Families We Need: Disability, Abandonment, and Foster Care's Resistance in Contemporary China (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781978829305)

Set in the remote, mountainous Guangxi Autonomous Region and based on ethnographic fieldwork, Families We Need traces the movement of three Chinese foster children, Dengrong, Pei Pei, and Meili, from the state orphanage into the humble, foster homes of Auntie Li, Auntie Ma, and Auntie Huang. Traversing the geography of Guangxi, from the modern capital Nanning where Pei Pei and Meili reside, to the small farming village several hours away where Dengrong is placed, this ethnography details the hardships of social abandonment for disabled children and disenfranchised, older women in China, while also analyzing the state's efforts to cope with such marginal populations and incorporate them into China's modern future. The book argues that Chinese foster families perform necessary, invisible service to the Chinese state and intercountry adoption, yet the bonds they form also resist such forces, exposing the inequalities, privilege, and ableism at the heart of global family making.

Author: Erin Raffety
ISBN-10: 1978829302
ISBN-13: 9781978829305
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/11/2022
Pages: 220
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.06h x 6.22w x 0.71d