INFANT TOILETING IN CHINA“Holding Out” Against Westernisation

Kelly DombroskiCentre for Citizenship and Public Policy

University of Western Sydney

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EVIL WESTERN MULTINATIONALS TAKE OVER THE WORLD(?)

Worried parents waiting to get their bottle-fed babies checked following the melamine contamination scandal of 2008.

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ARTIFICIAL FORMULA IN XINING

Marketing success? Or… Awkward engagements between different

‘universals’ of the infant body in Traditional Chinese Medicine and biomedicine TCM post-partum delay in breastfeeding +

biomedicine performance of hypoglycemia = anxiety around baby’s hunger

Biomedicine denial of ‘low supply’ or ‘poor quality’ breastmilk + TCM concerns with depleting effects of breastfeeding on women’s health = gap in treating breastfeeding difficulties

TCM focus on digestion + biomedicine focus on nutrition = conflict over appropriate first foods

Success of artificial formula complexly over-determined and produced in place.

DISPOSABLE NAPPY USE IN XINING

Marketing failure? Or…complex interaction between local and

global processes? What do local practices of infant toilet

hygiene look like? How have disposable nappy companies tried

to market their product? Why has this been less successful than

artificial formula use? What implications does the resistance of

baniao practices have for globalisation processes?

BA NIAO (HOLDING OUT)

Ba niao lit: ‘to hold out to urinate’

How does it work? niaobu (nappy-

rags) and kaidangku (split-crotch pants)

Two-way communication

Places and spaces of elimination and hygiene

Journey to toileting independence

MARKETING DISPOSABLE NAPPIES

Proctor & Gamble ‘Golden Sleep’ Campaign

Evil companies taking over the world?

Yet most families in China only use one nappy a day

Photo mosaic of 200,000 sleeping babies as part of P&G’s Golden Sleep Campaign

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BABIES’ BOTTOMS

“Just sticking them in disposable nappies, that kind of sealing up I think is not good, too airtight!”

BABIES’ BOTTOMS

Delicate skin needs to be clean and dry needs to have airflow nappies bad for skin even if clean

BABIES’ BOTTOMS

“Sleeping on the kang, the blood does not flow smoothly in its vessels. And then if you add plastic [nappies] to that its not good.”

BABIES’ BOTTOMS

Delicate skin needs to be clean and dry needs to have airflow nappies bad for skin even if clean

Coagulating Blood/damp heat (TCM) reduced airflow and damp heat coagulates blood contributes to other skin conditions contributes to colic and phlegm

BABIES’ BOTTOMS

“If she got her clothes wet, then you just changed them. After all, she was just a child. It was natural for her to wet her clothes. Just wash the clothes, and change her into some new ones…[it] was not troublesome, no trouble at all.

This is just what you have to do. No trouble.”

BABIES’ BOTTOMS

Delicate skin needs to be clean and dry needs to have airflow nappies bad for skin even if clean

Coagulating Blood (TCM) reduced airflow and damp heat coagulates blood results in other skin conditions results in colic

Keeping babies’ bottoms dry and clean important for overall health. Nappies thus considered inconvenient compared with baniao.

RESISTING AND AFFECTING THE GLOBAL

Characteristics of babies bottoms are considered to be universal Challenges universalism of biomedical

development model Existence of contemporaneous alternatives

to nappying part of inspiration for Australasian Elimination Communication practice

Backward or progressive? Reimagining baniao as a progressive practice Science ‘catching up’ Possibilities for widespread change in

Australasia? Environmental and social consequences

AFFECTING THE GLOBAL

“Perhaps people are starting to see the madness of our disposable nappy driven, 4-year-olds-in-nappies society and we’re the beginning of a move back towards early [toileting] as the norm.”