|
| |
Chinese Conceptions of Childhood
From: London School of Economics and Political Science
| By:
Charles Stafford |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
In Chinese popular religion, it is believed that children's souls are very vulnerable, that they can easily be detached from the body. In this interview, Charles Stafford (right), a specialist in the anthropology of China and Taiwan, reconstructs and explains various belief systems providing an entry point to the unfamiliar and seemingly strange aspects of Chinese attitudes, rituals and customs. In this context, ideas about the fragility of children's souls can be understood. |
 | |
| Charles Stafford on the importance of children in China and Taiwan. | |
Fathom: What is unique or particularly interesting about the Chinese conceptualisation of childhood? |
Charles Stafford: As an anthropologist, I would say that Chinese conceptions of childhood are what we would expect. They are typical of conceptions of childhood around the world. People associate children with the general issues of human fertility and growth, with the issues of the continuation of the family substance and so on. These themes are not unique to China. They are found in a number of cultural traditions. Nevertheless, it is true that in China great emphasis is placed on children. In particular historical contexts, that emphasis can become quite extreme. |
For example, in mainland China during the period of the one-child policy, a lot of the traditional ideas about children were held to a hyper-extreme degree, because reducing the number of children to one per family meant that all hopes and aspirations that one might have for future generations became focussed on one child--often with very negative effects. So although the policy of having one child was meant to be very radical, it was, in fact, very traditionalising, because it made people hold even more intensely to the traditional view that children are the future and suchlike. |
 | |
| Charles Stafford explains the importance of children's souls. | |
Fathom: Can you talk about ideas relating to children's souls? |
Stafford: This is a recurrent theme, and in Taiwanese popular religion, certainly, the issue of children's souls is an important one. This is for the simple reason that one characteristic of children's souls is that they are not very firmly attached to children's bodies. There is a notion that when terrifying things happen to children (and this can be something as small as being barked at by a dog or somebody making a loud noise) the soul can actually be detached from the child and go floating around. That can have very negative effects--it can cause the child to become ill if they are not in the proper state. |
So there are rituals in Chinese popular religion (and these are among the most common rituals) for literally attracting the souls of children back to their bodies and putting them back inside so that the children can be the way they should be. Very often, if children are upset, for example, if a baby cries for weeks on end and nobody really knows what is wrong, they will be taken to spirit mediums or doctors or old women who will make a consultation. Very often, the result of the consultation is simply that the soul is gone. We need to bring it back. And then that is done. |
 | |
| Charles Stafford on the transition between a child's and an adult's soul. | |
Fathom: Is there a point of transition in the Chinese conceptualisation of the soul where the soul stops being a child's soul and becomes an adult soul? |
Stafford: This is something that is really a gradual transition rather than an absolute one. Obviously, within China there are different ways of thinking about this progress, but, in general, the progress through childhood is seen as a literal progress through a whole series of steps or stages in life. That process of getting more mature also means that one's soul becomes more firmly attached to one's body. But this does not mean that soul loss doesn't happen to adults. It is not seen to be an absolute thing. It can happen that their souls are frightened away from their bodies. |
Fathom: How and why is the survival of childhood celebrated? |
| |
| Charles Stafford explains why the survival of childhood is celebrated. | |
Stafford: When children are first born in Taiwan and China, there isn't usually much of a celebration at that particular moment. Certainly, traditionally, there hasn't been much in the way of a public celebration of birth itself. However, fairly soon after birth there are a series of moments which are celebrated as if what is being celebrated is the fact that the child has managed to survive for this length of this time. |
Typically, there will be a celebration at man yueh, which is the first full month after birth. In many places, after bi tienh, which is 100 days, there will be a celebration. And, in a lot of places, after a full year, man jo sueh, they will again have a big celebration and these can become increasingly public. By the time people have a man jo sueh celebration after a year, there may be a very large public banquet in which all the neighbours and relatives in the local community will come together to celebrate the fact that this lucky family has had a child and that the child has managed to survive for a year. |
Then there is the question of why celebration is necessary as a way of marking the survival of children. Put simply, the answer to this is that children are seen to be important assets for families. Regardless of all the emotional investment and love which certainly goes on, I think celebration of survival is down to the fact that children are seen as important assets to families. They are the ones who are going to have children and continue the family line and continue the ancestral rituals, thus ensuring ritual continuity in the family. And they are also the ones who are going to be obliged (once they grow up and start working) to support their aging parents. |
There are a lot of practical reasons for families to want to have children. Obviously, that is not only true in China, it is true in many places around the world. Nevertheless, they are good reasons to celebrate. |
 | |
| Charles Stafford discusses the importance of learning for souls. | |
Fathom: Can you explain the idea that children become persons through learning? |
Stafford: This is a Confucian and neo-Confucian idea. Basically, within Confucianism there is a concept of personhood which is very closely related to the idea of learning, education, self-cultivation and moral training. The acquisition of literacy was a way of getting into the classical canon and, therefore, learning the codes and rules of this proper Confucian morality. Confucianism also hosts the idea that the person who does not go through that process of learning, self-cultivation, developing literacy and so on has never really achieved full personhood. They are alive, but they haven't really achieved full Confucian personhood. |
That has some interesting implications, because for much of Chinese history most people did not have access to education or literacy. It was only in the twentieth century that we had mass education, so it was quite an elitist conception of personhood. It also has a lot of implications for gender relations in China, because until fairly recently the number of women who received education (to a very high level, anyway) was very restricted, indeed. So, it was an exclusionary conception of personhood which had some important implications. |
 | |
| Charles Stafford elaborates on Confucian ideas about learning. | |
Fathom: So, is the level of learning and achievement related to personhood at all? |
Stafford: If one were to have this discussion with a Confucian scholar, with a classically trained scholar in modern China, I suspect they would come out with the idea that there are levels of achievement in the process of gaining personhood. Therefore, some people have achieved a higher standard and are, therefore, to be more highly honoured as true Confucian gentlemen. That would be the classic way of looking at it. |
Nonetheless, it is also important to acknowledge that a lot of people in China would think that this conception of personhood is misleading or incomplete. Obviously, there are a large number of people in China who are dedicated to Buddhist ideals and who would believe that Buddhist self-cultivation (which is a very different kind of thing) would be what one must achieve in order to achieve a good kind of personhood. People would certainly have different views about these kinds of issues. |
|
| |
