infant toileting in china

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.

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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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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.”