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Chinese Outcasts
Discrimination and Emancipation in Late Imperial China
Series: - Sinica Leidensia, Volume: 37
Author:
Outcasts and pariahs are known to exist in several Asian countries but have usually not been associated with traditional Chinese society. Chinese Outcasts shows that some Chinese were in fact treated as outcasts or semi-outcasts. They include the boat people of South China and certain less well-known groups in different regions, including the "musicians' households" and the "fallen people". The reasons for their inferior status and perceived impurity is examined, as well as the intent behind a series of imperial emancipation edicts in the 1720s and 30s. The edict provided an escape route from inferior legal status but failed to put a quick end to customary social discrimination.
Anders Hansson, Ph.D.(1988), Harvard University, currently teaches East Asian studies at the University of Edinburgh.
'In combining institutional and social history, and in placing the development and, in at least some cases, the transformation of these social outcast groups as socially integrated members of the commoner population, Hansson has given us a valuable addition to the literature on late imperial Chinese culture and society.'
Kenneth J. Hammond, China Review International, 1998.
'The appalling prejudice that for centuries has forced families into marginal occupations, unwanted dependence, segregated housing, and perpetual servility, and guaranteed them the disdain, contempt, and disgust of others has endured into the twentieth century. For the Yongzheng emperer (and more modern governments) changing someone's legal status was easy, eradicating such prejudice was quite another matter. To appreciate this sobering aspect of China's history, Anders Hansson's book is a fine place to start.'
Susan Naquin, T'oung Pao, 1999.
Kenneth J. Hammond, China Review International, 1998.
'The appalling prejudice that for centuries has forced families into marginal occupations, unwanted dependence, segregated housing, and perpetual servility, and guaranteed them the disdain, contempt, and disgust of others has endured into the twentieth century. For the Yongzheng emperer (and more modern governments) changing someone's legal status was easy, eradicating such prejudice was quite another matter. To appreciate this sobering aspect of China's history, Anders Hansson's book is a fine place to start.'
Susan Naquin, T'oung Pao, 1999.