Introduction: The Politics of the Anthropology of China

The hierarchy of ethnographic regions within anthropology in particular and the structuring of the discipline according to ethnographic regions in general have a lot to do with politics. While many aspects of the multifaceted politics of anthropological practice have already been examined, the specific politics of regional anthropologies has only received limited attention. Our network explores how politics affect which versions of China are produced in anthropological research and how these versions in turn produce political effects. How did political-economic histories translate into the institutional establishment of China(s) as an ethnographic area in different academic regions? How are anthropological versions of China transformed when they move from academia to other settings such as China-related international activism? Which material and ideational elements remain unchanged and which connections remain stable, which elements get lost and which are added in such translation processes?