Chinese Rural Migrants and The Appropriation of Social Media Xinyuan Wang

381 Pages·2017·10.2 MB·English

Chinese Rural Migrants and The
Appropriation of Social Media

Xinyuan Wang

Department of Anthropology
University College London

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

November 2016

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Declaration

I, Xinyuan Wang, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own.
Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has
been indicated in the thesis.

I declare that my thesis consists of <100327> words.

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Abstract

Based on 15 months of ethnographic field work in a small factory in southeast
China, this thesis is about a new population and a new media. Described as the
biggest migration in human history, an estimated 250 million Chinese peasants
have left their villages to live and work in urban areas. The vast Chinese rural
migrant population that did not exist three decades ago is taking on its new form
alongside the rise of social media in contemporary China which itself did not exist
two decades ago.

The ethnography included intense interaction with a broad range of factory
workers both online and offline. One of the most significant findings is the way in
which this population challenges the full range of preconceptions commonly held
about Chinese people – their relationship with family, with education, with politics,
with religion and with ‘home’. The thesis argues that a population of 250 million
cannot be regarded as a mere exception and should assume a central role in our
understanding of contemporary Chinese people.

As well as social media providing a route for the ethnography of this population,
the study is equally addressing claims and generalisations made about social
media itself, and its use and consequences. In many respects it was online
sociality that had become central to these people’s lives, rather than the direct
relationship to fellow workers. So the overarching argument of this thesis is
alongside the rural to urban migration, there is a second migration taking place:
a movement from offline to online. The ‘dual migration’ is not simply a convenient
analogy but represents the convergence of two phenomena as profound and
consequential as each other, where the online world now provides a home for the
migrant workers who feel otherwise ‘homeless’.

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Acknowledgements

This thesis could not have been possible without the generosity, insights and
friendship of many people or without the support of several organisations. A big
thank you goes to my PhD supervisor Professor Danny Miller. He gave me
immensely helpful guidance and most generous support throughout my field work
and the writing of this book, encouraging me to try different approaches during
my research and to apply my painting and calligraphy skills to document my
ethnography. In many ways he pushed me to exploit my potential fully, enabling
me to see, and be a better person. I was also fortunate to be part of a highly
competent and friendly research team from which I not only received helpful
feedback at each stage of the research and chapter drafts, but also gained family-
like companionship and support.
I also want to thank my parents, Zhengting Wang and Yun Chen, for
believing in me and supporting me in all of my endeavours. A special thank you
to my mum, a brave, kind, joyful and wonderful woman, who supported me in the
most dedicated way, as only a mother can do. I am grateful to Marcus Fedder for
his unfailing belief in me and commitment to helping me succeed and keep my
work in perspective within life’s amazing journey.
To all my informants, both in the factory town field site and in Shanghai,
I owe sincere appreciation for their great trust and friendship, and for the
generous way in which they shared their happiness, sadness and the incidents
of their lives.
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Many wonderful individuals in China helped to facilitate this research.
Special thanks go to Rui Zhong, who generously helped me with the filming in my
field site, and to Jingwen Fan, who helped me carry out the interviews in
Shanghai and provided me with many insightful observations and great interview
material.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank the following institutions for
financial support: The China Scholarship Council (CSC), the Wenner-Gren
Foundation (Wadsworth International Fellowship) and the European Research
Council grant 2011- AdG-295486 Socnet.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………3
Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………4
Preface ……………………………………………………………………………… 16
Chapter 1 Contextualising rural migrant workers …………………………… 20
1. 0 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………20
1. 1 Social context of Chinese rural-to-urban migration ……………………21
1. 1. 1 Chinese people and Chinese family: the anthropological approach …23
1. 1. 2 The household registration system (hukou) ……………………………25
1. 1. 3 From the left-behind children to the new generation …………………28
1. 2 Theoretical framework and methodology …………………………………31
1. 2. 1 Theoretical framework and research approach ………………………31
1. 2. 2 Research design and research questions ………………………………34
1. 2. 3 Field work methodology …………………………………………………39
1. 2. 4 Outline of the thesis ………………………………………………………44
1. 3 The field site: GoodPath town ………………………………………………47
1. 3. 1 The choice of the field site and a brief introduction ……………………47
1. 3. 2 A tour of GoodPath ………………………………………………………52

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Chapter 2 The social media landscape in China ………………………………63
2. 0 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………63
2. 1 A brief history of Chinese ICTs development ……………………………64
2. 2 QQ: The biggest social media platform …………………………………67
2. 2. 1 The introduction of QQ ……………………………………………………68
2. 2. 2 QQ, once the symbol of urban lifestyle …………………………………75
2. 3 WeChat: China’s favourite new social media ……………………………80
2. 4 What is Weibo? ………………………………………………………………100
2. 5 Social media and smartphones ……………………………………………104
2. 6 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………107

Chapter 3 Visual material on social media …………………………………109
3. 0 Introduction …………………………………………………………………109
3. 1 Genres of visual material on social media ……………………………112
3. 1. 1 ‘Relationships’ …………………………………………………………112
3. 1. 2 ‘Selfies’ ……………………………………………………………………115
3. 1. 3 ‘Trivia’ ……………………………………………………………………121
3. 1. 4 ‘‘compulsorily shared’ ……………………………………………………122
3. 1. 5 ‘chicken soup for the soul’ ………………………………………………126
3. 1. 6 ‘humour’ …………………………………………………………………129
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3. 1. 7 ‘fantasy’ …………………………………………………………………130
3. 1. 8 ‘children’ …………………………………………………………………132
3. 1. 9 ‘travel’ ……………………………………………………………………133
3. 1. 10 ‘events’ …………………………………………………………………136
3. 1. 11 ‘archive’ …………………………………………………………………136
3. 1. 12 ‘‘political’ ………………………………………………………………138
3. 1. 13 ‘food’ ……………………………………………………………………140
3. 1. 14 ‘anti-mainstream’………………………………………………………141
3. 1. 15 ‘commercial’ ……………………………………………………………143
3. 1. 16 What is special about the visual postings of rural migrants? ………144
3. 2 The visual on social media, a new language ……………………………148
3. 3 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………150

Chapter 4 Social media and efficacy, continuity and transformation……151
4. 0 Introduction …………………………………………………………………151
4. 1 Chinese folk religion and social media …………………………………151
4. 1. 1The religious life of the atheists …………………………………………152
4. 1. 2 Chinese folk religion: some background ………………………………159
4. 1. 3 Deities on social media …………………………………………………160
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4. 2 The homeland on social media ……………………………………………166
4. 2. 1 The homeland one cannot return ……………………………………167
4. 2. 2 From homeland albums to the countryside myth ……………………171
4. 3 Folk tales on social media …………………………………………………182
4. 3. 1 Story: The Revenge ……………………………………………………182
4. 3. 2 Folk tales in the digital age ………………………………………………184
4. 4 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………185

Chapter 5 Social media and social relationships ………….……………188
5. 0 Introduction ……………………………………………………………….…188
5. 1 The anxiety and longing about social life on social media …………189
5. 1. 1 ‘Thank you for keeping me on your contact list’ ………………………189
5. 1. 2 The ‘hot and noisy’ principle ……………………………………………191
5. 2 Core social relationships on social media ……………………………194
5. 2. 1 Couples and wider family relationships on social media ……………202
5. 2. 2 Romantic relationships on social media ………………………………202
5. 2. 3 Friendship on social media ………………………………………….…210
5. 2. 4 Privacy (yin si) on social media …………………………………………217
5. 3 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………224
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Chapter 6 The new generation and coming of age on social media ………227
6. 0 Introduction …………………………………………………………..………227
6. 1 A sketch of the new generation of migrant workers …………………..229
6. 2 ‘Education just isn’t my thing’ ……………………………………………234
6. 2. 1 The story of Qiang and Ming……………………………………………235
6. 2. 2 Shrinking value of education ……………………………………………238
6. 3 ‘Without discarding the old there would be no coming of the
new’ …………………………………………………………………………………243
6. 3. 1 The new pattern of social life online ………………………………….…244
6. 3. 2 The rise of rural youth ……………………………………………………249
6. 4 The gap between the dream and the reality ……………………………251
6. 4. 1 Become ‘visible’ on social media ………………………………………252
6. 4. 2 To attain a higher suzhi on social media ………………………………254
6. 5 The modern future on social media ………………………………………258
6. 5. 1 Be the ‘middle-class’ consumer on social media ……………………...259
6. 5. 2 Life on social media ……………………………………………………264
6. 6 The coming of age of young rural migrants on social media ………270

Chapter 7 Social media, politics and gender …………………………………276
7. 0 Introduction …………………………………………………………………276
7. 1 Social media and politics ………………………………………………277
7. 1. 1 Internet censorship in China ………………….…………………………279
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