Synopses & Reviews
Female infanticide is a social practice often closely associated with Chinese culture. Journalists, social scientists, and historians alike emphasize that it is a result of the persistence of son preference, from China's ancient past to its modern present. Yet how is it that the killing of newborn daughters has come to be so intimately associated with Chinese culture?
Between Birth and Death locates a significant historical shift in the representation of female infanticide during the nineteenth century. It was during these years that the practice transformed from a moral and deeply local issue affecting communities into an emblematic cultural marker of a backwards Chinese civilization, requiring the scientific, religious, and political attention of the West. Using a wide array of Chinese, French and English primary sources, the book takes readers on an unusual historical journey, presenting the varied perspectives of those concerned with the fate of an unwanted Chinese daughter: a late imperial Chinese mother in the immediate moments following birth, a male Chinese philanthropist dedicated to rectifying moral behavior in his community, Western Sinological experts preoccupied with determining the comparative prevalence of the practice, Catholic missionaries and schoolchildren intent on saving the souls of heathen Chinese children, and turn-of-the-century reformers grappling with the problem as a challenge for an emerging nation.
Review
"Offers riveting discussions of what infanticide meant to mothers and other women in nineteenth-century China, and to elite men who tried to prevent the practice."Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley, San Diego State University
Review
"Michelle King has written a fascinating and well-researched account of how infanticide came to be viewed as a characteristically Chinese problem. She examines how infanticide was viewed by participants, as well as local and foreign observers, and explains how Chinese infanticide has had such a strong grip on our minds on the basis of remarkably little evidence other than condemnation of the practice. The book is a pleasure to read, with captivating stories, focusing on individuals who have shaped our ideas about China. It would be an excellent resource for undergraduate teaching and discussion."Henrietta Harrison, University of Oxford
Review
"King's research deepens our understanding of gender and imperialism in the nineteenth century by illustrating how imperialist notions of China as a backward and heathen place were constructed in part on dubious claims that identified female infanticide as an emblematically Chinese cultural practice . . . King's fascinating book includes an introduction, conclusion, and five carefully researched chapters that address female infanticide from the perspective of five different groups: women, Confucian scholars, Western China experts, Western missionaries, and Chinese nationalists . . . The book is also richly illustrated with images from nineteenth-century Confucian morality books and Christian missionary publications. All the chapters feature conscientiously framed discussions and arresting vignettes that are absorbing and accessible to undergraduates."Margaret Kuo, Cross-Currents
Synopsis
Between Birth and Death is a critical history of female infanticide in nineteenth-century China, when it was transformed from a moral issue affecting local communities into an emblematic cultural marker of a backwards Chinese civilization.
About the Author
Michelle T. King is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.