Gender, Modernity and Male Migrant Workers in China: Becoming a 'Modern' Man PDF
Preview Gender, Modernity and Male Migrant Workers in China: Becoming a 'Modern' Man
Gender, Modernity and Male Migrant Workers in China Ruralurban migration within China has transformed and reshaped rural people's lives during the past few decades, and has been one of the most visible phenomena of the economic reforms enacted since the late 1970s. Whilst Feminist scholars have addressed rural women's experience of struggle and empowerment in urban China, in contrast, research on rural men's experience of migration is a neglected area of study. In response, this book seeks to address the absence of male migrant workers as a gendered category within the current literature on ruralurban migration. Examining Chinese male migrant workers' identity formation, this book explores their experience of ruralurban migration and their status as an emerging sector of a dislocated urban working class. It seeks to understand issues of gender and class through the rural migrant men's narratives within the context of China's modernization, and provides an indepth analysis of how these men make sense of their new lives in the rapidly modernizing, postMao China with its emphasis on progress and development. Further, this book uses the men's own narratives to challenge the elite assumption that rural men's low status is a resuh of their failure to adopt a modem urban identity and lifestyle. Drawing on interviews with 28 male rural migrants, Xiaodong Lin unpacks the gender politics of Chinese men and masculinities, and in turn contributes to a greater understanding of global mas culinities in an international context. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars working in the fields of Chinese culture and society, gender studies, migration studies, sociology and social anthropology. Xiaodong Lin works in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, UK. 15 Gender and Education in China 23 Hong Kong, China Routledge Contemporary China Series Gender discourses and women's Learning to belong to a nation schooling in the early twentieth Gordon Mathews, Tailok Lui, century and Eric Kitwai Ma PaulJ. 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Hawes Ming Dong Gu Gender, Modernity and Male Migrant Workers in China Becoming a 'modern' man Xiaodong Lin Routledge Taylor SiFrancis Croup LONDON AND NEW YORK I First published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN SimuUaneousiy published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Xiaodong Lin The right of Xiaodong Lin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced To Martin, PoWei and Shibo or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. TYademark notice. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lin, Xiaodong. Gender, modernity and male migrant workers in China: becoming a 'modern' man/Xiaodong Lin. p. cm. (Routledge contemporary china series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Ruralurban migrationChinaHistory. 2. Migration, IntemalChinaHistory. 3. Male employeesChinaHistory, 4. MasculinityChina. 5. MenChina. 1. Title. HB2114.A3L557 2013 331,5'610951dc23 2012038208 ISBN: 9780415626576 (hbk) ISBN: 9780203590904 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Paignton, UK Printed and bound in the United States of America by Edwards Brothers Malloy Contents Foreword xiv Preface xvi Acknowledgements xvii Glossary xviii 1 Introduction 1 2 Representing 'peasant workers' 17 3 Leaving home and being a 'filial son' 44 4 'Fatherson' relations and/or becoming urban workingclass 78 5 Conclusion: Becoming a 'modem' man 105 6 Postscript: Youth, aspirations and masculinities 116 Appendix: Research participants 124 Notes 125 Bibliography 129 Index 142 Foreword xv tradition and modernity exist in an oppositional logic, with the former being Foreword displaced by the latter, of how the migrant men use traditional resources from rural spaces to produce modern urban lifestyles. The study could become a tem plate for future work on mobile men and masculinities across international con texts. For example, the argument about using western concepts to make sense of 'nonwestern' places and research subjects provides a most enlightening example of researcher reflexivity. Western scholars working in the field have much to learn from this text in moving beyond reductionist approaches in how to crea tively translate empirical data into analytical claims that have a wide resonance globally as well as locally. 1 get the sense here of a new generation of writing from transnational young scholars studying in western universities. 1 am pleased to wit ness the emergence of such work within the international academic community. From a western perspective, the emergence of China as a world power has tended narrowly to focus on socioeconomic and political questions. From a Chinese per Professor Mairtin Mac an Ghaill spective, ruralurban migration has become a central government issue of policy Birmingham, UK intervention in order to establish a 'harmonious society'. A major focus is a group of people that the government describes as 'peasant workers', or nong min gong in Chinese. Gender, Modernity and Male Migrant Workers in China: Becoming a 'modern' man is a most interesting and sophisticated text that breaks new ground in exploring the postMao project of modernization. Reading through the chapters clearly highlights what has been missing from western studies of men and masculinity. Theoretically, this is an important book, providing a fresh analytical framework to understand the contemporary socio economic and cultural transformations of a modernizing China. The text brings together very effectively sociological and cultural studies perspectives that advance scholarly knowledge in this field of inquiry. Methodologically, it is an important text innovatively deploying a lifehistory narrative approach, as part of an ethno graphic multilayered study that enables us to enter a hidden world of internal migrants, as they reinvent their new social and gendered urban lives. Central to their urban masculine performances is the guanxi network, built around estab lished social connections and contacts in terms of friendship, classmates and relatives from their rural homes. From a western perspective, it is difficult to under stand the dramatic shift in the representation of the internal migrants: from 'heroic peasant' during the Mao period to current 'modernization "loser"' in the postMao era. The text wonderfully captures how peasant workers make sense of their new social position and experience the process of ruralurban migration, in terms of their constrained and creative responses in a transitional modern globallyinflected Chinese society. The quality of the material produced from the fieldwork is first class. Of course, this is the great advantage of a theoryled methodological approach that rigorously seeks to open up new ways of knowing. From a gender and migration studies perspective, the critical exploration of male migrant workers and the complexity of their identity formation make great reading for a wide range of audiences. In this nuanced account the men are por trayed as actively fashioning a masculine identity as (absent) fathers and sons. There is a most insightful illustration, in contrast to the western assumption that Preface Acknowledgements Ruralurban (internal) migration within China has transformed and reshaped rural I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Mairtin Mac an Ghaill, people's lives during the past few decades. Within this context, feminist scholars for his intellectual guidance and support during my early academic career. He have addressed rural women's experience of struggle and empowerment in urban has provided advice, understanding and support to international students and China. In contrast, research on rural men's experience of migration is currently generous encouragement for us to develop our academic potential. His intellec underdeveloped within the field of gender and migration. This book is a sociologi tual contribution has been fundamental for this book. Most importantly, he is a cal study of Chinese male migrant workers' identity formation. A primary aim of role model of what it means to be an academic. the book is to explore their experience of ruralurban migration as an emerging 1 would also like to thank the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, sector of a dislocated urban working class. In so doing, it addresses the absence of especially Professor Karen Henwood, for her generous support. Thanks to male migrant workers as a gendered category within the current literature. Lancaster University for enabling me to develop my academic interests in The book seeks to understand issues of gender and class identity formation Sociology and Cultural Studies. through the accounts of rural migrant men within the context of China's pursuit Special thanks to my best friends Dr PoWei Chen, Zhang Shibo, Zhang Shasha, of modernization. It provides a multilayered understanding of gender inequality Dr Philip LloydWilliams, Luo Yan, Jin Shan, Yang Yu and Zeng Yan, who are and wellbeing, while critically examining social class and social stratification in always there whenever I need them. a contemporary urban context. More specifically, the book provides an indepth Also, I wish to express my thanks to the editorial and marketing team at analysis of how these men make sense of their new lives in the postMao mod Routledge for the incredible job they have done to launch the book. ernization project, marked by concepts of progress and development. At the same Most particularly, 1 would like to express my gratitude to all the participants, time, it examines how they actively accommodate themselves within urban spaces especially to the male migrant workers in this research. Without their participa with reference to the assumed dichotomy of tradition and modernity. It seeks to tion this book would never have seen completion. unpack the gender politics of Chinese men and masculinities. Methodologically, Finally, I am indebted to my parents, not only for their belief in me, but also for the book critically engages with the representation of (male) migrant workers as their understanding about my absence from the family. I am grateful for this 'dysfunctional others', while at the same time, epistemologically privileging their understanding and for their support. Therefore, this book is dedicated to them own narrated life histories through ethnographic research on the life experiences as always. of 28 men working in urban spaces. Of importance, the male migrant workers' own narratives serve to challenge the assumption of elite commentators that Xiaodong Lin rural men's low status is a result of their continuing to occupy a traditional cul Cardiff, UK tural habitus, thus failing to take up a modern urban identity and lifestyle. Such a position assumes that tradition and modernity exist in an oppositional logic, with the former being displaced by the latter. In contrast, the men's own narra tives illustrate a more complex picture. The male migrant workers deploy tradi tional cultural practices, such as xiao (dao) (filial piety), as a resource to develop multilayered 'modern' masculine identities as urban workers. The book adds to the growing literature on modern migrant men's experiences, thus contributing to an understanding of global masculinities in an international context. Glossary 1 Introduction benshi Skill and ability Background of the book cadre I A person in a position of authority, such as a departmental In contemporary China, a key element of the changing social structure has been head or a government or Party administrator the major impact of the new market economy as part of the economic reforms chuxi liiE Promise, prospect. Or 'you chuxi': promising of the late 1970s. This was initiated by the central government's modernization dagong ?TL The colloquial term for selling one's labour to a boss; project, named as 'reform and opening up'. Ruralurban labour migration is to work one of the most visible phenomena of the economic reforms, in terms of urbani guanxi A personal relationship or network which is built on zation and industrialization, offering rural people opportunities to work in non preexisting social connections and contacts in terms of friend agricultural sectors, and to leave the rural household, so as to generate income ships, classmates, relatives. It is preserved and renewed by and thus overcome poverty. It has been a remarkable intervention in both devel giving gifts, favours and banquets oping urban industrialization and rural household economic development and hukou P P Refers to the household registration system, which divides modernization. In response, studies on Chinese ruralurban labour migration the Chinese population into urban residents and agricultural have focused on the macro level of economic, social and political structures; for residents instance, many studies have addressed the household registration system accom laoxiang The colloquial term peasant workers use to refer to panying the rural/urban division and social inequality. people from the same village or area. Sometimes referred to I grew up as part of a generation at the beginning of the Chinese govern as 'tongxiang': ment's modernization project. It was a time of rapid social, cultural and eco mei ^ The colloquial term referring to a sister or young girl nomic transformations. These transformations have taken place across public nengli Capability, ability and skill and private domains of ordinary Chinese people's lives. At a personal level, we nong min gong Ipeasant worker or migrant worker experienced a wide range of changes in our lives that included: a move from shifu !)ili5^ This is literally translated as 'teacher and father', which buying limited daily necessities using governmentissued ration coupons to refers to a male mentor and supervisor in an apprenticeship or choosing a variety of commodities at large shopping malls; having increasing some senior skilled workers in factories. Someone who calls access to western popular culture, listening to Westlife and the Backstreet Boys another person 'shifu' is also showing his/her respect to the when we were teenagers; witnessing local and overseas entrepreneurs setting up person addressed new businesses in the city, alongside a fastchanging landscape with economic suzhi This is literally translated as 'quality'. It mainly refers to growth enabling the building of skyscrapers in the city centre. Most signifi the somewhat ephemeral qualities of civility, selfdiscipline, cantly, the increasing ownership of automobiles replaced the stereotypical and modernity images of Chinese cities in the western media with thousands of bicycles on the xiao (dao) Filial piety streets. At an institutional level, 'meeting the west', in terms of development has yuan TC; Unit of Chinese currency; £1 roughly equals 10 yuan become a central aim of the government. Modernization in terms of economic (200910 exchange rate) prosperity has been unprecedented in the last few decades. Within such a fast zai fF The colloquial term in Cantonese for referring to a young changing socioeconomic context, China has experienced major population man or son movement, with thousands of rural people moving to work in the cities of the
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