Sociological and psychiatric studies on suicide based on Western ideas about human nature see suicide as social or individual disorder. Suicide in China, however, should be understood differently.

By analyzing 30 cases, Wu Fei studies the dynamics of suicide in terms of family politics and local psychology and finds that suicide is committed when a power balance is broken in the games of power in the family. Unlike public injustice, domestic injustice is not only closely related to, but also often strengthened by emotional interdependence. Suicide and depression are different responses to the same situation of domestic injustice. The book also covers suicide as perceived by rural people outside the family; how suicide is viewed in politics; suicide prevention and studies of suicide in Chinese modern intellectual history.

Showing that suicide in China is not mainly caused by too traditional values, but reflects a dilemma in Chinese modernity, this book should be of interest to students and scholars in Chinese studies; sociology; anthropology and suicide studies.

Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University Reviews: This book is the most serious ethnographic study of suicide to date. Its conclusions challenge but also complement psychiatric research. It is also an important contribution to the study of what is disappearing in rural China today. A real achievement.

河北肅寜人，北京大學社會學學士、哲學碩士，哈佛大學人類學博士，現任北京大學哲學係、宗教學係副教授，北京大學外國哲學研究所研究人員。主要著作有《自殺作為中國問題》、《麥芒上的聖言》、《自殺與美好生活》等。