Andrew B. Kipnis's edited volume is a welcome contribution to anthropology and China studies alike. The collection of essays is lively, clear, and evocative, and is broken into three parts on art, gender, and self-improvement. - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Chinese Modernity and the Individual Psyche is an important book. It advances an ongoing conversation about the changing relationship between power and subjectivity under Chinese modernity. It could easily be adopted in an undergraduate course on modern Chinese history or Chinese society, especially in courses that aim to destabilize the notion that socialism is bad while economic liberalization is good. - The China Journal
I warmly recommend the volume for anyone interested in the topic of individual and self in China, in the ways Chinese individuals are governed through various institutions and in different cultural settings, and for those interested in theories of modernity and individuation in the context of China. - The China Quarterly