Mikkel Bunkenborg - Collaborative Damage: An Experimental Ethnography of Chinese Globalization

Chinese words in the text are mostly written with simplified Chinese characters only, but names and certain terms that may be familiar to an English speaking audience have been transliterated according to the pinyin system with tone markers omitted.

Except for widely used spellings of well-known historical names, such as Genghis Khan, the following system has been used when transliterating from the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet:

In a few cases we have followed Sneath (2000, viii) in adding a Roman s to the end of Mongolian words instead of using the Mongolian plural.

Transliteration of Changana done according to Bento Sitoes dictionary Dicionrio Changana-Portugus(2011) and subsequently verified through interviews with Sitoe.

Throughout the book, we regularly refer to four different currencies: the Chinese Renminbi (RMB), the Mongolian Tgrg (MT), the Mozambican Metical (MZM), and the US Dollar (US $). The rates fluctuated somewhat during the years 2009 to 2012, but on average, US $1 equalled approximately RMB 6.5, MT 1,300, and MZM 30.

Many people have contributed to the making of this book. First of all, we would like to express a deep debt of gratitude to the individuals, communities, and institutions in Mozambique, Mongolia, and China who spent time answering our questions and giving us access to their workplaces and lives. Without them, this book would simply not exist.

In addition, we would also like to extend a very special thanks to Anna Tsing and George Marcus, whose work has inspired and informed many of the arguments of this book, and who have also both helped us at various crucial stages in the course of bringing this project to fruition. A big thank you also to the three anonymous peer reviewers, as well as to Jim Lance and other good people at Cornell University Press, for their detailed, insightful, and constructive suggestions and criticisms to the first version of this manuscript.

The following scholars have heard or read and shared their input to presentations, papers, and draft chapters: Bjrn Enge Bertelsen, Franck Bill, Lauren Bonilla, Susanne Bregnbk, Uradyn Bulag, Manduhai Buyandelger, Matei Candea, Srgio Chichava, Christopher Connery, Dimitris Dalakoglou, Filip de Boeck, Devon Dear, Grgory Delaplace, Jrgen Delman, Bumochir Dulam, Judith Farquhar, Anders Sybrandt Hansen, Thomas Blom Hansen, Donna Haraway, Penny Harvey, Martin Holbraad, Caroline Humphrey, Sara Jackson, Paul Jenkins, Casper Bruun Jensen, Hanna Knox, Peter Kragelund, Tanya Luhrmann, Christian Lund, Gordon Mathews, Sayana Namsaraeva, John Osburg, Ivan Peshkov, Ed Pulford, Andreas Roepstorff, Lisa Rofel, Danilyn Rutherford, Istvn Sntha, AbdouMaliq Simone, Marissa Smith, David Sneath, Jason Sumich, Stig Thgersen, Brit Winthereik, Matthew Wolf-Meyer. A big word of thanks also to our many colleagues from the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen; the Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen; and the Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University.

We would also like to acknowledge the many excellent questions, comments, and criticisms received in the context of papers presented by all or some of us at the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit, Cambridge University; the Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Seminar, Harvard University; the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz; the Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan; the Department of Anthropology, Stanford University; the Department of Anthropology, University of St. Andrews; the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen; Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) in Copenhagen; the Anthropological Megaseminar, Sandbjerg Denmark; the panel Borderline Intimacies: Sino-Xeno Encounters in Sub-Saharan Africa and Inner Asia at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association; the Center for East and South-East Asia Studies, Lund University; Department of Global Area Studies, Aarhus University; the Asian Dynamics Conferences held at the University of Copenhagen in 2013 and 2017; the University of Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique, Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Econmicos (IESE), Mozambique; the Institute of Anthropology, Renmin University; the University of Chicago Center in Beijing; and the Institute of Global Ethnology and Anthropology, Minzu University of China.

We would like to acknowledge the help and support in Mongolia from Zhenia (Jenya) Boikov and B. Otgonchimeg. A special thanks to the late Mr. Brneebat, who in addition to being a steady driver for Pedersen and Bunkenborg, also turned out to be an excellent assistant and a trusted discussion partner during their travels in Mongolia. Many thanks also to Bayarmaa Khalzaa and to Ms. Batdulam for help with the transcription and translation of interviews, and for linguistic and ethnographic assistance in the field. A big thanks also to Prof. D. Bumochir for his assistance in obtaining research permissions. In addition Pedersen and Bunkenborg would like to thank the following list of individuals in Mongolia: Ms. Altanlish, Mr. Amraa, D. Battulga, Nasan Bayar, Mr. Bayarsaihan, the late Slava Boikov, Mr. Chimedtseren, Nigamet Dastan, Rebecca Darling, D. Enhjargal, Robert Grayson, Tjalling Halbertsma, Pearly Jacob, Jia Xinsheng, Bolarmaa Luntan, Lao Luo, Laurenz Melchior, Mr. Mnhtr, Ms. Narantsetseg, Kirk Olson, N. Onon, B. Tsendsren, T. Tumentsogt, and Ms. lzii Chimeg.