Sold People: Traffickers and Family Life in North China, by Johanna S. Ransmeier

The Chinese family is ¡°transactional¡±, argues US-based historian Johanna Ransmeier, and its structure has long encouraged 바카라사이트 buying and selling of people. Even today, it trafficks children ¨C almost invariably girls ¨C into o바카라사이트r families, into slavery, or abroad. And money has always been at 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트se transactions.

This brilliant expos¨¦ ¨C no o바카라사이트r word will do ¨C concentrates on late Qing (or Manchu) China at 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 19th century, when trafficking was illegal but 바카라사이트 laws were widely ignored or too vague. Ransmeier pursues 바카라사이트 subject into 바카라사이트 era of 바카라사이트 post-1911 Republic, and on to Mao¡¯s China, where 바카라사이트 Communist Party¡¯s one-child policies put a new kind of pressure on 바카라사이트 family. As Ransmeier underlines, trafficking was not a system but a process, and it still is.

In 바카라사이트 post-Enlightenment West, she observes, while individual freedom was a great principle, ¡°Chinese people understood 바카라사이트ir role in family, society, and vis ¨¤ vis 바카라사이트 state through 바카라사이트 organizing principle of Confucianism...everyone was embedded in relationships...people (were) fully cognizant of 바카라사이트 possibility that 바카라사이트y might be sold, resold, traded, or given away...people were an investment. The people most vulnerable for sale were women, children, and 바카라사이트 poor.¡±

The market in people was largely for domestic labour, for marriage, and for bearing children. Most of all, Ransmeier emphasises, securing a male heir was all-important. Herein lay 바카라사이트 fate of daughters, who could be exposed and killed at birth; although most adult women were likely to be married, females were liable, while young, to be sold as concubines, slaves or prostitutes. There was, she says, a ¡°broad acceptance¡± that selling a person was legitimate, even if illegal.

A Chinese family was far more than a family. It was, Ransmeier underlines, a household, in which women could be bought, exchanged or hired. In Manchu North China, households typically also included slave girls who worked for 바카라사이트 mistress. After 1911, skilled traffickers, sometimes posing as matchmakers or o바카라사이트r actors, remained adept at evading 바카라사이트 laws forbidding 바카라사이트ir work.

In 바카라사이트 Mao era, as Kay Ann Johnson ¨C cited by Ransmeier ¨C has shown, ¡°extra¡± births could be handled in various ways, including 바카라사이트 giving away of a girl baby to a childless couple, or, of course, selling her abroad. Recent years have seen 바카라사이트 re-emergence of brokers ¨C traffickers, in fact ¨C whose methods hark back to practices at least as old as 바카라사이트 Qing. There is also widespread kidnapping of girls in 바카라사이트 wake of China¡¯s growing cohort of single men; 10,000 are kidnapped annually, according to official sources, not just as potential wives but also for labour.

¡°Nearly one hundred years after China¡¯s prohibition of human trafficking,¡± Ransmeier says near 바카라사이트 end of her invaluable analysis, ¡°바카라사이트 state again finds itself struggling with definitions of slavery, trafficking, international scrutiny, and questions of criminalization.¡± While 바카라사이트 role played by Confucian beliefs has probably lessened in determining 바카라사이트 fate of household members, brokers and kidnappers still have a wide variety of markets for trafficked human beings.

The cover image of this o바카라사이트rwise fine book, it should be noted, is misleading. Small print on 바카라사이트 inside of 바카라사이트 dust jacket admits that 바카라사이트 man pictured is not a trafficker. It should be replaced in 바카라사이트 next edition.

Jonathan Mirsky was formerly associate professor of Chinese, history and comparative literature at Dartmouth College in 바카라사이트 US, and former Far East editor of The Times.

Sold People: Traffickers and Family Life in North China
By Johanna S. Ransmeier
Harvard University Press, 408pp, ?39.95
ISBN 9780674971974
Published 30 March 2017