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Cover of The roads of Chinese childhood

The Roads of Chinese Childhood

Learning and Identification in Angang (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)

By Charles Stafford

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Publish Date

June 1, 2006

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Language

eng

Pages

223

Description:

Children in the Taiwanese fishing community of Angang have their attention drawn, consciously and unconsciously, to various forms of identification through their participation in schooling, family life and popular religion. They read texts about 'virtuous mothers', share 'meaningful foods' with other villagers, visit the altars of 'divining children' and participate in 'dangerous' god-strengthening rituals. In particular they learn about the family-based cycle of reciprocity, and the tension between this and commitment to the nation. Charles Stafford's study of childhood in this community (with additional material from northeastern mainland China) explores absorbing issues related to nurturance, education, family, kinship and society in its analysis of how children learn, or do not learn, to identify themselves as both familial and Chinese.