Elanah Uretsky provides a rich, detailed ethnography of the entertaining practices and sexual lives of male government officials in Ruili (Yunnan province), where she conducted her fieldwork in the early 2000s. Uretsky marshals this ethnographic data to develop a powerful critique of dominant public health paradigms surrounding STIs and HIV...By weaving together arguments about sexuality, gender, work, borders, and ... Read moregovernance, Uretsky crafts a very compelling account of the structures which inform and enable medically risky behavior among elite men in China. Any serious attempt to combat HIV, STIs, or even chronic disease in China will have to contend with her findings.
John Osburg
Nan Nu
Elanah Uretsky's forceful ethnography examines the entrenched male rituals of doing business in China, which include banqueting, drinking, smoking, and sexual entertainment-much to the detriment of these men's integrity and health, and to China's HIV/AIDS epidemic more broadly. Occupational Hazards is an important contribution to our understanding of this simultaneously powerful and vulnerable population, and to our understanding of public health in China.
Arthur Kleinman co-author of Deep China and Director
Harvard University Asia Center
In revealing how business practices impinge on free time and even enter the bedroom, Uretsky challenges the assumption that reforms in China have led to a decline in Party interference in personal life. This remarkable book uncovers the interaction between work, Party appointment and entertainment in Southwest China.
Anthony J. Saich Harvard University
This book is ethnographically rich and is an intriguing read. It will be welcomed by a wide array of scholars interested in topics such as HIV/AIDS, public health, and gender and sexuality in China and beyond.
Tiantian Zheng
Journal of Anthropological Research
Occupational Hazards paints a detailed portrait of the ways in which gender, sexuality, and health-related risks are embedded within social relations and cultural practices. Elanah Uretsky's book is an exceptional ethnographic study offering critical insights into HIV and AIDS-and global health more broadly.
Richard Parker
Columbia University
This wonderfully written and empirically rich book shines an important light on the unintended public health consequences of yingchou, an informal practice common among Chinese businessmen that involves heavy drinking, eating, smoking, and, sometimes, commercial sex...The book's strength lies in Uretsky's revealing ethnography and a refreshing first-person narrative rarely seen in social science writing.
Timothy Hildebrandt
The Lancet
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