Chinese Stories of Drug Addiction
Addiction to illicit drugs is a pressing social concern across greater China, where there are likely several million drug addicts at present. This research breaks new ground by examining Chinese peoples stories of drug addiction.
Chinese Stories of Drug Addiction systematically evaluates how drug addiction is represented and constructed in a series of contemporary life stories and filmic stories from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. These stories recount experiences leading up to and during drug addiction, as well as experiences during drug rehabilitation and recovery. Through analysis of these contemporary life stories and filmic stories, the book presents a comprehensive picture of how Chinese people from both inside the experience of drug addiction and outside of it make sense of a social practice that is deemed to be highly transgressive in Chinese culture. It employs a blended discourse analytic and narrative analytic approach to show how salient cultural, political and institutional discourses shape these Chinese stories and experiences. Complementing existing humanities research, which documents the historical narrative of drug addiction in China at the expense of the contemporary narrative, the book also provides health and allied professionals with a rich insight into how Chinese people from different geographical locations and walks of life make sense of the experience of drug addiction.
Moving beyond historical narrative to examine contemporary stories, Chinese Stories of Drug Addiction offers a valuable contribution to the fields of Chinese studies and personal health and wellbeing, as well as being of practical use to health professionals.
Guy Ramsay is a senior lecturer in Chinese studies at The University of Queensland, Australia. In 2013, he published Mental Illness, Dementia and Family in China (Routledge).
Routledge/Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) East Asia Series
Edited by Morris Low
Editorial Board: Professor Geremie Barm (Australian National University), Emeritus Professor Colin Mackerras (Griffith University), Professor Vera Mackie (University of Wollongong) and Professor Sonia Ryang (University of Iowa)
This series represents a showcase for the latest cutting-edge research in the field of East Asian studies, from both established scholars and rising academics. It will include studies from every part of the East Asian region (including China, Japan, North and South Korea and Taiwan) as well as comparative studies dealing with more than one country. Topics covered may be contemporary or historical, and relate to any of the humanities or social sciences. The series is an invaluable source of information and challenging perspectives for advanced students and researchers alike.
Routledge is pleased to invite proposals for new books in the series. In the first instance, any interested authors should contact:
Associate Professor Morris Low
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
University of Queensland
Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Routledge/Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) East Asia Series
1 | Gender in Japan Power and public policy Vera Mackie
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2 | The Chaebol and Labour in Korea The development of management strategy in Hyundai Seung Ho Kwon and Michael ODonnell
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3 | Rethinking Identity in Modern Japan Nationalism as aesthetics Yumiko Iida
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4 | The Manchurian Crisis and Japanese Society, 193133 Sandra Wilson
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5 | Koreas Development Under Park Chung Hee Rapid industrialization, 19611979 Hyung-A Kim
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6 | Japan and National Anthropology A critique Sonia Ryang
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7 | Homoerotic Sensibilities in Late Imperial China Wu Cuncun
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8 | Postmodern, Feminist and Postcolonial Currents in Contemporary Japanese Culture A reading of Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, Yoshimoto Takaaki and Karatani Kjin Murakami Fuminobu
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9 | Japan on Display Photography and the emperor Morris Low
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10 | Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan David G. Wittner
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11 | Womens History and Local Community in Postwar Japan Curtis Anderson Gayle
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12 | Defending Rights in Contemporary China Jonathan Benney
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13 | Re-reading the Salaryman in Japan Crafting masculinities Romit Dasgupta
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14 | Mental Illness, Dementia and Family in China Guy Ramsay
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15 | Japans New Left Movements Legacies for civil society Takemasa Ando
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16 | Chinese Stories of Drug Addiction Beyond the opium dens Guy Ramsay |
First published 2016
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2016 Guy Ramsay
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ISBN: 978-1-138-94629-3 (hbk)
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This book is dedicated with love to Mum and Lily.
Contents
I wish to thank the following people and organisations for their kind assistance in the development and writing of this book: Rebecca Carter, Helen Creese, Daphne Hsieh, Wendy Jiang, Leong Ko, Yenney Lai, Yin Bing Leung, Haiyan Liang, Shirley Liu, Morris Low, Ying-hsiu Lu, Wai Wai Lui, John McNair, Karen Molnar, Alex Pan, Annie Pohlman, Rosie Roberts, Lara Vanderstaay, Yingxian Wang, Carol Wical, Shirley Wu; and the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at The University of Queensland, the University of Queensland Library, and the reviewers of the manuscript.
1
Introduction
Despite a global war against illicit drug use and trafficking, which has been carried out over many decades, drug addiction remains a pressing social concern in countries throughout the world. China is no exception. Drug addiction blighted twentieth-century Chinese society until it was virtually eliminated from mainland China in the early 1950s, following the Communist victory in 1949 (Diktter, Laamann & Zhou 2004; Liang & Lu 2013; Zheng 2005; Zhou 1999, 2000b). The phenomenon, however, re-emerged in mainland China alongside the program of reform and opening up [] that was initiated in 1978, following the death of Mao Zedong some two years earlier (Biddulph & Xie 2011; Diktter, Laamann & Zhou 2004; Liang & Lu 2013; Luo et al. 2014; Zheng 2005; Zhou 1999, 2000b). Drug addiction in the Chinese communities of nearby Taiwan and Hong Kong was an enduring concern during the Japanese and British colonial periods of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and persists to the present-day under local rule (Chou, Hung & Liao 2007; Chu 2008; Hsu 2014; Li 2013; Traver 1992).