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Special feature

Engendering the Development of the Autism Kangfu Industry in Urban China

Mengzhu An
p. 9-19

Abstract

This article examines the development of China’s autism kangfu industry through a feminist lens, revealing how the state’s biopolitical project of disability governance operates through patriarchal structures. Based on content analysis, interviews, and fieldwork primarily in Guangdong Province, it highlights the infrastructural contributions of mothers and female practitioners. This study demonstrate how this industry bridges the resource gap through mobilising gendered labour that has reshaped kangfu, which focuses on enhancing social, linguistic, cognitive, and self-care skills in autistic children into a hybrid practice intertwining therapy, care, and intimacy, distancing it from Western technical-disciplinary models. However, the industry’s pursuit of professionalisation has led to the technocratisation of kangfu, marginalising the female practitioners’ embodied knowledge of kangfu and intensifying mothers’ cognitive burdens.

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Editor’s notes

Manuscript received on 8 November 2024. Accepted on 28 February 2025.

Excerpt

Full text document will be published online on June 2026.

Outline

Methodology
Mothers as pioneers, kangfu as philanthropy
The ambiguous kangfu industry and its female labourers
The gendered practice of kangfu: Intimacy and care beyond therapy
Exploitation, stigmatisation, and undervaluation
The pursuit of professionalism, and the technocratisation of kangfu
Family engagement: From kangfu assistant to mother-therapist
Conclusion

First lines

In China, autism is perceived as a disabling condition that may impose substantial future care costs. With no effective biomedical treatments available, early intervention for children diagnosed with autism has become the primary therapeutic approach endorsed by medical and public health authorities. This intervention, which focuses on enhancing social, linguistic, cognitive, and self-care skills in children with autism, is locally referred to as kangfu 康復. The autism kangfu industry in China emerged in the early 1990s, initially driven by mutual aid efforts among parents (Zhang 2009). As autism diagnoses and the demand for therapeutic interventions have surged, what started as a philanthropic effort has evolved into a lucrative market increasingly attractive to capital investment. In response to the perceived threat that autism poses to so-called population quality (suzhi 素質), the Chinese government has integrated kangfu programmes into the national disability assistance framework ...

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References

Bibliographical reference

Mengzhu An, Engendering the Development of the Autism Kangfu Industry in Urban ChinaChina Perspectives, 141 | 2025, 9-19.

Electronic reference

Mengzhu An, Engendering the Development of the Autism Kangfu Industry in Urban ChinaChina Perspectives [Online], 141 | 2025, Online since 01 June 2026, connection on 05 March 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/18193; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/149ie

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About the author

Mengzhu An

Mengzhu An is a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Yunnan University, No. 2 Cuihui North Road, Wuhua District, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China (emma_an11@outlook.com).

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Copyright

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) may be subject to specific use terms.

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