China: The Basics

Drawing on over two decades of research in and on China and on extensive reviews of current scholarship, China: The Basics introduces readers to the key aspects of Chinese society, culture, and politics.

The book provides an empirically rich overview of China’s global position and the challenges posed by urbanisation, uneven economic development, and environmental governance. With detailed vignettes giving a flavour of everyday life experiences, China: The Basics challenges simplistic approaches to China as a monolithic political unit by illustrating the nuances of citizens’ agency in different realms, including work-based and gender-based inequality, social media activism, environmental protection, illness, and healthcare. It encourages readers to reflect on the importance of scale across the themes discussed. Cross-cutting referencing between chapters enables readers to identify cross-cutting themes and to consult chapters in their preferred order.

China: The Basics nurtures a critical and reflexive approach and provides readers with a conceptual toolkit for engaging with new developments constructively. It will be essential reading for students, lecturers, and anyone curious about contemporary China.

Anna L. Lora-Wainwright is Professor of the Human Geography of China at the University of Oxford. She has a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from Oxford University; and an MA in Chinese Studies and a BA in Anthropology, both from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. She is the author of two monographs on contemporary rural China and of numerous articles in the fields of social and medical anthropology, geography and environmental politics. Her current research focuses on evolving forms of morality and practices of care in China and among overseas Chinese.