Paper short abstract:

Drawing on longitudinal fieldwork in Beijing this paper documents and analyses the emergence of new hygiene practices adopted by local residents in response to new public health risks such as infectious diseases and contaminated food in the first decade of the 21st century.

Paper long abstract:

Beijing residents were faced with numerous public health risks such as new infectious diseases (SARS, bird and swine flu) and food safety scares (for example pesticides in vegetables, melamine in eggs and milk) in the last decade. Rapid social change, lack of trust in the information made available to them by weak institutions and a new awareness of risk have made them re-assess how to protect themselves from exposure to invisible threats to their health and safety in the form of viruses, pollutants, and toxins. This paper documents and examines the new hygiene practices they have adopted to re-assert control over their physical well-being. It shows that in addition to becoming more careful in their interactions with strangers and in their choice of foods consumed and restaurants visited, they have revived traditional methods of disinfecting their food and houses. Many Beijing residents have also taken advantage of the proliferation of new chemical substances which promise to thoroughly cleanse food items from toxins. The paper also shows that while concerns about health protection span the entire social spectrum, age and gender play important roles in the development of new hygiene strategies.