not doing so as an individual but as a person inhabited-and so inhibited from eating -by me. we scholars may brush past such constructions as polite fictions hiding a deeper structural reality-which is not to say the instrumental aims served by ritually produced networks are not crucial. But to brush past in this way risks losing sight of personhood and agency as locally understood and reinforcing our default view of social life as(merely) exchange between separate selves, or groups. Drinking a toast involves not only a person making a gesture of respect in the hope of gaining some return from another person. This person is also acting ethically by dislocating agency om his or her body/self and relocating it into the person targeted by the ritual act (who should, ideally, get the message and give up his or her own agency) Responding in part to Yan's thesis that Chinese society is essentially individua- lised, Andrew Kipnis(2012), researching education in China and drawing on Durk- heim, Marx, Foucault, and others(Ong and Zhang 2008), emphasises the dialectical to control and socialise subjects. While Yans Private Life under Socialism(2003)was motivated by discomfort with instrumentalist, exchange-oriented perspectives then prevalent, I believe Yans recent thesis under-analyses the interaction of various forms of social personhood and agency in Chinese society. A businessman wining and dining an official may be seen as an individual seeking gain, or more accurately as a person constructed out of multiple agencies: first, in an immediate ritual con- text, by the official, and second, in the long term, by the household of which he is a Individuation in Luzhou is central yet ungrounded, symbolically hegemonic yet politically marginal. I interpret individuation there(and potentially in other Chinese citiesas a gradual colonisation of the social imaginary from two directions. Politi cally peripheral sectors of the population imagine doing what they want without being judged, expressing unique selves and being acknowledged for it. These longings, gen- erated out of tensions in the local political economy, which ritually suppresses'selfish agency, take off from and overlap with mass-mediated visions and discourses of indi- vidual freedom spread by corporate advertisers and echoed in state media. I regard this'symbolic individuation as hegemonic because these institutions have helped cre ate and sustain an association between modernity and the individual subject widely ccepted by national elites, a process which can be regarded as part of contemporary China's nation-building(Kipnis 2012: 11-13) An iconic moment in luzhou's individuation in 2005 was the televised lance, extensively imitated locally, of the song 'If you want to sing, just sing,, by Su- pergirl contestant Zhang Han Yun. The slight young woman emerged alone into the spotlight and sang to an audience in the darkness beyond. The songs lyrics depict a subject's self-love and self-expression which eventually draw approval: 'love gives me strength/dreams are a miraculous nourishment/pushing me to open myself/sing if you want to, sing out brightly/even if no one is applauding/at least I have the courage to nire myself (ziwo xinshang).. /someday I'll be able to see those waving sticks of @2014 Australian Anthropological Socety 359not doing so as an individual but as a person inhabited—and so inhibited from eating —by me. We scholars may brush past such constructions as polite fictions hiding a deeper structural reality—which is not to say the instrumental aims served by ritually￾produced networks are not crucial. But to brush past in this way risks losing sight of personhood and agency as locally understood and reinforcing our default view of social life as (merely) exchange between separate selves, or groups. Drinking a toast involves not only a person making a gesture of respect in the hope of gaining some return from another person. This person is also acting ethically by dislocating agency from his or her body/self and relocating it into the person targeted by the ritual act (who should, ideally, get the message and give up his or her own agency). Responding in part to Yan’s thesis that Chinese society is essentially individua￾lised, Andrew Kipnis (2012), researching education in China and drawing on Durk￾heim, Marx, Foucault, and others (Ong and Zhang 2008), emphasises the dialectical way in which individuating trends meet new forms of de-individuation which arise to control and socialise subjects. While Yan’s Private Life under Socialism (2003) was motivated by discomfort with instrumentalist, exchange-oriented perspectives then prevalent, I believe Yan’s recent thesis under-analyses the interaction of various forms of social personhood and agency in Chinese society. A businessman wining and dining an official may be seen as an individual seeking gain, or more accurately as a person constructed out of multiple agencies: first, in an immediate ritual con￾text, by the official, and second, in the long term, by the household of which he is a part. Individuation in Luzhou is central yet ungrounded, symbolically hegemonic yet politically marginal. I interpret individuation there (and potentially in other Chinese cities) as a gradual colonisation of the social imaginary from two directions.3 Politi￾cally peripheral sectors of the population imagine doing what they want without being judged, expressing unique selves and being acknowledged for it. These longings, gen￾erated out of tensions in the local political economy, which ritually suppresses ‘selfish’ agency, take off from and overlap with mass-mediated visions and discourses of indi￾vidual freedom spread by corporate advertisers and echoed in state media. I regard this ‘symbolic individuation’ as hegemonic because these institutions have helped cre￾ate and sustain an association between modernity and the individual subject widely accepted by national elites, a process which can be regarded as part of contemporary China’s nation-building (Kipnis 2012: 11–13). An iconic moment in Luzhou’s individuation in 2005 was the televised perfor￾mance, extensively imitated locally, of the song ‘If you want to sing, just sing’, by Su￾pergirl contestant Zhang Han Yun. The slight young woman emerged alone into the spotlight and sang to an audience in the darkness beyond. The song’s lyrics depict a subject’s self-love and self-expression which eventually draw approval: ‘love gives me strength/dreams are a miraculous nourishment/pushing me to open myself/sing if you want to, sing out brightly/even if no one is applauding/at least I have the courage to admire myself (ziwo xinshang) … /someday I’ll be able to see those waving sticks of light’. © 2014 Australian Anthropological Society 359 Feasting and individuation in China