Dissertation Research: The Social Significiance of Infertility in Beijing, China

本论文研究项目将允许一名文化人类学研究生研究中国现代女性不孕不育的文化内涵。这名学生的项目得到了中国学术交流委员会的批准，该委员会是监督美国科学家在中国的研究的主要行政机构。虽然中国政府强调人口控制，但不孕不育仍然是一种耻辱。该项目将通过研究家庭、婚姻、医学和国家政策的社会机构如何影响性别认同的概念和不孕不育的污名化过程，来调查女性和男性的文化建设。研究方法包括参与观察法、调查法、开放式访谈法和民俗资料分析法。这项研究很重要，因为高人口增长率是发展中国家的主要问题。更多地了解国家人口控制政策对当地不孕不育价值观的影响，将有助于为各国提供如何实现其人口控制目标的建议。

This dissertation research project will allow a graduate student in cultural anthropology to study the cultural meanings of infertility among modern-day women in China. The student's project is approved by the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the PRC, the main administrative body overseeing research by US scientists in the PRC. While the PRC government stresses population control, infertility remains stigmatized. The project will investigate the cultural construction of femaleness and maleness by studying how social institutions of family, marriage, medicine and state policies affect notions of gender identity and the process of stigmatization for infertility. Methods include participant observation, surveys, open-ended interviewing and the analysis of folklore materials. This research is important because high population growth rates are major problems in the developing world. Increased understanding of how local values about infertility are affected by state population control policies will be helpful in advising countries how to achieve their population control goals.