Haunting Pain: Forced Sterilization and Endurance among the Lisu on the China- Myanmar Border

At the height of the China’s Birth Planning Policy in the 1990s, sterilization campaigns took place in many parts of China. In the Nu River Valley-a region nominally part of China bordering Myanmar and Tibet-ethnic Lisu farmers who form the majority in the region were forced to undergo abortions, vasectomies, and tubal ligations Although Chinese state and popular discourses maintain that ethnic minorities like the Lisu were treated more leniently than the country’s Han majority, Lisu who endured these procedures struggle with incurable chronic pain and strength loss. In this article, I argue that these afflictions are haunting performances that presence usually denied or unspoken experiences of cultural loss. Sterilization not only curtailed the reproduction of Lisu families but also causes pain and strength loss, which atenuates people’s ability to fulfill traditional logics of social reciprocity such as rearing pigs for exchange of meat. Ubiquitous experiences and discussions of sterilization-related afflictions make cultural loss an ever-present reality. Pain haunts people by constantly reminding them of their broken ties of reciprocity while engendering new reciprocal logics that maintain this melancholic memory. By bringing together the scholarly conversations on haunting and pain, this article contributes to understanding the political life of afflictions and joins scholars moving away from focusing on healing or recovery to explore the creative potentials of survival and endurance.