Passage to Manhood

"Liu makes it obvious why social scientists of infectious diseases and AIDS policy-makers should read this book: her multi-layered analysis based on several visits to the field (2002-8); her excellent writing style, honesty, and understanding of a complex issue." - Erling Hog, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute "[W]ell structured and accessible to those with no direct anthropological training: [Liu] gives clear, brief and un-patronizing descriptions of the main theoretical frameworks she uses, and manages to integrate the analysis well with the anthropological background material. This is no mean feat, and creates a book that is both intellectually fulfilling and very readable, but which does not lose academic impact despite its accessibility ... [A] welcome addition to the literature." - Stuart Gilmour, Asia Pacific World "Liu's remarkable 'medical ethnography' is not just a telling account of the devastating effects of youth migration, drugs, and AIDS on the Nuosu minority. It is as impressive an anthropological study as I have read of how the failure of the Chinese state and international organizations to take into account the local moral experiences of real people both causes social suffering and prevents the successful implementation of intervention programs. A splendid achievement." - Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University "This new work is articulate and eloquent in its discussion of Nuoso without valorizing or exoticizing, and offers important reflections on how the epidemics of HIV and IV drugs build upon old forms of marginalization. The author's discussion of Chinese bipolar modernity, both socialist and capitalist, is especially nuanced." - Nancy Chen, University of California, Santa Cruz "This is a gracefully written ethnography about an ethnic community in China caught in a struggle of cultural survival in the face of rampant drug abuse and an outbreak of HIV. Framed in theories of globalization and modernization, the book brings issues of drug abuse and HIV into the broader context of state-society relations and ethnic tensions in a society still dominated by a powerful state machinery." - Jing Jun, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Tsinghua University