infant toileting in china
TRANSCRIPT
INFANT TOILETING IN CHINA
“Holding Out” Against Westernisation
Kelly Dombroski
Centre 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.
Pic
ture
: BB
C.c
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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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courte
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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.”