driven self-cultivation. Drawing on a study of extracurricular workshops for interpersonal skills in urban China, I describe programs that prioritize momentary excitement, associated with the state-endorsed colloquialism zheng nengliang (positive energy), while distinguishing this experience from the common registers of the exterior world. I define these settings as ‘pedagogies of affect’, activi…
Fluctuating affect: Purpose and deflation in paths of self-development
This article spotlights the role of affect in paths of “self-development,” focusing on young adults in China who engage in various training programs. Informed by market-driven expertise, individuals configure their feelings as central for their ability to execute their tasks and enhance their socioeconomic competence. Thus, they seek to induce and manage affect while combating the purposeless attitudes that they ascribe to Chinese everyday life. …
Tragic Stability and Elusive Selfhood: On the Drive for Self-Development in Contemporary China
The requirement for “self-development” through the ceaseless acquisition of skills and credentials has long been central for young adults in China. However, due to the multiple and unpredictable demands of social institutions, many social actors also prime the cultivation of a self that does not succumb to immediate occupational and material impositions. In this article, I describe how young adults in a second-tier city pursue a model of personho…
Becoming Role Models: Pedagogies of Soft Skills and Affordances of Person-Making in Contemporary China
This article looks at the market-driven globalization of pedagogies of interpersonal "soft" skills by depicting these practices' microdynamics and phenomenological attributes. My case study is located in urban China, where expertise and practices of soft skills have recently become accessible to people of different social backgrounds. Drawing on participant observations in relevant workshops in a second-tier city, I describe interactive dynamics …
Against Three "Cultural" Characters Speaks Self-Improvement: Social Critique and Desires for "Modernity" in Pedagogies of Soft Skills in Contemporary China
Despite recent socioeconomic transformations, young adults in China construe local social norms as inhibiting their individualized selfhood. Based on a study of pedagogies of interpersonal "soft" skills, this article describes an apparatus of self-improvement where self- and social critique play a pivotal role. Through comparison with Foucault's "technologies of the self," I illustrate that self-improvement in China is largely oriented toward per…
Marketised “Educational Desire” and the Impetus for Self-improvement: The Shifting and Reproduced Meanings of Higher Education in Contemporary China
In recent years, higher education in China has experienced drastic transformations along with the expansion of university enrolments and the ongoing privatisation of the job market. Students today increasingly engage with extra-curricular activities due to the uncertain value of university diplomas and in preparation for their future socioeconomic challenges. I explore this phenomenon through an ethnographic study of a group of student entreprene…
Speaking the China Dream: Self-realization and nationalism in China’s public-speaking shows
One of the key impacts of the ‘China Dream‘ campaign, along with the promulgation of patriotic values, has been the proliferation of the discourse of ’dreams’ across Chinese society. While the language of dreams alludes to individualistic values, in accord with recent socioeconomic transformations in China, state-promoted practices meticulously foster associations between the self-realization of individuals and their nationalistic sentiments. In …
Gendered Self-Improvement: Autonomous Personhood and the Marriage Predicament of Young Women in Urban China
How does gender shape the experience and imaginaries of self-realisation? This article explores practices of self-improvement among young women in China, namely workshops for interpersonal skills. These practices direct participants to express themselves as autonomous persons, disembedded from social hierarchies and familial responsibilities. Unmarried women who attend workshops conceive of marriage as an unavoidable impediment to their self-real…
Fragile Elite: The Dilemmas of China’s Top University Students, by Susanne Bregnbæk
"Fragile Elite: The Dilemmas of China’s Top University Students, by Susanne Bregnbæk." Anthropological Forum, 27(2), pp. 160–161
Evading chronicity: Paradoxes in counseling psychology in contemporary China
In this report, I discuss the expansion of psychological counseling in China, while considering sociocultural factors that shape the construction of this field. Based on interviews with counselors and patients, I describe therapeutic encounters that are laden with suspicion, and that are in turn interpreted by counselors as a reflection of social conservativeness and the cultural perception of “face” (mian zi). The proliferation of short-term cou…
Speaking the China Dream: Self-realization and nationalism in China’s public-speaking shows
One of the key impacts of the ‘China Dream‘ campaign, along with the promulgation of patriotic values, has been the proliferation of the discourse of ’dreams’ across Chinese society. While the language of dreams alludes to individualistic values, in accord with recent socioeconomic transformations in China, state-promoted practices meticulously foster associations between the self-realization of individuals and their nationalistic sentiments. In …
Marketised “Educational Desire” and the Impetus for Self-improvement: The Shifting and Reproduced Meanings of Higher Education in Contemporary China
In recent years, higher education in China has experienced drastic transformations along with the expansion of university enrolments and the ongoing privatisation of the job market. Students today increasingly engage with extra-curricular activities due to the uncertain value of university diplomas and in preparation for their future socioeconomic challenges. I explore this phenomenon through an ethnographic study of a group of student entreprene…
Against Three "Cultural" Characters Speaks Self-Improvement: Social Critique and Desires for "Modernity" in Pedagogies of Soft Skills in Contemporary China
Despite recent socioeconomic transformations, young adults in China construe local social norms as inhibiting their individualized selfhood. Based on a study of pedagogies of interpersonal "soft" skills, this article describes an apparatus of self-improvement where self- and social critique play a pivotal role. Through comparison with Foucault's "technologies of the self," I illustrate that self-improvement in China is largely oriented toward per…
Gendered Self-Improvement: Autonomous Personhood and the Marriage Predicament of Young Women in Urban China
How does gender shape the experience and imaginaries of self-realisation? This article explores practices of self-improvement among young women in China, namely workshops for interpersonal skills. These practices direct participants to express themselves as autonomous persons, disembedded from social hierarchies and familial responsibilities. Unmarried women who attend workshops conceive of marriage as an unavoidable impediment to their self-real…
The psychological imagination of the social in contemporary China
Psychological expertise has developed in market economies along with the priority of individualised, self-responsible and productive citizenship, thus directing people’s evaluative glance inwards. Yet psychology, as a field of knowledge production, also interprets and classifies wider socioeconomic processes, including defining the emotional experience of different structural conditions. Extending the concept ‘the psychological imagination’ (Nehr…
Tragic Stability and Elusive Selfhood: On the Drive for Self-Development in Contemporary China
The requirement for “self-development” through the ceaseless acquisition of skills and credentials has long been central for young adults in China. However, due to the multiple and unpredictable demands of social institutions, many social actors also prime the cultivation of a self that does not succumb to immediate occupational and material impositions. In this article, I describe how young adults in a second-tier city pursue a model of personho…
Becoming Role Models: Pedagogies of Soft Skills and Affordances of Person-Making in Contemporary China
This article looks at the market-driven globalization of pedagogies of interpersonal "soft" skills by depicting these practices' microdynamics and phenomenological attributes. My case study is located in urban China, where expertise and practices of soft skills have recently become accessible to people of different social backgrounds. Drawing on participant observations in relevant workshops in a second-tier city, I describe interactive dynamics …
Evading chronicity: Paradoxes in counseling psychology in contemporary China
In this report, I discuss the expansion of psychological counseling in China, while considering sociocultural factors that shape the construction of this field. Based on interviews with counselors and patients, I describe therapeutic encounters that are laden with suspicion, and that are in turn interpreted by counselors as a reflection of social conservativeness and the cultural perception of “face” (mian zi). The proliferation of short-term cou…
Fragile Elite: The Dilemmas of China’s Top University Students, by Susanne Bregnbæk
"Fragile Elite: The Dilemmas of China’s Top University Students, by Susanne Bregnbæk." Anthropological Forum, 27(2), pp. 160–161
Speaking the China Dream: Self-realization and nationalism in China’s public-speaking shows
One of the key impacts of the ‘China Dream‘ campaign, along with the promulgation of patriotic values, has been the proliferation of the discourse of ’dreams’ across Chinese society. While the language of dreams alludes to individualistic values, in accord with recent socioeconomic transformations in China, state-promoted practices meticulously foster associations between the self-realization of individuals and their nationalistic sentiments. In …
Gendered Self-Improvement: Autonomous Personhood and the Marriage Predicament of Young Women in Urban China
How does gender shape the experience and imaginaries of self-realisation? This article explores practices of self-improvement among young women in China, namely workshops for interpersonal skills. These practices direct participants to express themselves as autonomous persons, disembedded from social hierarchies and familial responsibilities. Unmarried women who attend workshops conceive of marriage as an unavoidable impediment to their self-real…
Marketised “Educational Desire” and the Impetus for Self-improvement: The Shifting and Reproduced Meanings of Higher Education in Contemporary China
In recent years, higher education in China has experienced drastic transformations along with the expansion of university enrolments and the ongoing privatisation of the job market. Students today increasingly engage with extra-curricular activities due to the uncertain value of university diplomas and in preparation for their future socioeconomic challenges. I explore this phenomenon through an ethnographic study of a group of student entreprene…
Zheng Nengliang and Pedagogies of Affect in Contemporary China
This article examines the role of affect in market-driven self-cultivation. Drawing on a study of extracurricular workshops for interpersonal skills in urban China, I describe programs that prioritize momentary excitement, associated with the state-endorsed colloquialism zheng nengliang (positive energy), while distinguishing this experience from the common registers of the exterior world. I define these settings as ‘pedagogies of affect’, activi…
Zheng Nengliang and Pedagogies of Affect in Contemporary China
This article examines the role of affect in market-driven self-cultivation. Drawing on a study of extracurricular workshops for interpersonal skills in urban China, I describe programs that prioritize momentary excitement, associated with the state-endorsed colloquialism zheng nengliang (positive energy), while distinguishing this experience from the common registers of the exterior world. I define these settings as ‘pedagogies of affect’, activi…
Fluctuating affect: Purpose and deflation in paths of self-development
This article spotlights the role of affect in paths of “self-development,” focusing on young adults in China who engage in various training programs. Informed by market-driven expertise, individuals configure their feelings as central for their ability to execute their tasks and enhance their socioeconomic competence. Thus, they seek to induce and manage affect while combating the purposeless attitudes that they ascribe to Chinese everyday life. …
Tragic Stability and Elusive Selfhood: On the Drive for Self-Development in Contemporary China
The requirement for “self-development” through the ceaseless acquisition of skills and credentials has long been central for young adults in China. However, due to the multiple and unpredictable demands of social institutions, many social actors also prime the cultivation of a self that does not succumb to immediate occupational and material impositions. In this article, I describe how young adults in a second-tier city pursue a model of personho…
Becoming Role Models: Pedagogies of Soft Skills and Affordances of Person-Making in Contemporary China
This article looks at the market-driven globalization of pedagogies of interpersonal "soft" skills by depicting these practices' microdynamics and phenomenological attributes. My case study is located in urban China, where expertise and practices of soft skills have recently become accessible to people of different social backgrounds. Drawing on participant observations in relevant workshops in a second-tier city, I describe interactive dynamics …
Against Three "Cultural" Characters Speaks Self-Improvement: Social Critique and Desires for "Modernity" in Pedagogies of Soft Skills in Contemporary China
Despite recent socioeconomic transformations, young adults in China construe local social norms as inhibiting their individualized selfhood. Based on a study of pedagogies of interpersonal "soft" skills, this article describes an apparatus of self-improvement where self- and social critique play a pivotal role. Through comparison with Foucault's "technologies of the self," I illustrate that self-improvement in China is largely oriented toward per…
The psychological imagination of the social in contemporary China
Psychological expertise has developed in market economies along with the priority of individualised, self-responsible and productive citizenship, thus directing people’s evaluative glance inwards. Yet psychology, as a field of knowledge production, also interprets and classifies wider socioeconomic processes, including defining the emotional experience of different structural conditions. Extending the concept ‘the psychological imagination’ (Nehr…
Basketball Masculinities in Chinese Television Dramas and Rural Competitions
Cliché anthropologists and the interactive probing of aspirations under market expansion
There was a moment in my fieldwork in China when I was prompted to rethink my position in relation to my interlocutors and the values they brought into play. More specifically, I became aware that their image of Western foreigners matched my profile as a wandering anthropologist with incoherent life trajectories. This was so even though, to some degree, they had difficulty translating their image of me into their social reality. Through my resear…
Well-Being Entrepreneurship and the Moral-Emotional Landscape of Reform-Era China
Since the launching of economic reforms in China, diverse forms of expertise and educational programs have promoted the pursuit of well-being. In this article, we introduce the concept of “well-being entrepreneurs” to analyze charismatic agents who shape conceptions and practices in this field. These individuals carve out niche enterprises within the tensions—and sometimes convergences—between state-led campaigns and market trends, asserting thei…
China (14 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Law (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Social science (5 works) · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works)