TY - BOOK ID - 9513891 TI - Between birth and death PY - 2014 SN - 9780804785983 0804785988 0804788936 9780804788939 PB - Stanford, California DB - UniCat KW - S11/0731 KW - S11/0710 KW - China: Social sciences--Childhood, youth KW - China: Social sciences--Women: general and before 1949 KW - Female infanticide KW - History KW - Female infanticide -- China -- History -- 19th century. KW - Female infanticide -- China. KW - Infanticide -- China -- History. KW - Social Welfare & Social Work KW - Social Sciences KW - Criminology, Penology & Juvenile Delinquency KW - Infanticide UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:9513891 AB - 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. ER -