In classical Marxist thought, the consciousness that they are being alienated from their own labo... more In classical Marxist thought, the consciousness that they are being alienated from their own labour compels the working class to take action to liberate themselves. In the twenty-first century however, the widespread consciousness of alienation often serves to deepen feelings of powerlessness. Instead of pushing back against the alienating condition, some workers become entangled in a "double alienation"-feeling estranged from their work, they force themselves to work even harder to gain security, recognition, and meaning. Based on an ethnographic analysis of the working conditions of secondary school teachers in urban China, this article disentangles how "double alienation" has resulted from recent changes in the larger political economy and new institutional arrangements, as well as personal histories. These changes have ebbed away the "ground" in teachers' working lives. Without such a "ground," namely self-organized immediate experiences in daily life that provide a basis to reflect on and resist alienating forces, teachers become attached to the system they are so critical of. As such, consciously regaining ground can be a way out. As part of the "Common Concerns Approach" experiment, this essay proposes "double alienation" and "ground" not only as terms to describe reality, but more importantly as intellectual tools that the teachers and others can potentially use for themselves to deal with, and therefore changing, reality.
This is a commentary on “Infrastructural mediation” by Shrestha (2025, Current Anthropology). “Cr... more This is a commentary on “Infrastructural mediation” by Shrestha (2025, Current Anthropology). “Critical compliance” means criticizing the far and naturalizing the near. A person is critically aware of how his/her life is conditioned by larger structures and believes that the structures are the root cause of everything. At the same time the person rationalizes concrete relations with other persons (e.g. “everyone wants money”), and believes that the only way to move ahead is to follow these rules closely. What lacks here is not knowledge—people with critical compliance are very well informed—what lack is a type of social consciousness, namely a type of interpretation that makes sense of one’s life experiences in a way that entices concrete but potentially transformative actions. When societies are increasingly organized through complex social infrastructures (ranging from intermediaries to smartphone Apps), we need to understand better how social consciousness is being reshaped.
The article explores why the pursuit of social recognition and the need
to prove self-worth can ... more The article explores why the pursuit of social recognition and the need
to prove self-worth can be exhausting and damaging, and proposes an analytical frame‐
work that distinguishes two modes of recognition: Rende (recognition-as-understanding)
and Renke (recognition-as-approval). Rende refers to mutual understanding between
equal subjects, aligning with fundamental psychological needs, whereas Renke refers to
the affirmation of individuals’ value by authorities, which depends on evaluation ac‐
cording to external criteria. Modern liberalism holds that individuals possess infinite in‐
trinsic value, yet requires them to prove themselves externally in order to obtain social
recognition, leading to psychological pressure on individuals. Furthermore, the tendency
in current Chinese society that Renke replaces Rende as a foundation for individuals to
establish their value exacerbates dependence, existential anxiety, and the crises of self-
identity. The article advocates rebalancing the relationship between these two types of
recognition in micro-level environments, and striving for recognition based on mutual
understanding. Conscious adjustments in interpersonal relations can indirectly mitigate
We live in an era of advanced communication technologies; yet we also live an era of communicatio... more We live in an era of advanced communication technologies; yet we also live an era of communication breakdown. Public opinions are polarized, individuals struggle to organize their experiences into coherent meanings, leaving them feeling that life is fragmented, random, and bewildering. When thought and art lose their capacity of organizing public consciousness, the public turns to authoritarian figures or seek out enemies to assert identity. In order to gain its organizing capacity, this essay suggests, social thought should aim at three social effects.
This article probes the changing relation between commodity circulation and state power in China ... more This article probes the changing relation between commodity circulation and state power in China by focusing on Yiwu Market, which Xi Jinping has repeatedly praised as an exemplar for future development. In the state-owned and managed marketspace, government deregulated commercial transactions provide logistical services and impose strict social control to ensure an overarching order for transactions. Individual traders in the market efficiently establish in-person connections (channels) to achieve precise tailored matches between supply and demand, resulting in a nearly 'perfect' market condition. This has generated 'logistical power', namely government's dominance over private actors through the facilitation of economic circulation without direct interference. Changes in logistical power may affect both economic life and state power in China.
The Nearby is not a descriptive term about existing units, such as a community, a neighbourhood o... more The Nearby is not a descriptive term about existing units, such as a community, a neighbourhood or an online group. It is a strategy that people engage with their immediate surrounding as the interface between the individual and the world, and therefore organize their attention and energy that give a shape to the world in a way that they can act on. For those who feel trapped in situations that appear both unbearable and inescapable, the nearby provides a ground for one to stand on, and makes actions possible. This orientation is conservative as it pays close attention to the constrains that one faces, but it is enthusiastic as it seeks possibilities for immediate actions. The essay also reflects on how an academic concept gains its social life through public communication and actions, and the potentials and pitfalls such a loop may bring about. This essay is published in Fujian Forum. No. 3 (394): 87–105 (April 2025) as part of the special section “The Theory of the ‘Nearby’ and Its Possibilities”.
The pandemic has ushered in drastic new restrictions on the right to move, as governments have im... more The pandemic has ushered in drastic new restrictions on the right to move, as governments have imposed lockdowns in more or less organized ways. In pursuit of its zero-COVID policy, China has gone farther than most in the extent and rigor of its mobility restrictions. Responsibility for enforcement has been redistributed to lower-level officials, landlords, and migrant labor agencies, while food delivery companies and others in the mobility business have thrived. These redistributions of mobility are likely to remain in place beyond the pandemic, changing relations between government and citizens.
Coming back to Wenzhou this time inspired me with a lot of thoughts and feelings. On this trip, I... more Coming back to Wenzhou this time inspired me with a lot of thoughts and feelings. On this trip, I went from Oxford to Beijing and then from Beijing to Wenzhou, and the three worlds are very different. Oxford is quiet and the rhythm is slow. Beijing is fast and busy, with a sort of forthrightness about the business at hand, like you have to make decisions very quickly and move on to the next thing. Here in Wenzhou, I'm meeting up with classmates from high school, which is a completely different kind of setting. But at the same time, academic language describes all three of these places in the same way, in the sense that we basically call them all "neoliberal." The three places are linked together but also remain completely different. I'm confused, too, because it's not only that the language does not describe the real world, but that an increasingly homogeneous language is increasingly unable to represent a fragmented world. Everyone appears to be the same in terms of how they think, how they express their feelings, and what symbols they use, even while they are widely different in terms of income, standard, and quality of living, so it is hard to tell whether these lifestyles really are the same. I don't know how to explain this theoretically. This is a serious problem for the social sciences. Wu Qi: You travel a lot between these three places. Is this the first time you have felt this on coming back to visit? Xiang Biao: Yes. When I was talking with some radical or near-radical students in Beijing they told me two things. The first was that when they
In what specific ways has Wang Hui influenced you? Which scholars have had the most influence on ... more In what specific ways has Wang Hui influenced you? Which scholars have had the most influence on you? Xiang Biao: In terms of specific questions, such as how to view the 1980s, as well as in terms of broader significance, Wang Hui's perspective and his new way of thinking were a source of inspiration for me. He is a scholar with a firm and distinct viewpoint, and this viewpoint is not a simple posture or some kind of label. He is open-minded in his analysis, and he makes no judgments based on preconceptions. In addition, he particularly emphasizes getting inside of history and has a very sensitive and lively way of entering into a dialogue with history. So watching how he works and how he thinks has been enlightenment for me. Prasenjit Duara 1 also had a fairly big influence on me. Duara first got interested in China because of the story of the early Chinese revolutionary Peng Pai* , and wondered why someone from a landlord background could betray his own class, return home, divide the land, and carry out land reform. Actually, Duara's first degree was in business, he was raised in a fairly well-off family, has loved music all his life, and became interested in intellectual questions after he had quite a bit of life exposure. It took time. His journey is something that we can learn from. 1 Translator's note: Duara is an Indian-born historian of China who currently teaches at Duke University in the United States.
Qi: To continue our discussion of community, perhaps we can be a bit more concrete. What sort of ... more Qi: To continue our discussion of community, perhaps we can be a bit more concrete. What sort of expectations should we have of universities today? What should universities be doing? Xiang Biao: Universities function differently in different eras. In China, we have entered a period where material conditions are pretty good and the education level is quite high in urban areas, so "social reproduction" is becoming increasingly important. As we discussed before, many problems will not be resolved through economic redistribution alone, which by itself will not address "people's diverse needs for material, spiritual and cultural life", 1 which is very real. Given this, what kind of people our universities should be turning out is an important question. Wu Qi: Are there any historical examples of university education that comes close to what you are envisioning? Xiang Biao: Not really. Universities in the 1960s were exceptions, naturally, in Europe and in the United States, and places like Oxford always had all sorts of strange people, but this has to do with their aristocratic background. Aristocrats can be exceptional if they want to. Some radical left-wing people came from the most privileged families, and they read a lot and turned their backs on their roots, making sacrifices for the life of the mind.
The idea of the gentry is perhaps one concept that threads our conversation together, which may a... more The idea of the gentry is perhaps one concept that threads our conversation together, which may also be one of your particularities, so let's talk about it a little bit more. Today's social structure is no longer like the rural society of the past, and indeed there have been profound changes. Are local gentry still possible? Xiang Biao: As an attitude, the gentry can exist. The local gentry never really fit in with the larger system, and there was always a certain distance. Their foothold was in their small universe, but they could communicate with and outflank the system, or make use of the system. They had their own understanding of the system. From this perspective, it is entirely possible for the gentry to exist today, but anyone who wants to be a member of the gentry must first understand their own little world and have a firm grasp on the system as well. The difference is that in the past, the gentry lived and acted in the world of the rural villages, and was very clear on their material origins, while this question of material origins is quite different now, and we need to understand it in a new way. Today's small worlds are not self-sufficient, but instead are constructed, and have no material boundaries. Precisely because they are constructed, the principles behind the construction are a crucial matter, and when you construct your own little world, you have to define it, and decide what you will do in it, what the principles are, what ends you are serving. Wu Qi: In modern society, people are divided among all sorts of specialized institutions, such as companies, schools, bookstores, shops,
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Papers by Biao Xiang
to prove self-worth can be exhausting and damaging, and proposes an analytical frame‐
work that distinguishes two modes of recognition: Rende (recognition-as-understanding)
and Renke (recognition-as-approval). Rende refers to mutual understanding between
equal subjects, aligning with fundamental psychological needs, whereas Renke refers to
the affirmation of individuals’ value by authorities, which depends on evaluation ac‐
cording to external criteria. Modern liberalism holds that individuals possess infinite in‐
trinsic value, yet requires them to prove themselves externally in order to obtain social
recognition, leading to psychological pressure on individuals. Furthermore, the tendency
in current Chinese society that Renke replaces Rende as a foundation for individuals to
establish their value exacerbates dependence, existential anxiety, and the crises of self-
identity. The article advocates rebalancing the relationship between these two types of
recognition in micro-level environments, and striving for recognition based on mutual
understanding. Conscious adjustments in interpersonal relations can indirectly mitigate
macro-level societal oppression.