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The Transition from Education to Work: the Job-Hunting Experiences of University Graduates in Shanghai, China

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The Transition from Education to Work: the Job-Hunting Experiences of University Graduates in Shanghai, China The Transition from Education to Work: The Job-Hunting Experiences of University Graduates in Shanghai, China Wenwen Zhang Student Number 20790203 B.A. (2005), M.A. (2009) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia Faculty of Arts Discipline of Asian Studies 2016 ii Abstract Many development planners, economists and scholars view education as an engine for the development and modernisation of a country and as the key to social mobility for the disadvantaged. Other scholars see education as a force for social reproduction, that is, the reproduction of social inequality. By studying the transition experiences of university graduates in China, as they move from the university to the world of work, this research provides empirical data on the articulation of higher education, young people’s transition to work and social mobility in the Chinese context. The main primary data are university graduates’ personal transition experiences and job-hunting stories. Fieldwork was conducted in Shanghai, China during the period January to July, 2011. I used semi-structured interviews and participant observation as my main field research methods, and complemented the fieldwork data with information from a critical reading of the secondary literature on the sociology of education, youth transitions and tertiary education in China. In the thesis I record the ambitions and dreams of young graduates about their future and I examine their struggles and dilemmas in their transition from university to work. I investigate social factors such as class background, the Chinese household registration (hukou) system, gender, network connections (guanxi) and government policies that affect graduates’ transition experiences. My research found that while China will no doubt benefit from its policy of rapidly producing many tertiary-educated graduates, at the level of the individual, iii educational mobility and academic achievement do not necessarily lead to desired employment and social outcomes. As the French sociologist, Bourdieu, has argued, education reflects socio-economic background. The individual’s education-to-work trajectory is the consequence of their total “capital”, in Bourdieu’s sense of capital that includes social, economic and cultural capital. While graduates gain cultural capital through their higher education, my research shows that the social factors mentioned above act to mediate the effect of higher education (or cultural capital) on graduates’ upward social mobility. Education mobility thus maintains the privilege of those who are already privileged; as a strategy for social mobility, it is very limited in its efficacy and often functions to preserve social difference. iv DECLARATION FOR THESES CONTAINING PUBLISHED WORK AND/OR WORK PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION The examination of the thesis is an examination of the work of the student. The work must have been substantially conducted by the student during enrolment in the degree. Where the thesis includes work to which others have contributed, the thesis must include a statement that makes the student’s contribution clear to the examiners. This may be in the form of a description of the precise contribution of the student to the work presented for examination and/or a statement of the per centage of the work that was done by the student. In addition, in the case of co-authored publications included in the thesis, each author must give their signed permission for the work to be included. If signatures from all the authors cannot be obtained, the statement detailing the student’s contribution to the work must be signed by the coordinating supervisor. 1. This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication. Student Signature ..................................................................................................... 2. This thesis contains only sole-authored work, some of which has been published and/or prepared for publication under sole authorship. The bibliographical details of the work and where it appears in the thesis are outlined below. Student Signature ..................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements This has been an unforgettable adventure, and there are many people who have helped me to get this far. I thank all of them, though I cannot fit all their names here. The biggest thanks go to my interviewees, who shared their stories, their hopes and dreams with me. I owe a wealth of gratitude to my supervisors, Professors Lyn Parker, Greg Acciaioli and Gary Sigley. They have been generous with their time, wisdom, experience, encouragement and advice. They have read and reread my chapters, replied promptly with feedback, polished my use of English, and provided direction for the structure, theory and references. I especially thank Lyn and Greg for their great effort and encouragement in helping me with the thesis revision. This thesis could not have been completed without their help. For their support, encouragement, and intellectual enlightenment, thanks to the members of Asian Studies Postgraduate Workshop, Danau Tanu, Mee Mee Zaw, Joshua Esler, Moshe Bernstein, Kieran Golby and Catriona Stevens. Thanks to Drs Danau Tanu, Margherita Viviani, Yukimi Shimoda, Feng Yuan, Liang Wang, and Yanni Zhang, Ms Linna Li and Mr Mao Luo for their friendship and support through this PhD journey: without their support and love, my thesis-writing days would have been grey. A special “Thank you!” to Dr Wang Yi for her support through the years, and for tolerating my tearful tales of woe; and to Dr Leonie Stickland for her unreserved support and love and for being my family in Australia. I thank all the vi other members of Asian Studies at the University of Western Australian for all their help through the years. I also thank my family back in China, for their love and constant prodding to finish the thesis, and for being proud of me. My grandma, Yuzhi Zhang, passed away just after I left Shanghai to go back to Perth after fieldwork, and my auntie, Yu’e Zhang, passed away on 5 May 2013. My deepest regret is that I was not able to attend their funerals. This thesis is dedicated to them with all my love. I owe so much to my husband and my best friend, Kai Du. He supports me wholeheartedly and keeps me sane. He quit his job to join me in Perth and take care of me. He has taken on the roles of my chauffeur, my secretary, and my cook; he has put up with all my tears and bad temper. He is the best thing in my life. To myself, even though I was struggling most of the time, I finally made it. Thanks to my courage in starting this adventure, and the effort over the past four years of my life to make it to the end, I see my potential. vii Table of Content Abstract ....................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... vi Table of Content ....................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ............................................................................................................. xv List of Figures ........................................................................................................... xvi Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................. 18 Education as a Pathway to Advancement .............................................................. 19 Background: Chinese Economic Reform and the Expansion of Higher Education ........................................................................................................... 21 Background: Higher Education and Employability in China ............................ 25 Marriage Trends in China ...................................................................................... 34 Love and Marriage in Contemporary China ...................................................... 34 Education, Gender and Marital Roles ................................................................ 39 Thesis Structure ..................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 2 Research Methodology and Fieldwork ..................................................... 46 My Transition Story ............................................................................................... 47 Positioning the Researcher ..................................................................................... 53 Fieldwork ............................................................................................................... 55 Research Site and Participants ........................................................................... 55 Semi-structured Interviews ................................................................................ 60 viii Participant Observation ...................................................................................... 62 Language Proficiency of Researcher ................................................................. 64 Transcription of Data ......................................................................................... 66 Data Analysis ....................................................................................................
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