Teresa Kuan's Love's Uncertainty certainly gives a good and interesting account of the challenges of child rearing—or at least aspects of it and for some segments of the population. But it is both more and less than a book about child rearing in China today.

First (and more importantly), Kuan analyzes the dilemmas of child rearing among middle-class (upper middle-class?) mothers in Kunming in a sophisticated, insightful way, so that we learn much more than the stories of these mothers and their challenges. Kuan argues, “in China, child rearing is both a private and a political matter” (p. 7), and she does an excellent job of connecting the difficulties of contemporary Chinese parenting with larger societal issues. Kuan uses her ethnographic research to document the ways mothers are torn between making sure their (one) child is happy and balanced and pushing their child to be successful and well-placed in a fast-changing and very competitive socioeconomic environment. And it is mothers, for parenting remains highly gendered in China today. She also draws from manuals, talks, meetings, and media sources to illustrate the expectations, instructions, and warnings to which these mothers are subject.

What we learn through Kuan's insightful analysis is that Chinese mothers (and, by extension, nearly everyone else in China) face so much uncertainty about what will happen in the distant and even near future—and we learn why they face such uncertainty—that they have to proceed carefully through their child-rearing responsibilities. They worry constantly about whether they are doing a good job of mothering. By the end of the book, we see just what a dilemma these mothers face, and Kuan clearly sees them with a sympathetic eye. Particularly clear is her argument that the pressure these mothers (or most of them) put on their children does not necessarily come from some personal need for glory or recognition, or anything so negative. Rather, Kuan argues, they are trying to be good mothers to their children, in the midst of what is at times bewildering change and enormous competition. And to be a good mother, most agree, is to make sure your child has what is needed to live a good life in the future. To be happy, yes, but to be happy here means surviving “a rather cruel economy of dignity” (p. 165).

Second, Kuan argues strongly that these mothers should not be seen as dupes of the system. Yes, the Chinese government has promoted proper child rearing and the improvement of population suzhi (quality) as part of its modernization project. But Kuan argues that mothers have not simply blindly internalized these messages and mothered their children for the good of the nation. Rather, they recognize the dangers and challenges in the world around them and employ strategies to place their children as well as possible within it. To do so, mothers must create and provide tiaojian—conditions—for their children, which will allow those children to reach their full potential and attain a good place in the larger society—in the horrendously competitive education system and labor market. The uncertainties these mothers (and their children) face are especially clear when we compare the new market-driven China with an earlier era, when the danwei (work unit) provided security and a certain pathway. In today's situation, full of dangers and competition, mothers must make wise decisions and use all resources available—including money—to give their children the best opportunity for success. Here, then, is where Kuan shows her sympathy for these mothers. They must navigate carefully, recognizing what they are able to change and address, and working around those things they cannot. Good mothering is about navigating tricky waters. Kuan is convincing in her arguments, drawing well from wide-ranging theories and perspectives and using them insightfully and to great effect.

Kuan's project is focused on relatively well-off families in Kunming. What her work and its conclusions make clear is how difficult the lives of those families and children who do not have even these resources to employ, those who are increasingly left out of the Chinese modernization project, must be. So while her work tells a lot about some modes of child rearing, it is not about child rearing in greater China. To be fair, Kuan is clear that her work is focused on a particular group of mothers. But we can (and should) try to imagine what millions of other mothers in China face in trying to do right by their children in this rapidly changing, very competitive—and increasingly stratified—economy.

Kuan has made a valuable contribution to our understanding of contemporary China, allowing us to see how the large social and economic changes connect to the very minute decisions that families, particularly mothers, make. In the end, she provides an insightful view into and analysis of the world of mothers and children in this new China.