RECOVERING HISTORIES
STUDIES OF THE WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
The Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University were inaugurated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results of significant new research on modern and contemporary East Asia.
RECOVERING HISTORIES
LIFE AND LABOR AFTER HEROIN IN REFORM-ERA CHINA
Nicholas Bartlett
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2020 by Nicholas Bartlett
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bartlett, Nicholas, 1978- author.
Title: Recovering histories : life and labor after heroin in reform-era China / Nicholas Bartlett.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020014434 (print) | LCCN 2020014435 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520344112 (cloth) | ISBN 9780520344136 (paperback) | ISBN 9780520975378 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Heroin abuse—Social aspects—China—Gejiu. | Drug abuse—China—Gejiu—History. | Recovering addicts—Employment—China—Gejiu.
Classification: LCC HV5840.C62 G453 2020 (print) | LCC HV5840.C62 (ebook) | DDC 362.29/34095135—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014434
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014435
Manufactured in the United States of America
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To my parents, with love and gratitude
Contents
Introduction: Toward a Phenomenology of Recovery
1. Mayhem on the Mountains: The Rush of Heroin’s Arrival
2. Recovery as Adaptation: Catching Up to the Private Sector
3. Absence of a Future: Narrative, Obsolescence, and Community
4. Idling in Mao’s Shadow: The Therapeutic Value of Socialist Labor
5. A Wedding and Its Afterlife: Relationships, Recovery
6. “From the Community”: Civil Society Ambitions and the Limits of Phenomenology
Epilogue
Appendix: Events Impacting the Heroin Generation
Notes
References
Index
Illustrations
FIGURES
1. Abandoned tracks on Old Yin Mountain
2. Old Yin Mountain, visible from the valley floor
3. Monument to nineteenth-century tin workers
4. Upscale mall and luxury apartment buildings in the city center
5. The patio at Green Orchards
6. Government family planning banner at Green Orchards
7. Antidrug campaign poster
8. Group wedding in Yulu community treatment center
9. Wedding vehicle convoy
10. Late night mahjong games
11. Entering Laochang mining area
12. Abandoned building on the Laochang mountainside
MAPS
1. Regional opium production and overland heroin trafficking routes, 1999
Acknowledgments
This book has emerged slowly, drawing on nearly two decades of study and research. I have incurred many debts of gratitude along the way.
From my undergraduate years, I would like to recognize the lasting influence of Gary Wilder, Sam Yamashita, and Kevin Platt, all fantastic and dedicated educators. From my first years in New York, I would like to thank John Chin, Richard Elovich, Kate Hunt, Dorinda Welle, and Carol Vance. Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch and Daniel Wolfe at Open Society Foundations were wise, kind, and supportive bosses and mentors.
In the Bay Area, Vincanne Adams and Liu Xin shaped this project in crucial ways. In her capacity as chair of my dissertation committee, Vincanne Adams was a kind and responsive mentor, a talented teacher, and an insightful reader. Liu Xin had his office door open at crucial moments and saw early on that this project might focus on temporality. Matthew Kohrman and Deborah Gordon have been cherished mentors. Alex Beliaev, Anthony Stavrianakis, and Eric Plemons were key readers of my dissertation. My fellow UCSF cohort mates Jeff Schonberg, Kelly Knight, and Liza Buchbinder provided support and friendship. Other people I would like to thank include Saleem Al-Baholy, Philippe Bourgois, Lawrence Cohen, Katie Hendy, Judith Justice, Eugene Raikhel, Laura Schmidt, Ian Whitmarsh, and Emily Wilcox. Emily Chua requires special mention for well over a decade of friendship and impactful conversations.
My deep appreciation to wonderful colleagues and friends who made working and living in China over the years a pleasure: Bao Xiuhong, Vincent Chin, Ge Rongling, Feng Yu, Ted Hammett, Sandra Hyde, Tom Kellogg, Li Dongliang, Li Jianhua, Ralph Litzinger, Liu Yu, Jen Liu-Lin and Craig Simons, Carrie Luo, Tim Manchester, Morgan Philbin, Michelle Rodolph, Kumi Smith, Victor Shih and Maria Goff, Wang Zhenxiu, Stephanie Weber, Xia Ying, Zhang Wei, Zhao Chengzheng, and Zhang Konglai. A note of gratitude as well to my Chinese teachers. I want to thank IHRD grantees in China and Indonesia whom I had the privilege of working with and learning from.
In Los Angeles, thank you to Jason Throop, Cheryl Mattingly, Josh Goldstein, Doug Hollan, the MMAC community, and the anthropology departments at UCLA and USC. A preliminary thank you as well to Esther Dreifuss-Kattan, Peter Loewenberg, Jeff Prager, and Bettina Soestwohner, my cohort mates and teachers at the New Center for Psychoanalysis, the Valley Community Counselling Clinic, and the international group relations community for your kindness in allowing me to explore an endlessly fascinating and enriching field.
At Barnard College and Columbia University, Rachel McDermott and Max Moerman in AMEC have been extraordinary senior colleagues and mentors. Lesley Sharp has gone above and beyond. Thanks as well to Ron Briggs, Michael Como, Nadia Abu El-Haj, Kathy Ewing, Sev Fowles, Guo Jue, Eugenia Lean, Lan Li, Lydia Liu, Elliot Paul, Haruo Shirane, Emily Sun, Christina Vizcarra, Carl Wennerlind, Ying Qian, and other colleagues in EALAC, AMEC, and anthropology. I also express gratitude to my excellent students, who have provoked my thinking and scholarship