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Negotiated Resistance: An Ethnographic Exploration of the Experiences of Chinese Elder Sisters with Younger Brothers Born under the One-Child Policy

Xie, Han (2026) COSM40 20261
Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
Abstract
This research examines what was at stake for young Chinese women who are negatively conceptualized as fudimo 扶弟魔. Drawing on feminist theories of everyday resistance and relational autonomy, it explores how they resist intersecting gendered power relations in everyday life. The thesis draws on ethnographic methods, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 15 women aged 21–26. While the interviewees appropriated neoliberal ideals of self realization, their autonomy remained constrained by entrenched gendered power relations within and beyond the family. Yet by capturing how resistance fluctuates across spatial fields, treating emotion as a necessary condition of relational autonomy, and expanding the concept of... (More)
This research examines what was at stake for young Chinese women who are negatively conceptualized as fudimo 扶弟魔. Drawing on feminist theories of everyday resistance and relational autonomy, it explores how they resist intersecting gendered power relations in everyday life. The thesis draws on ethnographic methods, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 15 women aged 21–26. While the interviewees appropriated neoliberal ideals of self realization, their autonomy remained constrained by entrenched gendered power relations within and beyond the family. Yet by capturing how resistance fluctuates across spatial fields, treating emotion as a necessary condition of relational autonomy, and expanding the concept of everyday practice along a temporal dimension, the research argues that these elder sisters’ everyday resistance, despite its constraints, gradually expands their agency within concrete social relations and opens new possibilities for embodied resistance. Employing the concepts of “local” and “programmatic” autonomy, the research argues that these women employ tactics such as performative obedience, geographical distancing, adaptive compromise under dual fears, and embodied claims to reproductive autonomy. The research illuminates the complexity of gendered power and broadens the understanding of women’s everyday resistance in the context of contemporary China. (Less)
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author
Xie, Han
supervisor
organization
course
COSM40 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Chinese elder sisters, One-child Policy, Intersubjectivity, Autonomy, Embodied Resistance, Gendered Power, Chinese Family
language
English
id
9243476
date added to LUP
2026-06-24 11:24:12
date last changed
2026-06-24 11:24:12
@misc{9243476,
  abstract     = {{This research examines what was at stake for young Chinese women who are negatively conceptualized as fudimo 扶弟魔. Drawing on feminist theories of everyday resistance and relational autonomy, it explores how they resist intersecting gendered power relations in everyday life. The thesis draws on ethnographic methods, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 15 women aged 21–26. While the interviewees appropriated neoliberal ideals of self realization, their autonomy remained constrained by entrenched gendered power relations within and beyond the family. Yet by capturing how resistance fluctuates across spatial fields, treating emotion as a necessary condition of relational autonomy, and expanding the concept of everyday practice along a temporal dimension, the research argues that these elder sisters’ everyday resistance, despite its constraints, gradually expands their agency within concrete social relations and opens new possibilities for embodied resistance. Employing the concepts of “local” and “programmatic” autonomy, the research argues that these women employ tactics such as performative obedience, geographical distancing, adaptive compromise under dual fears, and embodied claims to reproductive autonomy. The research illuminates the complexity of gendered power and broadens the understanding of women’s everyday resistance in the context of contemporary China.}},
  author       = {{Xie, Han}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Negotiated Resistance: An Ethnographic Exploration of the Experiences of Chinese Elder Sisters with Younger Brothers Born under the One-Child Policy}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}