Jing Xu | University of Washington (original) (raw)

Papers by Jing Xu

American Anthropologist, 2024

A section called "World Anthropologies" within American Anthropologist (AA) itself speaks to an a... more A section called "World Anthropologies" within American Anthropologist (AA) itself speaks to an apparent paradox: the difficulty of going beyond the US-centric perspective to see the plural. But this task is more urgent than ever as American anthropology is engaged in soul-searching that demands serious changes to our practice. As Negrón et al. (2024) summarize, these changes include, among others, decolonizing the ways research is done, addressing precarity in the job market, and responding to urgent societal needs, "all while ensuring that anthropology's unique contributions are recognizable." Expanding our horizons beyond the gravity center of the United States addresses the pressing dilemma, that is, gaining clarity at a time of confusion. Anthropologists around the world, more than those in other disciplines, are confronted with and largely willing to acknowledge complexity, ambiguity, and messiness in our work. However, when it comes to our practice, especially at the current moment of existential crises both within the discipline and in the larger society, we seek some kind of clarity to orient ourselves toward meaningful and valuable actions, and conversations with colleagues from different parts of the world. After all, the more we elucidate different but intersecting institutional, intellectual, and political conditions and render these conditions visible and legible, the better we can situate ourselves in the world purposefully. Both a framework and a platform within AA, "World Anthropologies" foregrounds anthropology's complex traditions and multifaceted conditions in which we operate and make connections. The previous associate editors have highlighted this complexity, of "multiple concerns to be folded into one another"; "of changing insider and outsider status; of negotiating otherness and identity politics in relation to multiple contexts, including to one's scholarly location (which is increasingly not one's home) and to the discipline of anthropology itself; and finally of heightened mobilities. .. in relation to disciplinary training, fieldwork, and ethnographic writing" (Papailias & Gupta, 2021, 962). As incoming associate editors, we continue to unsettle "anthropology" in the singular, to make the journal more attuned to and genuinely committed to diverse and overlapping forms and systems of anthropological knowledge. In doing so, we aim to make this section an influential channel to help our discipline gain some sense of clarity out of confusion. We value a practice-oriented approach to world anthropologies and consider it the core of this section. Since Ribeiro and Escobar (2006) coined the notion of "world anthropologies" in their edited volume with the same title, discussions on this topic have evolved into two threads of reflections: the first on knowledge production in anthropology in various contexts, and the second on interconnectedness between anthropology in different regions at a global level, which sustains a level of disciplinary coherency (Arif, 2016). We value both threads, as these reflections together broaden our perspectives and prompt anthropologists to embrace our discipline as a way of world-making (Papailias & Gupta, 2021). Knowledge production is not merely about the competition of intellectual merit but about how to develop a meaningful relationship with one's academic, social, and political environment. Anthropology is not about merely representing the world, but about actively participating in the world. Seeking clarity does not mean that we look for any unified or totalizing theory or direction in anthropological work. Instead, it demands us to pay close attention to the messiness and confusion in our research and life, taking them seriously as a chance to find new ways of problematization and acquire new perspectives. Seeking clarity does not imply that we assume there is one definitive answer to address our discipline's current crises and potential struggles. Instead, it should be understood as an intellectual and ethical practice to foster a more effective and functional relationship between anthropology and other disciplines, between academic and public knowledge, and between anthropologists and political action worldwide. Yang Zhan and Jing Xu contributed equally to this work.

Global Networks, 2024

I interpret the rich conceptual insights and empirical findings of the special issue Childhood, M... more I interpret the rich conceptual insights and empirical findings of the special issue Childhood, Migration and the Pursuit of Happiness in Middle-Class East Asia through the lens of understanding migration as a journey of narrative quests. Drawing from moral philosopher McIntyre's theory of narrative self and the pursuit of a good life, I highlight the dialectic and dialogic aspects of 'narrative quests' across multiple cases of East Asian educational migration (educational migration broadly construed). I highlight key features, central themes and tensions of narrative quests among these migrant families. I also pose questions for expanding further inquiry under this theoretical framework.

American Anthropologist, 2024

As a pandemic-era collaborative writing project undertaken amid rising geopolitical tensions, thi... more As a pandemic-era collaborative writing project undertaken amid rising geopolitical tensions, this article demonstrates understanding humor in contemporary China as an ethnographic project leading toward deep, empathetic knowledge at a time when in-person fieldwork became difficult. Through deciphering and translating layered

Scientific Reports, 2024

A core issue in the interdisciplinary study of human morality is its ontogeny in diverse cultures... more A core issue in the interdisciplinary study of human morality is its ontogeny in diverse cultures, but systematic, naturalistic data in specific cultural contexts are rare to find. This study conducts a novel analysis of 213 children's socio-moral behavior in a historical, non-Western, rural setting, based on a unique dataset of naturalistic observations from the first field research on Han Chinese children. Using multilevel multinomial modeling, we examined a range of proactive behaviors in 0-to-12-year-old children's peer cooperation and conflict in an entire community in postwar Taiwan. We modeled the effects of age, sex, kinship, and behavioral roles, and revealed complex interactions between these four variables in shaping children's moral development. We discovered linkages between coercive and non-coercive behaviors as children strategically negotiated leadership dynamics. We identified connections between prosocial and aggressive behaviors, illuminating the nuances of morality in real life. Our analysis also revealed gendered patterns and age-related trends that deviated from cultural norms and contradicted popular assumptions about Chinese family values. These findings highlight the importance of naturalistic observations in cultural contexts for understanding how we become moral persons. This re-analysis of historically significant fieldnotes also enriches the interdisciplinary study of child development across societies.

Sociological Review of China 《社会学评论》, 2023

人类学家武雅士与卢蕙馨 1958—1960 年在台北盆地汉人 村庄的田野调查是欧美第一个关于汉人社会儿童与育儿的人类学研究， 也是汉学人类学、心理人类学以及跨文化儿童发展研究相遇的重要历史 节点... more 人类学家武雅士与卢蕙馨 1958—1960 年在台北盆地汉人 村庄的田野调查是欧美第一个关于汉人社会儿童与育儿的人类学研究， 也是汉学人类学、心理人类学以及跨文化儿童发展研究相遇的重要历史 节点。该研究是人类学与心理学理论融合以及混合方法论的经典产物， 然而这批宝贵的田野资料在 60 年后才重见天日。笔者对这些资料的重 新分析，既是在历史脉络和田野境遇中回味二位前辈理论生成之过程，又 是面向当下跨学科视野，结合前沿理论与方法论，赋予历史资料以新的生 命力的尝试。本文试图通过回顾经典田野资料、梳理学科历史，重新发现
“儿童”:以“儿童打架”为案例，将分析焦点从“育儿”转向作为主体的“儿 童”，从儿童视角再诠释所谓的“传统汉人家庭”，并回归人类学整体论的 愿景，探讨合作与道德的起源、行为意义的阐释与人类学习等基础问题。

Ethos, 2022

With the rise of hyper education in contemporary China, the phrase "middle-aged old mother" has b... more With the rise of hyper education in contemporary China, the phrase "middle-aged old mother" has become an important narrative identity for mothers over 30 in the urban middle class. Based on ethnographic and virtual fieldwork from 2018 to 2020, this paper weaves together interviews, observation, and social media data to examine mothers' moral experience of childrearing anxiety in Beijing. This article goes beyond the surface content of "middle-aged old mother" narratives and instead highlights the narrative context, style, intention, and effect. It aims to understand their first-person narratives of parenting characterized by heightened uncertainty, high stakes, self-reflexivity, and gender inequalities. The "middle-aged old mother" script provides a template for and becomes the "co-author" of Chinese mothers' auto-narratives: It blends self-mockery, personal story, and social critique in an environment of intensifying competition and moral quandaries. The term is a deliberate act of humor and an invitation for empathy. [motherhood, narrative, morality, education, and China]

Joural of Chinese History, 2022

This article uses a new theoretical and methodological framework to reconstruct a story of two ch... more This article uses a new theoretical and methodological framework to reconstruct a story of two children from fieldnotes collected by anthropologists Arthur and Margery Wolf in rural Taiwan (1958 to 1960). Through the case of a brother-sister dyad, it examines the moral life of young children and provides a rare glimpse into sibling relationship in peer and family contexts. First, combining social network analysis and NLP text-analytics, this article introduces a general picture of these siblings' life in the peer community. Moreover, drawing from naturalistic observations and projective tests, it offers an ethnographic analysis of how children support each other and assert themselves. It emphasizes the role of child-to-child ties in moral learning, in contrast to the predominant focus of parent-child ties in the study of Chinese families. It challenges assumptions of the Chinese "child training" model and invites us to take children's moral psychology seriously and rediscover their agency.

清华社会学评论, 2021

本文以儿童发展为窗口，以文化与认知为理论视角，回顾作者的人类学与心理学的跨学科之旅。文章讲述了四段历程，于清华社会学系初识人类学，赴美读博士确立认知人类学方向、研究当代中国儿童道德发展，博士后转... more 本文以儿童发展为窗口，以文化与认知为理论视角，回顾作者的人类学与心理学的跨学科之旅。文章讲述了四段历程，于清华社会学系初识人类学，赴美读博士确立认知人类学方向、研究当代中国儿童道德发展，博士后转往发展心理学实验室探索婴儿社会认知，以及现阶段运用新的理论和方法论分析尘封于历史的珍贵人类学资料、重新审视20世纪中叶的童年与育儿。这个跨学科旅程围绕着人类思维心智和伦理道德的发源展开，既是探究“人性”，也是认识“文化”；以感恩之心写作这篇随笔，意在回归对人类学起初的爱，于整体论的视野下往来穿梭于理论与现实之间、将自我与他者相互观照。

China Review International, 2020

Deliberately framing this book as "a Western cultural analysis," Willis aims at turning the stra... more Deliberately framing this book as "a Western cultural analysis," Willis aims at turning the strange into familiar. China not only excites Willis, but also puzzles him: "You are always a foreigner, taken as a foreigner" (p. vii). As an anthropologist who grew up in post-reform China and had my destiny and identity profoundly shaped by the ruthless Gaokao regime, Willis' cultural commentary inspires me to turn the familiar into strange; it also opens up or reframes interesting questions for China specialists to grapple with, to debate, and to answer.

社会学评论 (Sociological Review of China), 2020

在当前人类学与认知科学、生物-演化科学等多领域交融的思潮下，早期儿童发展成为解开这个人类道德起源之谜的核心领域，中国社会则为探索道德发展提供了独特的实验场。从心理认知人类学视角出发，本文以儿童道... more 在当前人类学与认知科学、生物-演化科学等多领域交融的思潮下，早期儿童发展成为解开这个人类道德起源之谜的核心领域，中国社会则为探索道德发展提供了独特的实验场。从心理认知人类学视角出发，本文以儿童道德发展为题，梳理人类学和心理学的理论交集历程，回顾汉学人类学相关研究，并以作者“好孩子”系列作品为案例介绍引入心理学前沿理论和方法的人类学经验研究;同时，呼吁推动人类学和认知科学在理论、方法论和经验研究层面的全方位对话、给“人类学道德伦理研究”开拓新视野、注入新活力。
Influenced by the recent synergy between anthropology, cognitive science, and bio-evolutionary sciences, a new research agenda emerged to uncover the origins of human morality. Moral development during early childhood has become a core domain within this agenda. Specifically, contemporary Chi⁃ na has provided a unique field to investigate moral development for this line of research. This article pro vides a systematic introduction to the works on children’s moral development from the perspectives of psychological and cognitive anthropology. The article situates traditions on moral development research under broader theoretical conversations between anthropology and psychology. It reviews relevant research under these theoretical traditions in the history of sinological anthropology, because prior studies of Chinese children not only were influenced by these traditions but also exemplified them. The article then introduces re⁃ cent works in anthropology on Chinese children’s moral development that incorporated cutting-edge psychological theories and methods, through the example of“The Good Child”project based on my fieldwork in a Shanghai preschool. To sum up, this article calls for comprehensive engagements in theoretical, methodological, and empirical realms between anthropology and cognitive science. By doing so, we can expand the research scope and bring new potentials to anthropological research on morality and ethics.

Ethos, 2020

Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai, this article examines Chinese presc... more Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai, this article examines Chinese preschool children's tattling behavior as well as educators' interpretations of it. Tattling is defined as the reporting to an authority figure of other children's counternormative behavior. My research revealed distinctive characteristics of tattling in the Chinese context: the popularity of third-party (bystander) instead of second-party (victim) tattling, the entanglement between tattling and pleasing authority, and adults' moralistic concerns about tattlers' motivations and character, encapsulated in the discourse of "the genuine child." I further contextualized adults' concerns in widespread moral anxiety in a changing Chinese society and connected them to historical notions of childhood and morality. Taken together, these findings illuminate cultural influences on children's everyday sociomoral life in light of the continuities and changes of Chinese conceptualizations of "the child." This article facilitates conversations between anthropology and psychology and demonstrates valuable linkages between psychological anthropology and Chinese studies.

Cross-Currents: East Asia History and Culture Review, 2020

This article brings to light a unique set of field notes on Taiwanese children's life collected b... more This article brings to light a unique set of field notes on Taiwanese children's life collected by anthropologist Arthur P. Wolf (1958-1960). Designed as an improved replication of the classic Six Cultures Study of Child Socialization, Wolf's study was the first anthropological and mixed-methods research on ethnic Chinese children, marking a historically significant moment when Sinological anthropology first intersected with the anthropology of childhood. Based on a subset of Wolf's standardized interviews with seventy-nine children (ages 3-10), this article focuses on children's narratives about peer aggression. They distinguish serious forms of aggression from milder ones in perceived negativity, and they react differentially; these perceptions and reactions reflect important concerns and strategies in local socio-moral life, some of which diverge from adult ideologies. These findings highlight the role of children as active moral agents. Through analyzing children's voices of peer aggression, this article illuminates a dark side of moral development that would otherwise remain obscured in the historical literature of childhood: the mischievous, naughty, and even violent interactions among children. The article reveals the tensions and conflicts in children's interactions underlying the Chinese cultural value he, or social harmony. It also reveals a complex spectrum of reciprocity in children's understandings and adds an important theme, "negative reciprocity"-defined as responding to a negative action with a negative action-to the recent advocacy in anthropology for taking children seriously in understanding human morality.

American Anthropologist, 2019

Moral development in early childhood has recently raised heightened interest across social scienc... more Moral development in early childhood has recently raised heightened interest across social sciences. Integrating controlled methods into ethnographic fieldwork, this article investigates how Chinese preschool children develop their understanding of “merit,” an important fairness principle in resource allocation, through socialization of biaoxian hao. Whereas the experimental data taps into distributing reward based on how much one contributes to collective work, a standard attribute of “merit” in psychology literature, ethnographic analysis reveals how children's understanding of merit is mediated by the cultural discourse of biaoxian hao, a significant moral framework in contemporary China that refers to self‐presentation in authority‐evaluation contexts, with a hierarchical dimension. Ethnography further demonstrates the developmental trajectory of learning biaoxian hao and the powerful disciplinary mechanism of overt social comparison and moral evaluation. By showing how two basic moral concerns, sensitivity to fairness and inclination to impress authority, intersect in early development in cultural contexts, this mixed‐methods research provides a direction for cultural anthropology to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of moral development. [merit, fairness, biaoxian, moral development, China]

Chinese education in the post-reform era has drawn much attention in the global community, yet re... more Chinese education in the post-reform era has drawn much attention in the global community, yet relatively little fieldwork-based research has examined educational life within non-elite, mainstream rural high-schools. Based on long-

Standard measures of generalized trust in others are often taken to provide reliable indicators o... more Standard measures of generalized trust in others are often taken to provide reliable indicators of economic attitudes in different countries. Here we compared three highly distinct groups, in Kenya, China and the US, in terms of more specific attitudes, [a] people's willingness to invest in the future, [b] their willingness to invest in others, and [c] their trust in institutions. Results suggest that these measures capture deep differences in economic attitudes that are not detected by standard measures of generalized trust.

Developmental Psychology, 2016

Given the centrality of prosociality in everyday social functioning, understanding the factors an... more Given the centrality of prosociality in everyday social functioning, understanding the factors and mechanisms underlying the origins of prosocial development is of critical importance. This experiment investigated whether experience with reciprocal object exchanges can drive the developmental onset of sharing behavior. Seven-month-old infants took part in 2 laboratory visits to assess their sharing behavior and ability to release objects. During the intervening 7- to 14-day period parents led infants in an intervention in which they were either encouraged to release objects into a container (bucket condition, n = 20), or share objects with the parent in the context of reciprocal object exchanges (sharing condition, n = 20). Results showed that infants in the sharing condition shared significantly more than infants in the bucket condition following the intervention, and infants in the sharing condition significantly increased their sharing behavior across the 2 visits. Parental empathy moderated the effect of this sharing intervention, but frequency of practice did not. These results suggest that reciprocal turn-taking in dyadic object-exchange interactions may facilitate the early emergence of sharing behavior, and this effect is mediated by parental empathy.

Standard measures of generalized trust in others are often taken to provide reliable indicators o... more Standard measures of generalized trust in others are often taken to provide reliable indicators of economic attitudes in
different countries. Here we compared three highly distinct groups, in Kenya, China and the US, in terms of more specific
attitudes, [a] people’s willingness to invest in the future, [b] their willingness to invest in others, and [c] their trust in
institutions. Results suggest that these measures capture deep differences in economic attitudes that are not detected by
standard measures of generalized trust.

American Anthropologist, 2024

A section called "World Anthropologies" within American Anthropologist (AA) itself speaks to an a... more A section called "World Anthropologies" within American Anthropologist (AA) itself speaks to an apparent paradox: the difficulty of going beyond the US-centric perspective to see the plural. But this task is more urgent than ever as American anthropology is engaged in soul-searching that demands serious changes to our practice. As Negrón et al. (2024) summarize, these changes include, among others, decolonizing the ways research is done, addressing precarity in the job market, and responding to urgent societal needs, "all while ensuring that anthropology's unique contributions are recognizable." Expanding our horizons beyond the gravity center of the United States addresses the pressing dilemma, that is, gaining clarity at a time of confusion. Anthropologists around the world, more than those in other disciplines, are confronted with and largely willing to acknowledge complexity, ambiguity, and messiness in our work. However, when it comes to our practice, especially at the current moment of existential crises both within the discipline and in the larger society, we seek some kind of clarity to orient ourselves toward meaningful and valuable actions, and conversations with colleagues from different parts of the world. After all, the more we elucidate different but intersecting institutional, intellectual, and political conditions and render these conditions visible and legible, the better we can situate ourselves in the world purposefully. Both a framework and a platform within AA, "World Anthropologies" foregrounds anthropology's complex traditions and multifaceted conditions in which we operate and make connections. The previous associate editors have highlighted this complexity, of "multiple concerns to be folded into one another"; "of changing insider and outsider status; of negotiating otherness and identity politics in relation to multiple contexts, including to one's scholarly location (which is increasingly not one's home) and to the discipline of anthropology itself; and finally of heightened mobilities. .. in relation to disciplinary training, fieldwork, and ethnographic writing" (Papailias & Gupta, 2021, 962). As incoming associate editors, we continue to unsettle "anthropology" in the singular, to make the journal more attuned to and genuinely committed to diverse and overlapping forms and systems of anthropological knowledge. In doing so, we aim to make this section an influential channel to help our discipline gain some sense of clarity out of confusion. We value a practice-oriented approach to world anthropologies and consider it the core of this section. Since Ribeiro and Escobar (2006) coined the notion of "world anthropologies" in their edited volume with the same title, discussions on this topic have evolved into two threads of reflections: the first on knowledge production in anthropology in various contexts, and the second on interconnectedness between anthropology in different regions at a global level, which sustains a level of disciplinary coherency (Arif, 2016). We value both threads, as these reflections together broaden our perspectives and prompt anthropologists to embrace our discipline as a way of world-making (Papailias & Gupta, 2021). Knowledge production is not merely about the competition of intellectual merit but about how to develop a meaningful relationship with one's academic, social, and political environment. Anthropology is not about merely representing the world, but about actively participating in the world. Seeking clarity does not mean that we look for any unified or totalizing theory or direction in anthropological work. Instead, it demands us to pay close attention to the messiness and confusion in our research and life, taking them seriously as a chance to find new ways of problematization and acquire new perspectives. Seeking clarity does not imply that we assume there is one definitive answer to address our discipline's current crises and potential struggles. Instead, it should be understood as an intellectual and ethical practice to foster a more effective and functional relationship between anthropology and other disciplines, between academic and public knowledge, and between anthropologists and political action worldwide. Yang Zhan and Jing Xu contributed equally to this work.

Global Networks, 2024

I interpret the rich conceptual insights and empirical findings of the special issue Childhood, M... more I interpret the rich conceptual insights and empirical findings of the special issue Childhood, Migration and the Pursuit of Happiness in Middle-Class East Asia through the lens of understanding migration as a journey of narrative quests. Drawing from moral philosopher McIntyre's theory of narrative self and the pursuit of a good life, I highlight the dialectic and dialogic aspects of 'narrative quests' across multiple cases of East Asian educational migration (educational migration broadly construed). I highlight key features, central themes and tensions of narrative quests among these migrant families. I also pose questions for expanding further inquiry under this theoretical framework.

American Anthropologist, 2024

As a pandemic-era collaborative writing project undertaken amid rising geopolitical tensions, thi... more As a pandemic-era collaborative writing project undertaken amid rising geopolitical tensions, this article demonstrates understanding humor in contemporary China as an ethnographic project leading toward deep, empathetic knowledge at a time when in-person fieldwork became difficult. Through deciphering and translating layered

Scientific Reports, 2024

A core issue in the interdisciplinary study of human morality is its ontogeny in diverse cultures... more A core issue in the interdisciplinary study of human morality is its ontogeny in diverse cultures, but systematic, naturalistic data in specific cultural contexts are rare to find. This study conducts a novel analysis of 213 children's socio-moral behavior in a historical, non-Western, rural setting, based on a unique dataset of naturalistic observations from the first field research on Han Chinese children. Using multilevel multinomial modeling, we examined a range of proactive behaviors in 0-to-12-year-old children's peer cooperation and conflict in an entire community in postwar Taiwan. We modeled the effects of age, sex, kinship, and behavioral roles, and revealed complex interactions between these four variables in shaping children's moral development. We discovered linkages between coercive and non-coercive behaviors as children strategically negotiated leadership dynamics. We identified connections between prosocial and aggressive behaviors, illuminating the nuances of morality in real life. Our analysis also revealed gendered patterns and age-related trends that deviated from cultural norms and contradicted popular assumptions about Chinese family values. These findings highlight the importance of naturalistic observations in cultural contexts for understanding how we become moral persons. This re-analysis of historically significant fieldnotes also enriches the interdisciplinary study of child development across societies.

Sociological Review of China 《社会学评论》, 2023

人类学家武雅士与卢蕙馨 1958—1960 年在台北盆地汉人 村庄的田野调查是欧美第一个关于汉人社会儿童与育儿的人类学研究， 也是汉学人类学、心理人类学以及跨文化儿童发展研究相遇的重要历史 节点... more 人类学家武雅士与卢蕙馨 1958—1960 年在台北盆地汉人 村庄的田野调查是欧美第一个关于汉人社会儿童与育儿的人类学研究， 也是汉学人类学、心理人类学以及跨文化儿童发展研究相遇的重要历史 节点。该研究是人类学与心理学理论融合以及混合方法论的经典产物， 然而这批宝贵的田野资料在 60 年后才重见天日。笔者对这些资料的重 新分析，既是在历史脉络和田野境遇中回味二位前辈理论生成之过程，又 是面向当下跨学科视野，结合前沿理论与方法论，赋予历史资料以新的生 命力的尝试。本文试图通过回顾经典田野资料、梳理学科历史，重新发现
“儿童”:以“儿童打架”为案例，将分析焦点从“育儿”转向作为主体的“儿 童”，从儿童视角再诠释所谓的“传统汉人家庭”，并回归人类学整体论的 愿景，探讨合作与道德的起源、行为意义的阐释与人类学习等基础问题。

Ethos, 2022

With the rise of hyper education in contemporary China, the phrase "middle-aged old mother" has b... more With the rise of hyper education in contemporary China, the phrase "middle-aged old mother" has become an important narrative identity for mothers over 30 in the urban middle class. Based on ethnographic and virtual fieldwork from 2018 to 2020, this paper weaves together interviews, observation, and social media data to examine mothers' moral experience of childrearing anxiety in Beijing. This article goes beyond the surface content of "middle-aged old mother" narratives and instead highlights the narrative context, style, intention, and effect. It aims to understand their first-person narratives of parenting characterized by heightened uncertainty, high stakes, self-reflexivity, and gender inequalities. The "middle-aged old mother" script provides a template for and becomes the "co-author" of Chinese mothers' auto-narratives: It blends self-mockery, personal story, and social critique in an environment of intensifying competition and moral quandaries. The term is a deliberate act of humor and an invitation for empathy. [motherhood, narrative, morality, education, and China]

Joural of Chinese History, 2022

This article uses a new theoretical and methodological framework to reconstruct a story of two ch... more This article uses a new theoretical and methodological framework to reconstruct a story of two children from fieldnotes collected by anthropologists Arthur and Margery Wolf in rural Taiwan (1958 to 1960). Through the case of a brother-sister dyad, it examines the moral life of young children and provides a rare glimpse into sibling relationship in peer and family contexts. First, combining social network analysis and NLP text-analytics, this article introduces a general picture of these siblings' life in the peer community. Moreover, drawing from naturalistic observations and projective tests, it offers an ethnographic analysis of how children support each other and assert themselves. It emphasizes the role of child-to-child ties in moral learning, in contrast to the predominant focus of parent-child ties in the study of Chinese families. It challenges assumptions of the Chinese "child training" model and invites us to take children's moral psychology seriously and rediscover their agency.

清华社会学评论, 2021

本文以儿童发展为窗口，以文化与认知为理论视角，回顾作者的人类学与心理学的跨学科之旅。文章讲述了四段历程，于清华社会学系初识人类学，赴美读博士确立认知人类学方向、研究当代中国儿童道德发展，博士后转... more 本文以儿童发展为窗口，以文化与认知为理论视角，回顾作者的人类学与心理学的跨学科之旅。文章讲述了四段历程，于清华社会学系初识人类学，赴美读博士确立认知人类学方向、研究当代中国儿童道德发展，博士后转往发展心理学实验室探索婴儿社会认知，以及现阶段运用新的理论和方法论分析尘封于历史的珍贵人类学资料、重新审视20世纪中叶的童年与育儿。这个跨学科旅程围绕着人类思维心智和伦理道德的发源展开，既是探究“人性”，也是认识“文化”；以感恩之心写作这篇随笔，意在回归对人类学起初的爱，于整体论的视野下往来穿梭于理论与现实之间、将自我与他者相互观照。

China Review International, 2020

Deliberately framing this book as "a Western cultural analysis," Willis aims at turning the stra... more Deliberately framing this book as "a Western cultural analysis," Willis aims at turning the strange into familiar. China not only excites Willis, but also puzzles him: "You are always a foreigner, taken as a foreigner" (p. vii). As an anthropologist who grew up in post-reform China and had my destiny and identity profoundly shaped by the ruthless Gaokao regime, Willis' cultural commentary inspires me to turn the familiar into strange; it also opens up or reframes interesting questions for China specialists to grapple with, to debate, and to answer.

社会学评论 (Sociological Review of China), 2020

在当前人类学与认知科学、生物-演化科学等多领域交融的思潮下，早期儿童发展成为解开这个人类道德起源之谜的核心领域，中国社会则为探索道德发展提供了独特的实验场。从心理认知人类学视角出发，本文以儿童道... more 在当前人类学与认知科学、生物-演化科学等多领域交融的思潮下，早期儿童发展成为解开这个人类道德起源之谜的核心领域，中国社会则为探索道德发展提供了独特的实验场。从心理认知人类学视角出发，本文以儿童道德发展为题，梳理人类学和心理学的理论交集历程，回顾汉学人类学相关研究，并以作者“好孩子”系列作品为案例介绍引入心理学前沿理论和方法的人类学经验研究;同时，呼吁推动人类学和认知科学在理论、方法论和经验研究层面的全方位对话、给“人类学道德伦理研究”开拓新视野、注入新活力。
Influenced by the recent synergy between anthropology, cognitive science, and bio-evolutionary sciences, a new research agenda emerged to uncover the origins of human morality. Moral development during early childhood has become a core domain within this agenda. Specifically, contemporary Chi⁃ na has provided a unique field to investigate moral development for this line of research. This article pro vides a systematic introduction to the works on children’s moral development from the perspectives of psychological and cognitive anthropology. The article situates traditions on moral development research under broader theoretical conversations between anthropology and psychology. It reviews relevant research under these theoretical traditions in the history of sinological anthropology, because prior studies of Chinese children not only were influenced by these traditions but also exemplified them. The article then introduces re⁃ cent works in anthropology on Chinese children’s moral development that incorporated cutting-edge psychological theories and methods, through the example of“The Good Child”project based on my fieldwork in a Shanghai preschool. To sum up, this article calls for comprehensive engagements in theoretical, methodological, and empirical realms between anthropology and cognitive science. By doing so, we can expand the research scope and bring new potentials to anthropological research on morality and ethics.

Ethos, 2020

Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai, this article examines Chinese presc... more Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai, this article examines Chinese preschool children's tattling behavior as well as educators' interpretations of it. Tattling is defined as the reporting to an authority figure of other children's counternormative behavior. My research revealed distinctive characteristics of tattling in the Chinese context: the popularity of third-party (bystander) instead of second-party (victim) tattling, the entanglement between tattling and pleasing authority, and adults' moralistic concerns about tattlers' motivations and character, encapsulated in the discourse of "the genuine child." I further contextualized adults' concerns in widespread moral anxiety in a changing Chinese society and connected them to historical notions of childhood and morality. Taken together, these findings illuminate cultural influences on children's everyday sociomoral life in light of the continuities and changes of Chinese conceptualizations of "the child." This article facilitates conversations between anthropology and psychology and demonstrates valuable linkages between psychological anthropology and Chinese studies.

Cross-Currents: East Asia History and Culture Review, 2020

This article brings to light a unique set of field notes on Taiwanese children's life collected b... more This article brings to light a unique set of field notes on Taiwanese children's life collected by anthropologist Arthur P. Wolf (1958-1960). Designed as an improved replication of the classic Six Cultures Study of Child Socialization, Wolf's study was the first anthropological and mixed-methods research on ethnic Chinese children, marking a historically significant moment when Sinological anthropology first intersected with the anthropology of childhood. Based on a subset of Wolf's standardized interviews with seventy-nine children (ages 3-10), this article focuses on children's narratives about peer aggression. They distinguish serious forms of aggression from milder ones in perceived negativity, and they react differentially; these perceptions and reactions reflect important concerns and strategies in local socio-moral life, some of which diverge from adult ideologies. These findings highlight the role of children as active moral agents. Through analyzing children's voices of peer aggression, this article illuminates a dark side of moral development that would otherwise remain obscured in the historical literature of childhood: the mischievous, naughty, and even violent interactions among children. The article reveals the tensions and conflicts in children's interactions underlying the Chinese cultural value he, or social harmony. It also reveals a complex spectrum of reciprocity in children's understandings and adds an important theme, "negative reciprocity"-defined as responding to a negative action with a negative action-to the recent advocacy in anthropology for taking children seriously in understanding human morality.

American Anthropologist, 2019

Moral development in early childhood has recently raised heightened interest across social scienc... more Moral development in early childhood has recently raised heightened interest across social sciences. Integrating controlled methods into ethnographic fieldwork, this article investigates how Chinese preschool children develop their understanding of “merit,” an important fairness principle in resource allocation, through socialization of biaoxian hao. Whereas the experimental data taps into distributing reward based on how much one contributes to collective work, a standard attribute of “merit” in psychology literature, ethnographic analysis reveals how children's understanding of merit is mediated by the cultural discourse of biaoxian hao, a significant moral framework in contemporary China that refers to self‐presentation in authority‐evaluation contexts, with a hierarchical dimension. Ethnography further demonstrates the developmental trajectory of learning biaoxian hao and the powerful disciplinary mechanism of overt social comparison and moral evaluation. By showing how two basic moral concerns, sensitivity to fairness and inclination to impress authority, intersect in early development in cultural contexts, this mixed‐methods research provides a direction for cultural anthropology to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of moral development. [merit, fairness, biaoxian, moral development, China]

Chinese education in the post-reform era has drawn much attention in the global community, yet re... more Chinese education in the post-reform era has drawn much attention in the global community, yet relatively little fieldwork-based research has examined educational life within non-elite, mainstream rural high-schools. Based on long-

Standard measures of generalized trust in others are often taken to provide reliable indicators o... more Standard measures of generalized trust in others are often taken to provide reliable indicators of economic attitudes in different countries. Here we compared three highly distinct groups, in Kenya, China and the US, in terms of more specific attitudes, [a] people's willingness to invest in the future, [b] their willingness to invest in others, and [c] their trust in institutions. Results suggest that these measures capture deep differences in economic attitudes that are not detected by standard measures of generalized trust.

Developmental Psychology, 2016

Given the centrality of prosociality in everyday social functioning, understanding the factors an... more Given the centrality of prosociality in everyday social functioning, understanding the factors and mechanisms underlying the origins of prosocial development is of critical importance. This experiment investigated whether experience with reciprocal object exchanges can drive the developmental onset of sharing behavior. Seven-month-old infants took part in 2 laboratory visits to assess their sharing behavior and ability to release objects. During the intervening 7- to 14-day period parents led infants in an intervention in which they were either encouraged to release objects into a container (bucket condition, n = 20), or share objects with the parent in the context of reciprocal object exchanges (sharing condition, n = 20). Results showed that infants in the sharing condition shared significantly more than infants in the bucket condition following the intervention, and infants in the sharing condition significantly increased their sharing behavior across the 2 visits. Parental empathy moderated the effect of this sharing intervention, but frequency of practice did not. These results suggest that reciprocal turn-taking in dyadic object-exchange interactions may facilitate the early emergence of sharing behavior, and this effect is mediated by parental empathy.

Standard measures of generalized trust in others are often taken to provide reliable indicators o... more Standard measures of generalized trust in others are often taken to provide reliable indicators of economic attitudes in
different countries. Here we compared three highly distinct groups, in Kenya, China and the US, in terms of more specific
attitudes, [a] people’s willingness to invest in the future, [b] their willingness to invest in others, and [c] their trust in
institutions. Results suggest that these measures capture deep differences in economic attitudes that are not detected by
standard measures of generalized trust.

Cambridge University Press, 2024

Description Contents Resources Courses About the Authors How do we beco... more Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors

How do we become moral persons? What about children's active learning in contrast to parenting? What can children teach us about knowledge-making more broadly? Answer these questions by delving into the groundbreaking ethnographic fieldwork conducted by anthropologists Arthur and Margery Wolf in a martial law era Taiwanese village (1958-60), marking the first-ever study of ethnic Han children. Jing Xu skillfully reinterprets the Wolfs' extensive fieldnotes, employing a unique blend of humanistic interpretation, natural language processing, and machine-learning techniques. Through a lens of social cognition, this book unravels the complexities of children's moral growth, exposing instances of disobedience, negotiation, and peer dynamics. Writing through and about fieldnotes, the author connects the two themes, learning morality and making ethnography, in light of social cognition, and invites all of us to take children seriously.

薄荷实验，华东师范大学出版社, 2021

《培养好孩子》一书中基于作者2011年至2012年在华东地区一家私立幼儿园对120名学前儿童的实地研究写就，运用人类学民族志观察和心理学实验，从道德领域的三个维度研究了儿童的道德习得过程，展现了... more 《培养好孩子》一书中基于作者2011年至2012年在华东地区一家私立幼儿园对120名学前儿童的实地研究写就，运用人类学民族志观察和心理学实验，从道德领域的三个维度研究了儿童的道德习得过程，展现了儿童与育儿者、儿童世界文化和成人世界文化之间的张力，描绘了中国社会化的信念和方法如何对道德世界建设形成影响。该书不仅实现了研究方法和学科的融合与跨越，揭示了对话和辩论的相互作用，也是对既有儿童道德教育研究的重要补充。对每个关于教育的人而言，该书都具有重要的指导和启发意义。

Stanford University Press, 2017

Chinese academic traditions take zuo ren—self-fulfillment in terms of moral cultivation—as the ul... more Chinese academic traditions take zuo ren—self-fulfillment in terms of moral cultivation—as the ultimate goal of education. To many in contemporary China, however, the nation seems gripped by moral decay, the result of rapid and profound social change over the course of the twentieth century. Placing Chinese children, alternately seen as China's greatest hope and derided as self-centered "little emperors," at the center of her analysis, Jing Xu investigates the effects of these transformations on the moral development of the nation's youngest generation.

The Good Child examines preschool-aged children in Shanghai, tracing how Chinese socialization beliefs and methods influence their construction of a moral world. Delving into the growing pains of an increasingly competitive and changing educational environment, Xu documents the confusion, struggles, and anxieties of today's parents, educators, and grandparents, as well as the striking creativity of their children in shaping their own moral practices. Her innovative blend of anthropology and psychology reveals the interplay of their dialogues and debates, illuminating how young children's nascent moral dispositions are selected, expressed or repressed, and modulated in daily experiences.