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The focus of traditional anthropology has been on the "simple and primitive" tribal societies that still exist. The question of how anthropology can carry on to study complex civilizations, especially those with a long history like Chinese civilization, has gained attention due to the discipline's development and expansion. Anthropologists around the world have developed several significant research methods in the study of complex societies in response to this challenge. Taking anthropology research in China as an example, these methods include not only the summary and improvement of Western anthropological methods applied by Chinese scholars to Chinese practice but also methodological innovations based on traditional Chinese research paradigms and explorations of anthropological fieldwork methods in the digital age. In China, the latest advancements in anthropological methods for studying complex societies can be seen in historical anthropology, multi-sited ethnography, internet anthropology, and Rapid Anthropological Assessment. This effectively responds to many doubts about whether anthropological fieldwork methods are capable of studying complex societies and spurred anthropology's reciprocal adaptation to new fields of study and contemporary needs. In this sense, anthropological research on complex societies is entirely possible, feasible, and necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study of entrepreneurial migrants at, and associated with, the Dongguan Humen Zhisheng School explores the upward social mobility experienced by entrepreneurial migrants as they move from their hometowns to Dongguan and become business owners. The strategies they adopt during the transition are vital to achieving upward social mobility. To transform themselves from hired laborers to business owners, they seek funding from their original social networks based on family and location and set up new social networks in their places of residence to share information and other external resources. While moving upward, these migrants use their networks to create a new, distinct social space. Although entrepreneurial migrants readily adapt to urban life, the household registration system and discriminatory regulations based on it require them to return to their places of origin at crucial moments in their lives. In terms of political status and social reputation, entrepreneurial migrants still find themselves on the "fringe" of urban society. As a result, they have not truly completed the migration from countryside to city or moved to a higher social stratum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on research in a labor-intensive enterprise, this study discusses the differences between new and old migrant workers. One consists of the choice of, and attitude toward "flow-backs" (hui liu) and "switching jobs" (zhuan gong) on the part of new and old migrant workers. The authors maintain that "flow-backs" and "switching jobs" are the different means by which the new and old generation of migrant workers face future developments and handle opportunities that enable them to make subjective choices. Implied behind these opportunities are the migrant workers' different self-realization requirements, displacement strategies, and different perspectives on urban and rural life. Another concerns the self-categorization process of the new and old generation of migrant worker groups-in other words, how these groups have undergone subjective divisions due to differences in concepts and choices. By analyzing the mutual evaluations, delimitations, interactions, and even conflicts among them, a clearer understanding is obtained of the process of the new replacing the old within migrant worker groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nannies are an important group of the casual workers studied. In this article, six characteristics of the group are analyzed: the nature of their work and the personality characteristics of nannies; their age structure; reasons for working; marriage and family dynamics; their relationships with their employers; and their social networks. Analysis is by means of oral interviews with nannies in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The gender aggregation effect salient among nannies means that they are a purely female vocational group which increases the group's vulnerabilities and weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the main agricultural products including xianggu (shiitake mushrooms) and luohanguo (momordica grosvenori) that are involved in technological change among Guoshan Yao in Guangxi province, China. According to the author, Xianggu is the main traditional economic crop for the Guoshan Yao at Dongmian village, and the main food and economic resource on which the Guoshan Yao relied for their livelihood and development. Meanwhile, the cultivation of luohanguo replaced that of xianggu, becoming the main source of income for the Guoshan Yao. Moreover, the development of these two main crop is inseparable from the progress of scientific technique in which the villagers enhanced their incomes.

On the basis of related literature and the author's field research in Jiangxi province, the present article discusses the process of ethnic group reconstruction and identification of the She people with the family names of Lan, Lei, and Zhong in the Gannan region of Jiangxi province, who were restored as members of the She ethnic group from their original Han ethnic group after ethnic policies were carried out in 1985. The author puts forward his personal opinions on the factors of ethnic identity and the two schools of theory on ethnic identification, namely primordialism and circumstantialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the composition and relation between the ethnic groups at Hehuang region in China. Hehuang region is considered as the cultural center and the most significant historical area for ancient ethnic groups and ethnic minority regimes which currently occupied by the Mongolians, Tibetans and Hui minority groups. It is seen that cultural identification is the factor in the interactive relations between ethnic groups which resulted to the mutual acting force on them and the development of the cognition level of related ethnic cultures.

Analyzes the kinship system in the Fenghuang village in China. Changing process of lineage organization in the village; Structure of the lineage systems; Revitalization of lineage organizations and local religions; Resurgence of lineage and religious ideologies; Five indicators to determine whether a lineage exists.

Introduces the issues concerning the development of Chinese anthropology in the 1990s. Establishment of the China Urban Anthropology Association; Workshop spreading the influence of anthropology in academic and wider societal circles; Reemphasis on the centrality of the feildwork.

This article, first of all, summarizes the debate regarding "Chinese-style anthropology" since the reconstruction of anthropology, and discusses the background and significance of this dialogue. Second, it proposes that the discussion on anthropology is concerned with "the issue of the localization of anthropology," and also discusses the background, significance, and drawbacks of localization of anthropology. Third, it suggests how to localize and develop anthropology in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on rural development and social security. Social security is a major factor in China's policy of separation of cities and rural areas, for which reason one deems it an important topic in the study of rural urbanization. Rural township enterprises are the motive force and pillar of rural urbanization. In looking into social security in township enterprises, the author discovered that, in the Pearl River Delta, such enterprises are closely integrated with the communities in which they are located and that the social security systems of the two are actually one. To study the social security system in township enterprises, therefore, one must first study the system in the township communities. This can be said to be a characteristic of Chinese rural urbanization. In China, the chief difference between holding an "iron rice bowl" or a "clay rice bowl" depends on whether or not a person enjoys the social security benefits provided by the state. The former include such people as public government functionaries and employees of state-owned enterprises. For them, the state takes care of all benefits from birth to old age, sickness, and death.

This article focuses on migrant odd-job workers in Guangzhou. Beginning in the 1980s, wave after wave of migrant laborers have poured out of the country in search of work, and the Pearl River Delta, including Guangzhou, was the first to be affected. In 1988, the delta's migrant laboring population reached 5 million. In 1989, it was 3 million, in 1990, 4 million, in 1991, 5 million, in 1992, 6 million, and in 1993, an estimated 10 million or more. Migrant laborers take jobs shunned by local people, such as those with high labor intensity, in poor working environments, paying low wages, and of low social status. Odd-job workers refers to people among the migrant laboring population who free lance. They are not licensed as individual business proprietors, nor are they legally employed by different enterprises. They work in a variety of jobs, roughly divided into two categories. In the first category, they mainly sell their physical labor, similar to day (short-term) laborers. They do whatever jobs bosses give them, including moving earth, bricks, digging, and shoveling.

The article focuses on rural urbanization in Guangdong's Pearl river delta in China. The Pearl River Delta is situated in the south central part of Guangdong province and faces the South China Sea. It is an open economic zone encompassing twenty-eight municipalities and counties, one open city-Guangzhou; and two Special Economic Zones Shenzhen and Zhuhai. The delta has caught much attention because it was one of the first areas to engage in reform and the open policy and is, today, an area with one of the highest degrees of urbanization. Based on geographic location, administrative level and other factors, the authors have divided the Pearl River Delta's rural urbanization into different types. "City Periphery Village Communities" are a type of community widely found in the Chinese urbanization process, a product of China's special policies on land requisition and household registration. Such communities are situated in places where cities and rural areas have become integrated and possess elements of the way of life of both. They are different from city outskirts or villages in the ordinary sense.

The article focuses on rural urbanization in China. Any process of urbanization necessarily touched on rural-urban interaction. A look at the history of urban development in China shows that the political function of cities had been consistently reinforced to the exclusion of other functions. Cities at every level were bases of control in a network of centralized political control. The political status of a city determined its size. This configuration broke down after the Opium Wars, when the colonialist empires built up a number of Chinese commercial ports into cities. But these cities, too, were quickly absorbed into the centralized political network. Chinese cities therefore never did possess the relative autonomy enjoyed by European cities but were inextricably bound with the political system. The country's political orientation was the single most important factor determining the development of cities. The founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 did not change this tradition, but brought the cities even closer into the political system.

This paper considers the process of the change in Chinese society—in which its people went from being regional to being migrant in urban communities—and recognizes urban transformation as being based on and an expression of cultural transformation. The transformation of urban communities accompanied the "migration era," and China's urban communities, in fact, have been gradually changing from a relatively closed regional society to a diverse and civilized migrant one. The diversification of migrants has caused many problems for cities during their transition, affecting such aspects of social life as the equal enjoyment of public resources, the changes in family and kinship, regional discrimination, the complexity of interpersonal and ethnic relations, etc. The related topics are worthy of further discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban migration for work creates problems both for migrant workers themselves and for the governments that must integrate new populations. The four articles in the present issue of Chinese Sociology and Anthropology analyze regional policy, schooling, upward mobility, job switching, urban-rural differences, and housing for their effect on migrant workers and the communities associated with them, both past and present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To investigate the level of and factors involved in influenza virus subtype H1N1 (H1N1)-related preventive behaviors and mental distress among university students in Guangzhou. Participants. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data for 825 students from 2 universities. Results. A total of 49.7% of the participants held misconception(s) concerning H1N1 transmission. Less than 30% washed their hands >10 times/d; 72.3% did not reduce the frequency of touching their mouths, noses, and eyes; only 9.3% would wear face masks if they had influenza-like symptoms. However, 45% worried that one/one’s family would contract H1N1, 10.7% were panicking/feeling depressed/feeling emotionally disturbed as a result of H1N1, and 14.9% were fearful about the WHO’s H1N1 pandemic announcement. Almost all cognitive variables of this study were significantly associated with mental distress caused by fear of H1N1 (odds ratio [OR] = 0.29-3.81), but very few were associated with adoption of preventive measures (OR = 0.65-1.90). Conclusions. Preventive measures are warranted to alleviate distress in the population studied via health education and promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of cardiac injury and its association with mortality in hospitalized patients infected with avian influenza A (H7N9) virus.Design: Retrospective cohort study.Setting: A total of 133 hospitals in 17 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities of mainland China that admitted influenza A (H7N9) virus-infected patients between January 22, 2015, and June 16, 2017.Patients: A total of 321 patients with influenza A (H7N9) virus infection were included in the final analysis.Interventions: None.Measurements and Main Results: Demographics and clinical characteristics were collected from medical records. Cardiac injury was defined according to cardiac biomarkers, electrocardiography, or echocardiography. Among the 321 patients, 203 (63.2%) showed evidence of cardiac injury. Compared with the uninjured group, the cardiac injury group had lower PaO2/FIO2 (median, 102.0 vs 148.4 mm Hg; p < 0.001), higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score (median, 17.0 vs 11.0; p < 0.001), longer stay in the ICU (10.0 vs 9.0 d; p = 0.029), and higher proportion of in-hospital death (64.0% vs 20.3%; p < 0.001). The proportion of virus clearance until discharge or death was lower in the cardiac injury group than in the uninjured group (58.6% vs 86.4%; p < 0.001). Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that cardiac injury was associated with higher mortality (hazards ratio, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.31-3.24) during hospitalization.Conclusions: Cardiac injury is a frequent condition among hospitalized patients infected with influenza A (H7N9) virus, and it is associated with higher risk of mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study investigated a large variety of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in house dust collected from Guangzhou, South China during 2015–2018. The perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS) exhibited the highest median concentration (17.6 ng/g), followed by linear perfluorooctanoic acid (L-PFOA; 4.8 ng/g), linear perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (L-PFOS; 4.2 ng/g), 6:2 fluorotelomer phosphate diester (6:2 diPAP; 3.4 ng/g), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA; 1.2 ng/g) and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUdA; 1.2 ng/g), and 6:2 chlorinated perfluoroalkyl ether sulfonic acid (6:2 Cl-PFESA; 1.1 ng/g). Total concentrations of PFASs (median: 53 ng/g) were generally within the 25–50 percentile of the concentration range reported in global studies. However, our samples exhibited composition profiles different from those reported in many other regions. Analysis based on this and previous studies revealed that the compositions in house dust from East Asia, North America, and Europe exhibit a region-specific pattern. This may indicate region-specific market demands, application patterns, as well as associated human exposure risks. Exploration of dwelling characterizations suggested that renovation history appeared to be a significant factor influencing PFAS concentrations in house dust, although other factors may exist and play a role. Estimation of daily intakes via dust ingestion and dermal contact indicates low exposure risks from these two pathways. However, the PFAS chemical-specific biological effects, possible mixture effects, as well as additional exposure pathways, imply that the risk from indoor PFAS exposure should not be overlooked. • Our study investigated various PFAS chemicals in house dust collected from South China. • Dust compositions of PFASs from East Asia, North America and Europe exhibit a region-specific pattern. • Renovation history may be a significant factor influencing PFAS concentrations in house dust. • Estimation of daily intakes via dust ingestion and dermal contact indicates low exposure risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Spread of SARS-CoV-2 led to a global pandemic, and there remains unmet medical needs in the treatment of Omicron infections. VV116, an oral antiviral agent that has potent activity against SARS-CoV-2, was compared with a placebo in this phase 3 study to investigate its efficacy and safety in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19., Methods: This multicentre, double-blind, phase 3, randomised controlled study enrolled adults in hospitals for infectious diseases and tertiary general hospitals in China. Eligible patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio using permuted block randomisation to receive oral VV116 (0·6 g every 12 h on day 1 and 0·3 g every 12 h on days 2-5) or oral placebo (on the same schedule as VV116) for 5 days. Randomisation stratification factors included SARS-CoV-2 vaccination status and the presence of high-risk factors for progression to severe COVID-19. Inclusion criteria were a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, an initial onset of COVID-19 symptoms 3 days or less before the first study dose, and a score of 2 or more for any target COVID-19-related symptoms in the 24 h before the first dose. Patients who had severe or critical COVID-19 or who had taken any antiviral drugs were excluded from the study. The primary endpoint was the time to clinical symptom resolution for 2 consecutive days. Efficacy analyses were performed on a modified intention-to-treat population, comprising all patients who received at least one dose of VV116 or placebo, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid, and did not test positive for influenza virus before the first dose. Safety analyses were done on all participants who received at least one dose of VV116 or placebo. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05582629, and has been completed., Findings: A total of 1369 patients were randomly assigned to treatment groups and 1347 received either VV116 (n=674) or placebo (n=673). At the interim analysis, VV116 was superior to placebo in reducing the time to sustained clinical symptom resolution among 1229 patients (hazard ratio [HR] 1·21, 95% CI 1·04-1·40; p=0·0023). At the final analysis, a substantial reduction in time to sustained clinical symptom resolution was observed for VV116 compared with placebo among 1296 patients (HR 1·17, 95% CI 1·04-1·33; p=0·0009), consistent with the interim analysis. The incidence of adverse events was similar between groups (242 [35·9%] of 674 patients vs 283 [42·1%] of 673 patients)., Interpretation: Among patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, VV116 significantly reduced the time to sustained clinical symptom resolution compared with placebo, with no observed safety concerns., Funding: Shanghai Vinnerna Biosciences, Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, and the National Key Research and Development Program of China., Translation: For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests JM, BX, and KZ are employees of Shanghai Junshi Biosciences. Shanghai JunTop Biosciences is an affiliated company of Shanghai Junshi Biosciences; Shanghai Vinnerna Biosciences, the sponsor of this study, is the subsidiary of Shanghai JunTop Biosciences and Vigonvita Life Sciences. All aspects of this study were done by Shanghai Junshi Biosciences. The remaining authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Data are limited on the impact of neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) treatment on avian influenza A(H7N9) virus RNA shedding., Methods: In this multicenter, retrospective study, data were collected from adults hospitalized with A(H7N9) infection during 2013-2017 in China. We compared clinical features and A(H7N9) shedding among patients with different NAI doses and combination therapies and evaluated factors associated with A(H7N9) shedding, using Cox proportional hazards regression., Results: Among 478 patients, the median age was 56 years, 71% were male, and 37% died. The median time from illness onset to NAI treatment initiation was 8 days (interquartile range [IQR], 6-10 days), and the median duration of A(H7N9) RNA detection from onset was 15.5 days (IQR, 12-20 days). A(H7N9) RNA shedding was shorter in survivors than in patients who died (P < .001). Corticosteroid administration (hazard ratio [HR], 0.62 [95% confidence interval {CI}, .50-.77]) and delayed NAI treatment (HR, 0.90 [95% CI, .91-.96]) were independent risk factors for prolonged A(H7N9) shedding. There was no significant difference in A(H7N9) shedding duration between NAI combination treatment and monotherapy (P = .65) or between standard-dose and double-dose oseltamivir treatment (P = .70)., Conclusions: Corticosteroid therapy and delayed NAI treatment were associated with prolonged A(H7N9) RNA shedding. NAI combination therapy and double-dose oseltamivir treatment were not associated with a reduced A(H7N9) shedding duration as compared to standard-dose oseltamivir.