{"product_id":"two-dimensional-people-lives-desires-and-social-attitudes-in-a-changing-chinese-village","title":"Two-Dimensional People","description":"\u003cp\u003eBased on almost eight years of fieldwork in a town and a village in South China, this book analyzes contradictions among various dimensions of the peasant economy, social relationships, popular religion, and local politics in rural China. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCompared to many anthropological, sociological, and political studies of rural China, which regard Chinese peasants as one-dimensionally materialistic, politically conservative, egocentric (lacking public-mindedness, as in anthropologist Yan Yunxiang’s notion of the \"uncivil individual\"), with collapsed beliefs, and thinking only of the present (or the \"today-ness of today\" according to anthropologist Liu Xin), this book shows that people in contemporary rural China are actually \"two-dimensional\": trying to combine the calculation of self-interest with affective networks of reciprocity, but often falling into awkwardness or cynicism, in a paradoxical symbiosis between nihilism and transcendence. While Marcuse used the words of Benjamin to analyze \"one-dimensional man,\" writing \"Only for the sake of the hopeless ones have we been given hope,\" this book writes of two-dimensional people, \"Only when the vast majority of ordinary people can find hope in everyday life can we finally be given hope!\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book will be of interest to scholars and students of Sociology, Anthropology and East Asian Studies. It will also be a great read to those who are interested in contemporary China in general. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49780799766872,"sku":"9781032404387","price":43.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781032404387_9746734a-583a-4901-9f3d-123ac44596fb.jpg?v=1779341457","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/two-dimensional-people-lives-desires-and-social-attitudes-in-a-changing-chinese-village","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}