Irony, Cynicism and the Chinese State

Hans Steinmüller is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics, UK. He is the author of Communities of Complicity: Everyday Ethics in Rural China (2013).Susanne Brandtstädter is a China anthropologist and Chair of the Anthropology of Globalization at the University of Cologne, Germany. She is the author of Falsificaciones, Derechos y Protestas (2015) and co-editor of Rights, Cultures, Subjects and Citizens (Routledge 2013).

'The various chapters in this edited book provide diverse contexts in which the study of irony and cycnicism in China can be made... The chapters in this books enable us to see the different dimenions in whcih Chinese people have tested the waters... Overall this is a timely book that is worth reading...'Tan Chee-Beng, Sun Yat-sen University, China, Asian Anthropology "This is an excellent collection, not because it has answered all the questions it poses, but because it provides another necessary angle for us to think about ourselves in relation to that which is conveniently called “China,” a world in which we find not only a past but also future potentials for investigations. An inquiry about today’s China, therefore, has become a study of our own future possibilities."Xin Liu, Anthropos Reviews"In summary, the ethnographic details in the individual chapters make this collection a valuable addition to any course covering aspects of modern China."DAVID KURT HEROLD, The China Quarterly"For those familiar with the complex paradoxes of life in contemporary China, this is an exquisite collection of essays. It provides concrete fieldwork experiences as a framework to delve into a very central aspect of Chinese culture that few have dared to explore. It clearly and concisely grapples with these slippery topics and does so with admirable insight and finesse."MARC L. MOSKOWITZ, University of South Carolina, European Association of Social Anthropologists"The chapters in this books enable us to see the different dimensions in which Chinese people have tested the waters… Overall this is a timely book that is worth reading…’Tan Chee-Beng, Sun Yat-sen Univeristy, China, Asian Anthropology

• Introduction: Irony, Cynicism, and the Chinese State 1. Moral Persons and Implicit Irony in Today’s China 2. The Farmer, the Foreman and the Tinker: Irony and the Displacement of Meaning in Xiakou Village 3. Morality and Cynicism in a "Grey" World 4. Chinese Migrant Workers’ Cynicism and the Politics of "Decent" Wage 5. The Ironies of "Political Agriculture": Bureaucratic Rationality and Moral Networks in Rural China 6. An Interactionist Perspective on Irony in the Street-level Bureaucracies of Beijing 7. The Rebel as Trickster and the Ironies of Resisting in Rural China 8. Freedom in Irony and Dreams: Inhabiting the Realms of Ancestors and Opportunities in Southwest China 9. Differentiating Cynicisms: Irony, Cynicism and New Media in Contemporary China 10. Afterword: Ironic Reflections in a Cynical Age