The Desire to Help

Vernacular Humanitarian Imaginaries in China

Dados Bibliográficos

ID18961052
AutoresJ Fengjiang (0000-0003-3703-2965, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume31
Fascículo1
Páginas30-47
Data de publicação2023-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0964-0282 • E-ISSN: 1469-8676
EditoraBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/saas.2023.310104
OpenAlexW4366158931
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas22

The tremendous growth in search and rescue volunteerism in China of the past decade marks a shift from state monopoly to growing social participation in emergency governance related to disasters and various other forms of emergency. In some respects, the Chinese case can be contextualised in the global rise of ‘vernacular humanitarianism’. This article joins recent anthropologists’ and historians’ attempts to de-centre and pluralise humanitarianism, which has so far been dominated by the paradigms of Northern-led and highly institutionalised international regimes. Drawing on ethnographic research in southeast China, it suggests that the lens of vernacular imaginaries and desire is particularly fruitful for articulating how people act across various social and cultural spheres that go beyond the dichotomous scholarly paradigms of state-centric interpellation and individual compassions/resistance in the Chinese context. It also allows us to rescue the plural political potentials of humanitarianism from cynicisms regarding the major paradigms of humanitarianism

Art · China · Ethnology · Humanities · Political science · Sociology · Vernacular · China's Global Influence and Migration · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies