Care Work, Migrant Peasant Families and Discourse of Filial Piety in China

“In this book, Associate Professor Longtao He conducted a marvelous research on migrant peasant workers’ caregiving experiences in relation to filial piety in China. His research not only sheds light on a more comprehensive understanding towards migrant peasant workers’ complex experiences of caregiving for parents with advanced cancer in China, but also involves methodological innovations in developing a culturally integrated Foucauldian discourse analysis suitable for Chinese matters. The developed theoretical and methodological framework in his book is meaningful well beyond the domain of the Chinese cultural context; it has a great potential to contribute to the continuing refinement of Foucauldian discourse analysis as a qualitative methodology.”

- Professor Huamin Peng (Vice-president of China Association of Social Work Education), Department of Social Work and Social Policy, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
This book examines the experiences of migrant peasant workers in China who care for parents diagnosed with cancer and explores to what extent contextual changes after the economic reform initiated in 1978 affected practices and experiences of caring. In his own attempt to develop a localized methodology, the author considers identifying similarities between Chinese philosophies and Foucault’s theories as the key step for localizing Foucauldian discourse analysis. Three similarities are located and articulated with regard to filial care. Firstly, the complexity of discursive relations identified by Foucault resembles the complicated Chinese notion of the relationality of the self. Secondly, both sides have a tendency to look back to ancient times for solutions and to critique the notion of ‘progress’ in modernity. For Foucault, the way to attain freedom or agency is through technologies of the self, such as speaking truth (parrhesia). Lastly, both value action and practice in their theories. The book then analyzes, through this localized methodological approach, statements made by migrant peasant workers to take readers through their discursive mechanisms to construct filial piety in relation to their subjective care experiences.
Longtao He is an associate professor in medical sociology and social work at SWUFE, China. He has published numerous articles in journals such as Qualitative Health Research, British Journal of Social Work, and European Journal of Ageing. His research interests include qualitative health sociology, health social work, and ethics.