清洁与危险:中-尼亲密关系里的去污名化技术和身份政治

Cleanliness and Danger:Destigmatisation and Identity Politics in Nigerian-Chinese Intimate Relationships in South China

近年来,中国与非洲的交往日益深入且多样化。但目前为止,大多数研究关注于中非之间的国际政治和经济合作,本文则深入到日常道德和亲密关系层面的微观层面,揭示中非之间互动过程的复杂性。基于在中国广州为期12个月的博士田野调查,本文主要讨论在广州做生意的尼日利亚人如何在日常生活层面(身体的清洁、个人仪表、行为规范等)对其同居的中国亲密伴侣进行道德改造,进而营造一个安全的"干净"的小环境。这一道德改造的对外作用是去除尼日利亚人和其他非洲人在中国被背负的种种污名,对内作用则是剔除中国亲密伴侣的"中国性"。本文认为,这种以身体和灵魂的清洁为中心的去污名化技术和身份政治,并不是以个人道德提升为目的的自我技术,而是以小团体利益为核心的关系技术。这种实践是日常伦理的一部分,它不仅仅应该被放置在一个形成了丰富而流变的"卫生"、"现代化"等观念的中国和后殖民时期的尼日利亚大背景中,更应该被看做是尼日利亚人在中国所面对的不确定的移民环境而形成的生活策略。

The engagement of China and Africa is undoubtfully booming and diversifying in recent years. While most studies so far explore the international political and economic cooperation,this article calls for a micro-level analysis of the intimate and moral dimensions of China-Africa connections. Based on 12-month doctoral fieldwork carried out among Nigerian migrants and their Chinese intimate partners in Guangzhou city(China),the findings reveal that,through teaching their Chinese partners about how to cleanse,dress and behave in private and public spheres,the Nigerian traders under study manage to create a safe and'morally clean'world of their own. This cultural teaching is conducted to remove the certain stigmas with which the Nigerians and other black Africans are associated in the Chinese public, but also to convert their Chinese partners by eliminating certain cultural elements of'Chineseness.'These technologies of de- stigmatization and identity politics centered on physical and moral cleanliness are made not to construct an ethical self,but rather to facilitate the formation of relational ethics for the benefits of the partnership. This article argues that these interactive practices,as part of everyday ethics,must not only be historically situated in the conceptualizations on cleanliness and civilization in the post-colonial Nigerian society and China,but also be seen as a life strategy of the Nigerians against the uncertain migratory environment in Guangzhou.