The Effect of Multiple Voices: The Discourse of an Artemisia Desertorum Allergy Epidemic in Yulin, China
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Ever since the “suffering subject” has become the center of anthropological effort starting in the 1990s and going forward (Joel Robbins, 2014), the question of suffering has been examined using two theoretical viewpoints, namely, “those of endurance and of agency” (Marja-Liisa Honkasalo, 2009). For the “endurance” framework, suffering is viewed as “an existential experience at the border of human meaning making,” which begets the questions of “how to endure, how to suffer?” In contrast, the dimension of “agency” explores “how to avoid or how or diminish the emotion.” Regarding the issue of “agency,” many scholars have examined the agency of sufferers in terms of their ability to act on their suffering rather than simply remaining a passive subject experiencing pain. Avoiding the portrayal of sufferers as passive subjects also means amplifying their voices. However, one of the potentially most problematic features of such scholarship is that little attention is given to the potentially limited effect of sufferer agency in easing their pain. When sufferers can finally talk and act, to what extent are others actually listening and truly understanding them? What if sufferers’ voices and their actions against their suffering do not produce the optimal effect, and these sufferers have to continually endure their pain? In such situations, how can we amplify sufferers’ voices and thereby reinforce their actions against their painful experience? In taking the artemisia ordosica allergy in Yulin, China, as a case study, this paper shows the impasse that local sufferers face when their voices are not sufficient enough to stimulate the attention they need both socially and culturally, thereby leaving them no choice but to continue enduring their pain. In such situations where the boundaries between “agency” and “endurance” as both relate to “suffering” dissolve, secondary voices need to join in and support these sufferers and help them overcome their predicament. By engaging with ethnographic interviews with local sufferers in Yulin, medical anthropology theories, and modern Chinese literature, this research explores the challenges of speaking up for sufferers as non-sufferers and the corresponding solutions in order to demonstrate how secondhand storytelling have the potential to garner more support for sufferers and inspire further efforts to resolve outstanding issues. Ultimately, this paper not only aims to encourage allergy sufferers to continue speaking about their experiences, but also to encourage those without allergies to speak out on their behalf as well, thereby establishing a strong solidarity of caring and greater engagement with a wider array of potential problem-solvers in the search for solutions that work.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | August 25, 2021 |
| Date modified | December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | August 26, 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Ma, Sai | |
|---|---|---|
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Stanford Global Studies, Center for East Asian Studies | |
| Thesis advisor | Wang, Ban |
Subjects
| Subject | Artemisia Desertorum Allergy |
|---|---|
| Subject | Suffering Subject |
| Subject | Second-hand Storytelling |
| Subject | Medical Humanities |
| Subject | Stanford Global Studies |
| Subject | East Asian Studies |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Ma, S. (2021). The Effect of Multiple Voices: The Discourse of an Artemisia Desertorum Allergy Epidemic in Yulin, China. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/sd773vj2719
Collection
Stanford Center for East Asian Studies Thesis Collection
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