Bodies of Difference chronicles the compelling story of disability's emergence as an area of significant sociopolitical activity in contemporary China. Keenly attentive to how bodies are embedded in discourse, history, and personal exigency, Matthew Kohrman details ways that disability became a fount for the production of institutions and identities across the Chinese landscape during the final decades of the twentieth century. He looks closely at the creation of the China Disabled Persons' Federation and the lives of numerous individuals, among them Deng Pufang, son of China's Communist leader Deng Xiaoping.

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. A Biomythography in the Making

2. Why Ma Zhun Doesn’t Count

3. Building a Corporate Body

4. Speeding Up Life in Beijing

5. Troubled Sociality: The Federation-Canji Relationship

in Wenchang County

6. Dis/ablement and Marriage: Ridiculed Bachelors, Ambivalent Grooms

Epilogue

Notes

Appendixes

References

Index

Matthew Kohrman is Associate Professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology at Stanford University