Reforming disability in China a study in disability and development. Emma Victoria £tone Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. The University of Leeds, Department of Sociology & Social Policy and Department of East Asian Studies. September 1998 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. Emma Victoria Stone Reforming disability in China: a study in disability and development Ph.D. September 1998 The thesis sits between three academic fields: disability studies, development studies and East Asian studies. It is an unusual but important study of disability in a non- western culture. The thesis is unusual because it explores macro-level (rather than grassroots) constructions of disability, focusing on institutions and ideologies. It is important because no-one has (to my knowledge) undertaken this kind of macro-level analysis on a developing country; and also (again, to my knowledge) because the story of the macro-level construction of disability in China has not been told before. In this thesis, evidence and arguments are put forward with reference to the historical construction of disability in imperial China (Chapter Three), in late Qing and early Republican China (Chapter Four) and in state socialist China under Mao Zedong (Chapter Five). These chapters explore the place of impairment in Confucian cosmologies; the imperial construction of an administrative category of disability; the influence of western ideas and institutions on internal Chinese debates about the body and nation; and the place of disability and disabled people in state socialist China. A hypothesis of a discourse of body, nation and development is developed, and continues through the next four chapters which focus on disability in post-Mao China. Chapter Six examines the unexpected appearance of disability on the national government’s agenda in the 1980s. Chapter Seven explores disability-related policies and their underpinning values. Also in Chapter Seven, three studies are provided which incorporate field-based data to inject some balance (from the “grassroots") into what is otherwise an intentionally imbalanced thesis. Chapter Eight analyses the content and implications of disability propaganda; Chapter Nine tackles the difficult subject of disability legislation, in which equal rights and eugenics appear to go hand in hand. The result is a study of disability and development - and of discourses of disability and development - which will inform current thinking and will provide important information on disability policies, provision and propaganda in post-Mao China. Table of Contents Page Number List of Tables i List of Abbreviations ii Notes on the Language and Romanization iii Chronological List of Dynasties iv Acknowledgements v Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Theorising Disability and Development 6 Definitions of Disability 6 Western Disability Studies: an overview 11 Development Studies and Disability 13 East Asian Studies and Disability 17 Disability and Development: theories, concepts and myths 19 Disability and development: western theories 20 Western Theories and Non-western Stories 24 Disability and development in developing countries 28 Culture, Structure and Disability 32 Personhood 34 Body 35 Conclusion 39 Chapter Two: Disability and Development Research in China 41 First Principles 42 The Field 46 Doing Disability Field Research in China 48 Social Relations and Dangerous Liaisons 52 Dealing with Documents 54 Handling History 56 Learning from Language 58 Conclusion 59 Chapter Three: Imperial Cosmologies and Ideologies 61 Cosmological Frameworks 62 Perceptions of Impairment 64 Impairment Inscribed 65 Page Number Chapter Three (continued) Impairment and Retribution 66 Impairment and Evil Influences 67 Impairment and Imbalance 68 Responses to Impairment: socio-familial responses 69 Impairment and Personhood 69 Intervention 71 Rejection 73 Exclusion 74 Ridicule 74 Pity 75 Special Roles and Attributes 75 Empire, Order and Disorder 77 Family, Medicine and Welfare 80 Imperial Projects: gender, race and disability 86 State Constructions: disability and normalcy 90 Codes, Categories and Exemptions 93 Conclusion 95 Chapter Four: Chinese Debates, Western Influences 97 Setting the Scene 98 Western Influences 100 Orphanages, Hospitals and Schools 100 Anti-Footbinding, Pro-Fitness 108 Linking Western Influences and Chinese Debates 110 Chinese Debates 112 Nation and Nationalism 112 Body and Nation 114 Social Darwinism and Eugenic Utopias 116 Conclusion 121 Chapter Five: Disability and Development under Chairman Mao 123 Setting the Scene 124 Socialist Bodies 125 Socialist Personhoods and Welfare Ideologies 129 Disability Provision under Mao 134 Institutions and Asylums 135 Welfare-Work 136 Segregated Schools for Industry 139 Disability Associations Soviet-Style 141 What Place Disabled People in Mao’s Revolution? 142 Socialist Constructions of Disability 145 To Summarise So Far 148 Page Number Chapter Six: Disability on the Agenda 151 Setting the Scene 152 Disability on the Agenda? 155 New Data 157 New Language 162 New Initiatives 165 New Professions and Publications 168 New Organisations 171 Guanxi: the art of connecting 173 Open Doors and Globalization 176 Conclusion 178 Chapter Seven: A “Disability Initiative” with Chinese 180 Characteristics National Government Capacities and Constraints 181 The “Disability Initiative” 184 Underpinning Values: work and wealth 187 Many Channels, Many Levels , Many Forms 191 New Missionaries 195 Reforming the Past: Three Case Studies 199 The Welfare Institution 199 Case Study One: Xiao Jin 201 The Welfare Factory 203 Reforming Rehabilitation 209 Case Study Two: Xiao Lin 211 Case Study Three: Xiao Zhen 212 Case Study Four: Xiao Guo 214 Conclusion 215 Chapter Eight: Modelling Reform and Reforming Models 217 Civilising Society 218 Disability: a civilising discourse 219 The Exemplary Society 222 Socializing Disability 223 New Models of the Reform Era 226 Si Zi: modelling the four-selfs 228 Fu Wu: serving others, sacrificing self 230 Wen Hua: creators of culture and spiritual wealth 232 Ti Yu: the disabled body re-formed 234 Evaluating the Exemplary Society 238 Conclusion 240 Page Number Chapter Nine: Disability, Development and Legislation 241 A Law to Protect... 242 A Law to Prevent... 250 A Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care 251 The Irresistible Rise of Eugenics in China: a recent history 254 Development and Population: a new post-Mao discourse 259 Where Equality and Eugenics Combine 266 Conclusion 269 Conclusion 272 Appendix 278 Bibliography 286 List of Tables Table 1: Characters which describe impairment or indicate causation. Table 2: Characters which indicate diminished humanity or personhood. Table 3: Segregated schooling provision in China between 1946 and 1976. Table 4: National Disability Sample Survey (1987) impairment data. 11 List of Abbreviations The abbreviations listed below appear in the main text - not (only) in textual references. Where an abbreviation is used in a textual reference to indicate an organization (e.g. DAA, Disability Awareness in Action) which is the author of a publication referred to, or a newspaper (e.g. BYD, Beijing Youth Daily) in which a news story appears, then both the abbreviation and the full title are included in the Bibliography and are not generally cited below. CBR Community Based Rehabilitation CDPF China Disabled Persons Federation DPF Disabled Persons Federation ILO International Labour Organization S.A.R. Special Autonomous Region (Hong Kong) SCF (UK) Save the Children Fund (UK) MCA Ministry of Civil Affairs UN United Nations Unicef United Nations (International) Childrens (Emergency) Fund Unesco United Nations Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organization WHO World Health Organization iii Notes on Language and Roman ization Definitions of impairment and disability are discussed at length in Chapter One. Quotation marks are deployed in place of sic, where a word is used which would be considered derogatory in modern English, yet which provides the most accurate rendition of a (contemporary or historical) Chinese term, for example "mental retardation" where the Chinese term is ruozhi, or "cripple" where the Chinese term is bozi or quezi. Quotation marks may also be used to indicate that an everyday term is being singled out for particular scrutiny, or is inherently problematic; for example, "race" and "normalcy". In these circumstances, quotation marks are used on the first occasion that the word appears in a chapter, but generally not thereafter. The only exception to this is the term "developing countries" which, were it not disruptive to the narrative, I would have set in quotation marks throughout. My personal and political preference lies with the terms Majority World (for developing countries) and Minority World (for the west). However, these are not widely-recognised terms and I have therefore avoided using them in this thesis. Throughout the main text of the thesis, the Pin Yin style of romanization is used for Chinese characters (with the exception of Tao and other terms which have found their way into the English language). I have decided against providing the Chinese language version of all quotations or phrases used. Where translation is provided, this is because the language would be of particular interest to someone acquainted with Chinese. Finally, names of field sites (except Beijing, Wuhan and Tianjin) and names