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About Suvi Rautio

Suvi's academic interests cover a range of fields that help her unpack the social orderings of marginalised populations living in China. Guided by stories of her own family history, Suvi is currently working on a four-year Postdoctoral project studying the transmission of memory and loss among Beijing’s intellectual class during the Maoist era.

Dr. Suvi Rautio is an anthropologist of China.

NBN Episodes hosted by Suvi:

African Studies October 29, 2023

Congo's Dancers

Women and Work in Kinshasa

Lesley Nicole Braun

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I spoke with Lesley Nicole Braun to talk about her new book on Congo's dancers. Dance music plays a central role in the cultural, social, religious, and family lives of …
Chinese Studies May 3, 2023

Angloscene

Compromised Personhood in Afro-Chinese Translations

Jay Ke-Schutte

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I had the pleasure of talking to Jay Ke-Schutte on his just released book, Angloscene: Compromised Personhood in Afro-Chinese Translations (U California Press, 2023). Angloscene examines Afro-Chinese interactions within …
Chinese Studies January 15, 2023

Self as Method

Thinking Through China and the World

Xiang Biao and Wu Qi

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I had the pleasure of talking to Professor Xiang Biao on his new book, Self as Method: Thinking Through China and the World, which was originally written and published in Chinese …
African Studies December 1, 2022

Christianity, Politics and the Afterlives of War in Uganda

There is Confusion

Henni Alava

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Henni Alava, postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University, on her fascinating new book published by Bloomsbury as part of the New Directions in Anthropology …
Chinese Studies October 7, 2022

Secondhand China

Spain, the East, and the Politics of Translation

Carles Prado-Fonts

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I spoke with Carles Prado-Fonts on his recently published book Secondhand China: Spain, the East, and the Politics of Translation (Northwestern UP, 2022). This transcultural study of cultural production brings to light …
Chinese Studies September 5, 2022

Continent in Dust

Experiments in a Chinese Weather System

Jerry C. Zee

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today Julia Keblinska and I had the pleasure of talking to Assistant Professor Jerry Zee about his book, Continent in Dust: Experiments in a Chinese Weather System, published by University of California Press in …
East Asian Studies August 15, 2022

Cosmic Coherence

A Cognitive Anthropology Through Chinese Divination

William Matthews

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I spoke to anthropologist William Matthews about his new book, Cosmic Coherence: A Cognitive Anthropology Through Chinese Divination (Berghahn Books, 2021). This book explores how humans are unique in their …
Chinese Studies July 25, 2022

Chinese Village Life Today

Building Families in an Age of Transition

Gonçalo Santos

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I had the pleasure of talking to Professor Gonçalo Santos (University of Coimbra), about his new book, Chinese Village Life Today: Building Families in an Age of Transition, which was published …
Chinese Studies November 9, 2021

The Funeral of Mr. Wang

Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China

Andrew B. Kipnis

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I spoke to Professor Andrew Kipnis about his book on social change in urban China from the perspective of funerals. In rural China funerals are conducted locally, on village land …
Chinese Studies October 22, 2021

The End of the Village

Planning the Urbanization of Rural China

Nick R. Smith

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I spoke to Nick R. Smith to talk about how China's expansive new era of urbanization threatens to undermine the foundations of rural life, which he writes about in …
Chinese Studies September 29, 2021

The Inconvenient Generation

Migrant Youth Coming of Age on Shanghai's Edge

Minhua Ling

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
On the podcast today, I am joined by Minhua Ling, Assistant Professor in the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to talk about her book …
Chinese Studies July 21, 2021

Embodying Middle Class Gender Aspirations

Perspectives from China’s Privileged Young Women

Kailing Xie

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I interviewed Kailing Xie on her recently published book, Embodying Middle Class Gender Aspirations: Perspectives from China's Privileged Young Women (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). This book takes a feminist approach to …
Anthropology June 18, 2021

Light in Dark Times

The Human Search for Meaning

Alisse Waterston and Charlotte Corden

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I spoke to anthropologist Alisse Waterston and artist Charlotte Corden to ask them questions, such as: What will become of us in these trying times? How will we pass …
Anthropology June 9, 2021

The Inheritance

Elizabeth A. Povinelli

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Elizabeth A. Povinelli’s inheritance was passed down not through blood or soil but through a framed map of Trentino, Alto Adige—the region where family's ancestral alpine village is found. Far …
Chinese Studies May 26, 2021

Discourses of Race and Rising China

Yinghong Cheng

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Yinghong Cheng's book Discourses of Race and Rising China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) is a critical study of the development of a racialised nationalism in China, exploring its unique characteristics and internal …
Anthropology May 25, 2021

The Best We Share

Nation, Culture and World-Making in the UNESCO World Heritage Arena

Christoph Brumann

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
The UNESCO World Heritage Convention is one of the most widely ratified international treaties, and a place on the World Heritage List is a widely coveted mark of distinction …
Chinese Studies March 11, 2021

Utopian Ruins

A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era

Jie Li

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
In Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era (Duke University Press, 2020) Jie Li traces the creation, preservation, and elision of memories about China's Mao era by envisioning a …
East Asian Studies January 20, 2021

Rural Origins, City Lives

Class and Place in Contemporary China

Roberta Zavoretti

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Many of the millions of workers streaming in from rural China to jobs at urban factories soon find themselves in new kinds of poverty and oppression. Yet, their individual experiences …
Chinese Studies January 8, 2021

Recovering Histories

Life and Labor after Heroin in Reform-Era China

Nicholas Bartlett

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Heroin first reached Gejiu, a Chinese city in southern Yunnan known as Tin Capital, in the 1980s. Widespread use of the drug, which for a short period became “easier to …
Chinese Studies December 1, 2020

Mao's Third Front

The Militarization of Cold War China

Covell F. Meyskens

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
In 1964, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made a momentous policy decision. In response to rising tensions with the United States and Soviet Union, a top-secret massive military industrial complex …
East Asian Studies November 11, 2020

Where Dragon Veins Meet

The Kangxi Emperor and His Estate at Rehe

Stephen H. Whiteman

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
In 1702, the second emperor of the Qing dynasty ordered construction of a new summer palace in Rehe (now Chengde, Hebei) to support his annual tours north among the court’s …
East Asian Studies October 22, 2020

Anxious China

Inner Revolution and Politics of Psychotherapy

Li Zhang

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
The breathless pace of China’s economic reform has brought about deep ruptures in socioeconomic structures and people’s inner landscape. Faced with increasing market-driven competition and profound social changes, more and …
East Asian Studies September 2, 2020

Beijing from Below

Stories of Marginal Lives in the Capital's Center

Harriet Evans

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Between the early 1950s and the accelerated demolition and construction of Beijing's “old city” in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, the residents of Dashalar—one of the capital city's poorest neighborhoods …
East Asian Studies July 29, 2020

China’s Revolutions in the Modern World

A Brief Interpretive History

Rebecca E. Karl

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
China’s emergence as a twenty-first-century global economic, cultural, and political power is often presented as a story of what Chinese leader Xi Jinping calls the nation’s “great rejuvenation,” a story …