Nurturing compassion through care-giving and care-receiving: the changing moral economy of AIDs in China

Based on the case study of an Aids clinic operated in Nanning by MSF, this paper looks at how one international NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders), deals with the HIV-carrier patients in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province in China. It explores the process of care-giving to the HIV patients by MSF employees (both foreign and local) and how the patients react to the ‘care-receiving’ provided by this foreign NGO. This is especially pertinent in China today as HIV-patients are the victims of discriminating policies and are still very much discriminated by the general population. MSF, viewed by the victims as a foreign NGO, is regarded as an organization seen as promoting a changing and compassionate attitude toward AIDs patients through their anonymous and non-discriminating practices. Through the practices and the discourse of MSF workers and the testimonies of the patients, this paper looks at how the moral economy of AIDs is evolving from a repressive and discriminative a...