Rural Women’s Bodies and Invisible Hands: Neoliberalism and Population Control in China

Abstract

This chapter discusses neoliberalism in China and addresses howindividual and state bodies are formed in close interrelation with oneanother. Through examining the intersection between governmentality inthe Foucauldian sense and rural men and women's bodies in contemporaryChina, the chapter demonstrates how a changing Chinese context continuesto manage women's reproductive and productive bodies for the good of thenation through the ``one-child policy.{''} In a neoliberal climate, theone-child policy is reinforced through a rhetoric of free and rationalchoices rather than of state control. With the aim of unveiling theillusion of neoliberalism, which allegedly brings about freedom andchoice for Chinese women, the chapter examines how the contemporaryChinese state is attempting to craft the governable bodies and docilegendered citizens crucial to its modernization project. It concludesthat the promotion of entrepreneurial individuals who make more rationalreproductive choices leads to women's bodies being more subtlydisciplined than in the past and controlled in ways that are difficultto unmask or criticize.