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This article offers a discussion of the complex and far‐reaching impacts that disaster aid has on the socio‐ecological and cultural‐political transformation of affected communities through three different and interrelated theoretical and ethnographic angles presented in the "Response and Recovery" section of the plenary session on the anthropology of risk, hazards, and disasters. It introduces the research on "disaster narratives," the framing of "bad victims," and state‐led recovery of ethnic cultures by Mark Schuller, Roberto Barrios, and Qiaoyun Zhang respectively. Responding to the special issue's uniting theme of "continuity and change," this article analyzes the historical, discursive, political, and social relationships embedded in relief efforts and recovery projects that can induce long‐term change in social lives and relations. It argues that the restoration and endurance of the pre‐disaster ecologically and culturally shaped practices and relationships largely depend on how disaster, damage, and survivors are perceived and manipulated. It observes the oftentimes contested social changes with disaster aid (or lack thereof), reconstruction policies, and recovery projects. Revealing the indigenous adaptation and struggles under imposed reconstruction and resettlement plans, this article hopes to bridge the epistemological and practical gaps between the work of the humanitarian agencies and the needs of the affected populations.

Previous studies on disaster aid emphasize on how aid as gift forms hierarchical relations and thus perpetuates political and symbolic domination. This article, however, highlights the diverse possibilities and capabilities emerged in disaster aid. Based on a 15-month fieldwork, the authors focus on the ethnic minority Qiang's post-earthquake experience throughout the unprecedented aid and state-sanctioned 'Gratitude Education' campaign. This article argues that the moral obligations of gratitude enabled the Qiang's competition for tourism, education, and other public service resources despite submitting to a seemingly imbalanced power relation in the multi-ethnic region of southwest China. The article further argues that ethnic governance in China is structured on the entanglement of gift exchanges, state control, inter-ethnic competition, and the in-betweeness of ethnic members, which can be problematic yet productive. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

Introduction -- Public Policies in Controlling Pandemic -- Cultural and Historical Comparison of Factors Behind Pandemic Control Policies -- Political, Institutional, and State Theory Comparison. Governmental Intervention or Civil Cooperation? Reliance on Governmental Arrangement Versus Resort to Institutional Power? -- International Relations and Great Power Comparison. Changes in the Soft Power and Nation Branding for Individual Countries Following their Handling of the Pandemic, Etc -- Public Health Systems and Social Policy System Regimes Comparison -- Public Wealth Regimes and Impact on Pandemic Control Policy and Social Resilience -- Economic Comparison: Costs and Benefits of Different Control Policies -- Comprehensive/ "Great Game" Strategy Comparison. Issues Around the Various Schools of Thought, Including Conspiracy Theories, Relationship Between the Pandemic, Pandemic-Control, China's Rise, and New World Order (International Power Shift), Economic Production, and Global Supply Chain Changes, as Well as Impacts on Policymaking, Etc -- Social Resilience -- Data-Driven, Data-Supported Analysis of Resilience, Like Social and Psychological Resilience Comparison -- Sociology of the Pandemic and the Impact on Social Resilience: Comparative Studies -- Big Data Social Resilience Analysis Comparative Studies -- Economic and Political Comparison in Resilience -- "New Normal" Preparing for and Resulting From "Living With Covid." -- Public Sentiments, Public Trust in Governance Affect Pandemic Control, Public Backlash After Once Successful Handling Of Pandemic by Coercive Force -- Social Costs and Benefits Analysis of Pandemic Control Policies -- Will Leave for Other Issues of Comparative Nature Surrounding the Pandemic Studies. Current Chapters Include -- Comparison of Pandemics in History. What was the Social, Economic, Diplomatic, as Well as Political Implications by Previous Well-Known Pandemics in History, such as the Black Death in the 14th Century, Harbin Plaque in 1910~1911, The Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918~1919, and The SARS in 2002-2003? -- Vaccination-Related Topics, such as Comparison of Efficacy of Various Vaccines, Attitudes Towards Vaccine, Vaccine Passport, and Others. China's International Participation in Vaccine Provision? -- Corona-A New Grand Narrative? -- Other Topics. Geographical Comparison: Routes of Pandemic Spreading and Border Re-Opening. .