FTER RECORD HIGH LEVELS OF sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the late 1940s, China's socialist regime was remarkably successful in suppressing commercial sex and STDs from the 1950s through the 1970s. 1-3 However, in the last 2 decades, commercial sex has returned, and STD prevalence in China has increased. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has begun to spread beyond the initial transmission pockets of injection drug users (IDUs) and blood transfusions. 4-6 If current infection trends persist, absolute numbers of individuals with HIV infection are projected to surpass current numbers in the United States within 2 years and those in South Africa (currently the highest) within a decade. 6,7 Reports from public health clinics and special studies of highrisk clinic patients, IDUs, and commercial sex workers reveal several dimensions of the problem. 8-10 China's public health reporting system tracks 8 STDs, including HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), gonorrhea, syphilis, genital warts, nongonococcal urethritis/ cervicitis, genital herpes, lymphogranuloma venereum, and chancroid. The system does not track chlamydial infections. The reported annual incidence of all 8 infections combined was only 0.07 per 100 total population for the year 2000. 4,11 Asymptomatic infections, incomplete coverage, and other issues could lead to underreporting. 4 Chlamydia trachomatis and, to a lesser extent, Neisseria gonorrhoeae can remain asymptomatic, leading to a hidden epidemic. 12-15 In this study, we surveyed a probability sample from the Chinese adult population aged 20 to 64 years to determine the prevalence of in

Based on observations of court trials and extensive interviews with judges, this article explores how judicial mediation in China undermines the rights of the battered women in divorce cases. We find that even if the judges are able to establish that domestic violence is committed, it is often erased in the stage of judicial mediation. This is because judicial mediation inevitably focuses on settlement arrangements. Lingering reference to domestic abuse would simply invite new denials or refutations from the abuser. It thus risks ruining the mediation efforts made by the judge. Our findings raise important questions with regard to the compulsory practice of mediation in family cases in China. It also sheds light on hidden problems created by judicial mediation or conciliation in general.

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This article treats the public display of emotion as social performance. The concept of "emotive performance" is developed to highlight the overlooked quality of performativity in the social use of emotion. We argue that emotive performance is reflexive, cultural, and communicative. As an active social act, emotive performance draws from the cultural repertoire of interpretative frameworks and dominant narratives. We illustrate the utility of the concept by analyzing two episodes of unrehearsed emotive performances by two well-known politicians, Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin. The two cases demonstrate how emotion can be analyzed as a domain in which culturally specific narratives and rhetorics are used to advance the situational agenda of actors. The concept opens up a more expansive research agenda for sociology. It pushes sociologists to pay greater attention to people's experiences, interpretations, and deployments of emotions in social life.

Using courtroom dialogs from actual court trials in China as data, this article analyzes an emerging "pragmatic discourse," deployed by judges to assist, but at the same time to constrain divorcing women. Through questions, statements, rebuttals, and other interactional devices, Chinese judges define the premises that underpin the law's understanding of gender equality and women's welfare. By looking at how discourses are deployed by judges and litigants, we link micro linguistic practices to more general social forces and processes. Despite their honest effort to protect women's rights, Chinese judges often inadvertently reinforce and reproduce the patriarchal norm. The data demonstrate how the hegemonic patriarchal order reasserts itself in an institutional forum that is meant to promote gender equality. The interaction of the discourses also highlights the tensions in Chinese society and displays the effect of changing social environment on the legal operation. By many measures, the Chinese family law is exemplary in its provision of protections for women. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Chinese Constitution. A law passed by the National People's Congress in 1992, the "Women's and Children's Rights Protection Law," provides women facing divorce with a range of specific protections. More recently, as a response to the emerging problems faced by women in the now market-oriented China, the 2001 amendment of the Marriage Law penalizes spouses who have committed bigamy, illegal cohabitation, family violence, or desertion (Art. 46). While this article is gender neutral in its wording, it is clearly motivated by the goal of protecting women.