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Accepted Paper:

Doing diligence (qinfen): a virtue-in-transition and discourse practice among Chinese postgraduates  
Limeng Xu (East China Normal University)

Paper short abstract:

A qualitative approach is used to explore the transition of discourse practice about diligence(qinfen) in everyday lives of Chinese postgraduates. There are three different forms of "doing diligence". The practice reflects discipline, subjectisation, symbolic violence and gender discrimination.

Paper long abstract:

A stereotype of Chinese students is that they are extremely diligent because many see hard-working as a critical virtue. However, little is known about the everyday practice of "doing diligence" among Chinese students. To fulfill this knowledge gap, this paper examines how the discourse of diligence has been reconstructed and subjectified by a group of Chinese postgraduates.This study uses a qualitative approach. I interviewed seven postgraduate students from two universities, among whom four are females and three are males. A typical interview began from the interviewees' current campus lives to their life histories relating to the perceptions on and practice of "doing diligence". Also, these seven students' everyday posts of WeChat Moments, a Chinese version of twitter, are collected as data for further analysis.Research findings show that students use several criteria to justify "diligence", including learning length, learning space, learning purpose, learning effect and learning mentality. By analysing the data, I identify three different forms of "doing diligence": "rigid diligence" (si qin fen)/ "skillful diligence" (you ji qiao de qin fen), "false diligence" and "concealed diligence".Many master students no longer see doing diligence as moral practice. This transition mirrors both individualisation of the younger generation and the political, social and cultural changes in broader Chinese society. This paper argues that the understanding and practice of "diligence" (qin fen) by postgraduate students reflects the discipline to students in China. The practice of "doing diligence" also reflects a process of subjectisation, within which symbolic violence and gender discrimination exist.

Panel P07
Value(s) of student anthropologists (ANSA panel)
  Session 1 Wednesday 4 December, 2019, -