Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change: Gender, Migration, and Social Change (East Gate Books)

Based on in-depth ethnographic research - and using an approach that seeks to understand how migration is experienced by the migrants themselves - this is a fascinating study of the experiences of women in rural China who joined the vast migration to Beijing and other cities at the end of the twentieth century. It focuses on the experiences of rural-urban migrants, the particular ways in which they talk about those experiences, and how those experiences affect their sense of identity. Through first-hand accounts of actual migrant workers, the author provides valuable insights into how rural women negotiate rural/urban experiences; how they respond to migration and life in the city; and how that experience shapes their world view, values, and relations with others. The book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the relationship between gender and social change, and of the ways in which globalization and modernity are experienced at the most personal level. Contents......Page 7 List of Figures and Maps......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Introduction From the “Margins” to the “Center”......Page 15 Experience......Page 22 Experience, Subjects, and Discourse......Page 23 Experience, Discourse, and Narrative......Page 28 Narrative, Performance, and Re-presentation......Page 32 Summary of Aims and Organization of the Book......Page 37 Part I The Subject......Page 41 1 Between “Rural Idiocy” and “Urban Modernity”......Page 43 Modernity and the Peasant Question Before and After 1949......Page 45 The “Low Quality” of Peasants in Post-Mao China......Page 51 The “Tide of Peasant Workers” in Post-Mao Discourse......Page 54 Conclusion......Page 68 2 Assembling Working Sisters......Page 71 Structures and Orientations......Page 73 A “Home for Working Sisters”......Page 87 Conclusion......Page 93 Part II Place......Page 97 3 In and Out of Place......Page 99 Regulation and Surveillance......Page 103 Employment......Page 109 Work Hours and Conditions......Page 111 Housing......Page 114 Income and Expenditure......Page 121 Health......Page 123 Marriage and Children......Page 125 Conclusion......Page 127 4 The Place of Desire......Page 130 The Place Left Behind......Page 131 Finding a Life......Page 141 The Place of the Future......Page 151 Conclusion......Page 170 Part III People......Page 175 Family Relationships......Page 177 Relationships with Fellow Villagers and Urbanites......Page 204 Relations with Urbanites......Page 213 Conclusion......Page 214 6 Identifications......Page 218 Us and Them......Page 219 Traits of Difference......Page 235 Conclusion......Page 253 Part IV Time......Page 255 Migration Narratives and the Life Course......Page 257 Speaking Bitterness and Fighting for Our Rights: Migrant Narratives of Protest......Page 278 Conclusion......Page 286 Appendix 1 List of Interlocutors Named in the Text......Page 291 Appendix 2 Maps......Page 295 Notes......Page 297 Glossary......Page 313 Bibliography......Page 323 Index......Page 337 Jacka (Gender Relations Center, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National U.) examines the experiences of Chinese women at the turn of the twenty-first century who left rural areas to find work in urban centers, principally Beijing. These migrants are denoted as a "floating population" because their household registration remains in the rural towns. Using interviews and observations of the women in the Migrant Women's Club and others, Jacka attempts to understand the resulting issues with identity, relationships, social position, belonging, and navigating the dominant discourse. She considers the history of migration, the Rural Women collective and journal, the journal Working Sister, discrimination, exploitation, and regulation of migrants, and analyzes the concepts of narrative structures and agency. Some of the chapters have been printed elsewhere in different versions. Annotation :2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Introduction: From The Margins To The Center -- The Subject -- Between Rural Idiocy And Urban Modernity -- Assembling Working Sisters -- Place -- In And Out Of Place -- The Place Of Desire -- People -- Relationships -- Identifications -- Time -- Narrative, Time, And Agency -- Appendix 1. List Of Interlocutors Named In The Text -- Appendix 2. Map 1. The People's Republic Of China -- Map 2. Beijing Municipality. Tamara Jacka. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 311-324) And Index. Based on in-depth ethnographic research (using an approach that seeks to understand how migration is experienced by the migrants themselves) a first-hand account of the experiences of women in rural China who joined the vast migration to Beijing and other cities at the end of the twentieth century