The Aura of the Local in Chinese Anthropology: Grammars, Media and Institutions of Attention Management

Since the late Qing dynasty, Chinese scholars have confronted challenges of indigenisation: what are limits (Western) universalism, and how can social science, history, anthropology become ‘Chinese’? This article deals with a series ‘native anthropologies’, from Republican-era outlines ethnology anthropology, to current anthropologies urban experience, immorality. Rather than an assessment merits flaws indigenisation in these debates, I analyse practices attention management that decided which texts became influential, ones were ignored. These include grammars, media, institutions, within interaction networks established scholarly communities formed. What held many fellow anthropologists was aura local conveyed: sense incommensurability based on unlikely identification anthropologist subject study intended reader. The local, argue, appeared precisely when new grammars (such as empiricism theory), media (e.g. academic journals, books), institutions (universities, government offices) made it increasingly difficult for construct shared understandings people they studied readers wrote for.