New Books in Critical Theory Di Wu et. al, eds., "China As Context: Anthropology, Post-globalisation and the Neglect of China" (Manchester UP, 2025)
Jan 16, 2026
Di Wu, an Associate Professorial Fellow at Zhejiang University and co-editor of "China as Context," challenges the marginalization of Chinese ideas in academia. Alongside Ed Pulford, a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester, they discuss the urgent need to recognize China as a key player in global ethnography. The conversation touches on their diverse paths in anthropology, how Russia's invasion of Ukraine influenced their work, and the importance of avoiding cultural essentialism while integrating Chinese perspectives into global discussions.
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China As Ordinary Context
- Treating China as context reframes it from an exotic Other to an ordinary, structuring presence in global social theory.
- This shift reveals distortions created when Chinese-grounded ideas are excluded from anthropological theory.
China: Data Provider, Not Theory Source
- The volume diagnoses a double neglect: China supplies rich ethnographic data but remains marginal as a theory producer.
- Editors call for bridging Chinese and non-Chinese anthropologies to make theory more globally relevant.
Study Context As Interaction
- Anthropologists should treat context as interactive and co-created, not fixed background.
- Pay attention to how actors recontextualize encounters and reshape social relations moment by moment.
