SANNA ERIKSSON: Intensive Mothering with Chinese Characteristics [PGR]

Life in China’s urban centres is characterized by extreme competition that is often described with the term neijuan (rat race). In the lives of urban middle-class mothers born in the 1980s and 1990s, living and coping with neijuan has become equivalent to ensuring their children’s success in school and by extension later in life through practices that are referred to as ‘chicken parenting’ (jiwa). I will discuss through analysis of interviews with mainly Shanghai-based middle-class women, and of two popular TV dramas, A Love for Dilemma (Xiao shede, 2021) and Nothing but Thirty (Sanshi eryi, 2020), hegemonic discourses of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood. Of particular interest is how market economy values have penetrated women’s approaches to mothering, making it an exercise in project management, and how military terminology is used to express the competitive nature of contemporary parenting. The mother’s central role in the family as the educator of children and planner for the future is highlighted. I will argue that motherhood has been conceptually professionalized while socialist ideas are still used for meaning making in a neoliberal society.

Sanna Eriksson is a 4th year PhD student at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York.

MCI’s PGR workshops are lunchtime seminars held in person at the Manchester China Institute. They seek to bring together students, faculty, and staff who can best provide feedback as postgraduate researchers develop their ideas. Free lunch will be provided.

The MCI is a listed building and therefore does not have any lifts. Please note that you must use the stairs in order to access the venue and the toilets.

The organisers will be taking photos during this event. If you prefer not to be included in any photos, kindly inform the organisers before the event starts.

Host or Publisher The Manchester China Institute