Working in China
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Working in China After a quarter of a century of market reform, China has become the workshop of the world and the leading growth engine of the global economy. Its immense labor force accounts for some twenty-nine percent of the world’s total labor pool but all too little is known about Chinese labor beyond the image of workers toiling under appalling sweatshop conditions for extremely low wages. In reality, both the Chinese workforce and the Chinese workplace are far more diversifi ed and heterogeneous than most existing scholarship has documented. Working in China introduces the lived experiences of labor, exploring a wide range of occupations and work settings within the current era of globalization and market transition. The collection of ethnographies includes professional employees such as engineers and lawyers, service workers such as bar hostesses and domestic maids, and industrial workers within a variety of socio-political settings. The mosaic of human faces, organizational dynamics and workers’ voices presented in the book refl ect the complexity of changes and challenges taking place in the Chinese workplace today. Based on thorough and informative research, this interdisciplinary book will have a wide readership at undergraduate level and beyond, appealing to students and scholars from a myriad of disciplines including Chinese studies, labor studies, sociology and political economy. Ching Kwan Lee is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, USA. Asia’s Transformations Edited by Mark Selden Binghamton and Cornell Universities, USA The books in this series explore the political, social, economic and cultural consequences of Asia’s transformations in the twentieth and twenty-fi rst centuries. The series emphasizes the tumultuous interplay of local, national, regional and global forces as Asia bids to become the hub of the world economy. While focusing on the contemporary, it also looks back to analyze the antecedents of Asia’s contested rise. This series comprises several strands: Asia’s Transformations aims to address the needs of students and teachers, and the titles will be published in hardback and paperback. Titles include: Debating Human Rights Korean Society Critical essays from the United States Civil society, democracy and the state and Asia Edited by Charles K. Armstrong Edited by Peter Van Ness The Making of Modern Korea Hong Kong’s History Adrian Buzo State and society under colonial rule Edited by Tak-Wing Ngo The Resurgence of East Asia 500, 150 and 50 year perspectives Japan’s Comfort Women Edited by Giovanni Arrighi, Takeshi Sexual slavery and prostitution during Hamashita and Mark Selden World War II and the US occupation Yuki Tanaka Chinese Society, 2nd edition Change, confl ict and resistance Opium, Empire and the Global Edited by Elizabeth J. Perry and Political Economy Mark Selden Carl A. Trocki Ethnicity in Asia Chinese Society Edited by Colin Mackerras Change, confl ict and resistance Edited by Elizabeth J. Perry and The Battle for Asia Mark Selden From decolonization to globalization Mark T. Berger Mao’s Children in the New China Voices from the Red Guard generation State and Society in 21st Century Yarong Jiang and David Ashley China Edited by Peter Hays Gries and Remaking the Chinese State Stanley Rosen Strategies, society and security Edited by Chien-min Chao and Japan’s Quiet Transformation Bruce J. Dickson Social change and civil society in the 21st century Jeff Kingston Confronting the Bush Doctrine The Future of US–Korean Relations Critical views from the Asia–Pacifi c The imbalance of power Edited by Mel Gurtov and Edited by John Feffer Peter Van Ness Working in China China in War and Revolution, Ethnographies of labor and workplace 1895–1949 transformation Peter Zarrow Edited by Ching Kwan Lee Asia’s Great Cities. Each volume aims to capture the heartbeat of the contemporary city from multiple perspectives emblematic of the authors’ own deep familiarity with the distinctive faces of the city, its history, society, culture, politics and economics, and its evolving position in national, regional and global frameworks. While most volumes emphasize urban developments since the Second World War, some pay close attention to the legacy of the longue durée in shaping the contemporary. Thematic and comparative volumes address such themes as urbanization, economic and fi nancial linkages, architecture and space, wealth and power, gendered relationships, planning and anarchy, and ethnographies in national and regional perspective. Titles include: Bangkok Hong Kong Place, practice and representation Global city Marc Askew Stephen Chiu and Tai-Lok Lui Beijing in the Modern World Representing Calcutta David Strand and Madeline Yue Dong Modernity, nationalism and the colonial uncanny Shanghai Swati Chattopadhyay Global city Jeff Wasserstrom Singapore Wealth, power and the culture of control Carl A. Trocki Asia.com is a series which focuses on the ways in which new information and communication technologies are infl uencing politics, society and culture in Asia. Titles include: Japanese Cybercultures The Internet in Indonesia’s New Edited by Mark McLelland and Democracy Nanette Gottlieb David T. Hill and Krishna Sen Asia.com Chinese Cyberspaces Asia encounters the Internet Technological changes and political Edited by K. C. Ho, Randolph Kluver effects and Kenneth C. C. Yang Edited by Jens Damm and Simona Thomas Literature and Society is a series that seeks to demonstrate the ways in which Asian Literature is infl uenced by the politics, society and culture in which it is produced. Titles include: The Body in Postwar Japanese Chinese Women Writers and the Fiction Feminist Imagination, 1905–1948 Edited by Douglas N. Slaymaker Haiping Yan Routledge Studies in Asia’s Transformations is a forum for innovative new research intended for a high-level specialist readership, and the titles will be available in hardback only. Titles include: 1 The American Occupation of 8 Developmental Dilemmas Japan and Okinawa* Land reform and institutional Literature and memory change in China Michael Molasky Edited by Peter Ho 2 Koreans in Japan* 9 Genders, Transgenders and Critical voices from the margin Sexualities in Japan Edited by Sonia Ryang Edited by Mark McLelland and Romit Dasgupta 3 Internationalizing the Pacifi c The United States, Japan and the 10 Fertility, Family Planning and Institute of Pacifi c Relations in war Population Policy in China and peace, 1919–1945 Edited by Dudley L. Poston, Tomoko Akami Che-Fu Lee, Chiung-Fang Chang, Sherry L. McKibben and 4 Imperialism in South East Asia Carol S. Walther A fl eeting, passing phase Nicholas Tarling 11 Japanese Diasporas Unsung pasts, confl icting presents 5 Chinese Media, Global Contexts and uncertain futures Edited by Chin-Chuan Lee Edited by Nobuko Adachi 6 Remaking Citizenship in Hong 12 How China Works Kong Perspectives on the twentieth- Community, nation and the century industrial workplace global city Edited by Jacob Eyferth Edited by Agnes S. Ku and Ngai Pun 13 Remolding and Resistance among Writers of the Chinese Prison 7 Japanese Industrial Governance Camp Protectionism and the licensing Disciplined and published state Edited by Philip F. Williams and Yul Sohn Yenna Wu 14 Popular Culture, Globalization 15 medi@sia and Japan Global media/tion in and out of Edited by Matthew Allen and context Rumi Sakamoto Edited by Todd Joseph Miles Holden and Timothy J. Scrase * Now available in paperback Critical Asian Scholarship is a series intended to showcase the most important individual contributions to scholarship in Asian Studies. Each of the volumes presents a leading Asian scholar addressing themes that are central to his or her most signifi cant and lasting contribution to Asian studies. The series is committed to the rich variety of research and writing on Asia, and is not restricted to any particular discipline, theoretical approach or geographical expertise. Southeast Asia China’s Past, China’s Future A testament Energy, food, environment George McT. Kahin Vaclav Smil Women and the Family in Chinese The Chinese State in Ming Society History Timothy Brook Patricia Buckley Ebrey China Unbound Evolving perspectives on the Chinese past Paul A. Cohen Working in China Ethnographies of labor and workplace transformation Edited by Ching Kwan Lee I~ ~?io~f!;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2007 by Routledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2007 Selection and editorial material, Ching Kwan Lee; the chapters, the contributors Typeset in Times by HWA Text and Data Management, Tunbridge Wells The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution -Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. 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 Working in China : labor and workplace transformations / edited by Ching Kwan Lee. p. cm. – (Asia transformations) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Labor–China. 2. Working class–China. I. Lee, Ching Kwan. II. Series. HD8736.5W68 2006 331.10951–dc22 2006007825 ISBN13: 978–0–415–76999–0 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–77000–2 (pbk) Contents List of contributors xi Acknowledgments xiii 1 Mapping the terrain of Chinese labor ethnography 1 CHING KWAN LEE PART I Remaking class and community 13 2 The unmaking of the Chinese working class in the northeastern rustbelt 15 CHING KWAN LEE 3 “Social positions”: neighborhood transitions after danwei 38 SIÂN VICTORIA LIU 4 Rural “guerrilla” workers and home renovation in urban China 56 LEI GUANG 5 A tale of two sales fl oors: changing service-work regimes in China 77 AMY HANSER PART II Gendering service work 99 6 Virtual personalism in Beijing: learning deference and femininity at a global luxury hotel 101 EILEEN M.