Motorcycles for the disabled: mobility, modernity and the transformation of experience in urban China.
This paper describes changes in people's attitudes toward and experiences of disability in contemporary China. In particular, it examines how, as a result of shifting gender structures and modernist modes of production, urban men who struggle to walk have adopted cycle technologies, and how this has caused Chinese society increasingly to associate these men with disability. The paper further details ways the young state-run advocacy organization, the China Disabled Persons' Federation, has contributed to these attitudinal and experiential shifts by providing more assistance to urban men who struggle to walk than to any other PRC citizens who might be considered disabled. In general, the transformations outlined in this paper exemplify how ongoing macro changes in contemporary China often provide benefits to a relatively small number of people and how, for those who receive them, the benefits are often double-edged.
Kohrman
M
M
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, USA.
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002681:China; D003469:Culture; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009049:Motorcycles; D014505:Urban Population; D014507:Urbanization