Abstract
This case study is based on the life history of an urban Chinese woman, Lydia, who has become an AIDS patient through injecting heroin use. Adopting theories of drug career and biopolitics, this study depicts Lydia’s drug-centered life. From the perspective of a drug career, this article vividly illustrates her experience of drug initiation, escalation, maintenance, and finally achievement of abstinence. In addition, this study also shows how drug use has penetrated all dimensions of Lydia’s life including intimate relationships, financial arrangements, and compulsory drug treatment; in the end, contracting HIV was when she finally hit rock bottom and worked to get rid of her heroin dependence. From the perspective of biopolitics, this article focuses on the institutional and social structure transformation that is reflected by Lydia’s personal experience, especially the social service, treatment, and intervention programs provided for her during an era of increasingly growing drug use and HIV-infected population.
Highlights
In the end of 2012 to early 2013, the first author had the privilege to work with a local NGO in Beijing, China, for HIV/AIDS carriers’ rights and provided a 12-week support group for 11 women living with HIV/AIDS
Studies focusing on the drug use experiences of Chinese female drug users are rare in academia (Liu & Hsiao, 2018), and hardly any mention women who become infected with HIV/AIDS due to drug use
Researching female drug users and women living with HIV/AIDS requires meticulously assessing gender as a crucial factor in understanding how personal experience are related to the persistence of gender inequality and patriarchy in China
Summary
In the end of 2012 to early 2013, the first author had the privilege to work with a local NGO in Beijing, China, for HIV/AIDS carriers’ rights and provided a 12-week support group for 11 women living with HIV/AIDS. Afterwards, the first author interviewed each of the group participants for 2–8 hours, and Lydia was one of them. Her case stands out because of its complexity, which involves drug consumption and HIV/AIDS infection, and various aspects of an urban woman’s life in rapidly developing China. Lydia did well in school and her talent of singing secured her an early admission to the most prestigious music institute in China at the age of 17. This study tries to analyze the path Lydia’s life took It is invaluable since it reveals an urban Chinese woman’s subjective experience that connects sex, drug, and HIV/AIDS. “Lydia” is a pseudonym chosen by the participant herself in order to protect her privacy and for confidentiality
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