ABSTRACT
This chapter presents two life stories of drug addiction and recovery, one told by a mainland Chinese man and the other told by a mainland Chinese woman. First, a synopsis of the life story is provided. This is followed by analysis of how salient cultural, political and institutional discourses shape temporality, subjectivity and language use in the story. The chapter compares the analytic findings for the man’s life story and the woman’s life story. The issue of gender arises from analysing a man’s account and a woman’s account of drug addiction and recovery. The analysis draws attention to two prominent issues that manifest in the life stories such as gender, and exemplarity. The issue of exemplarity stems from the nature of the publishing houses that published the books in which the two life stories are recounted. Both publishing houses are state-sanctioned presses that are closely aligned to the mainland Chinese government.
