Investigating the Cultural Practice of Migrant Workers in China: Ideology, Collective Identity and Resistance
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The London School of Economics and Political Science Investigating the Cultural Practice of Migrant Workers in China: Ideology, Collective identity and Resistance Ziyan Wang A thesis submitted to the Department of Media and Communications of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy London, February 2020 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of <98,887> words. Statement of use of third party for editorial help I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Dr James Mason. 2 Abstract: Cultural practice and collective identity formation are crucial dimensions for the expression of agency within labour struggles. Although these have been eroded, alongside the erosion of the glory of the old urban working class in the post-reform era, working-class culture has played a significant role in China’s modern history of revolution and socialist industrialisation. This thesis investigates the cultural practices of Chinese rural-urban migrant workers in relation to history and to collective political struggles in the wave of labour unrest in post-reform China. Based on extended participant observation, fieldnotes and interviews over the course of a year between 2013 and 2014, mainly with two grass-roots labour organisations, my thesis answers the following questions: What kinds of collective identities and working- class/migrant workers’ culture do these new proletarian organisations construct? How do they understand and define the relationship between culture and collective struggle? What kinds of tensions are evidenced in the production of migrant workers’ culture? Focusing on how ideology, culture and collective identity are contested in relation to gender, class and workers’ resistance, the thesis contributes to better understanding of the on-going process of working class formation. My primary findings sustain the thesis that the migrant labour activists have devised a new version of collective identity and culture for migrant workers in order to contest the cultural hegemony of the state and the market, to raise class consciousness, build alliances and potentially mobilise their collective power to challenge the structural inequalities and injustices in contemporary China. They have developed ideological innovation and hybrid methods to communicate and articulate class identity, interests and political agendas both inexplicitly and explicitly. Moreover, through analysis of ethnographic data, I also reveal the dynamic nature and complexity in the process. The politically charged new version of collective identity and culture sometimes encounters difficulties in articulating itself to ordinary workers. The cultural practices of migrant labour 3 activists are constrained by various factors in the surveilled and limited political space in China. In order to mobilise resources to survive and sustain their struggle, various compromises are made in the interaction with other social actors and in turn, these inflect the representation of their cultural practices. Gender also revealed itself as a significant tension within the ongoing cultural practices of working class solidarity and collective identity construction. Solely stressing the axis of class in the construction of ‘new worker’ identity and the migrant worker’s culture, older male worker activists tended to ignore the gendered working class experiences of rural women migrant workers and activists in labour activism. Consequently, even as they sought to counter the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism in China, the cultural practices of the migrant worker organisations rendered women as subjects of resistance and reinforced the hegemony of patriarchy in Chinese society. This entrenched gender and class dilemma was challenged by the practice of women labour activists who proposed intersectional understandings of collective identities, incorporating gendered subjectivities into practice and expanding the struggle to the realm of social reproduction to liberate women worker’s agency in the class struggle and build broader alliances in striving for a more just society for all. 4 Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been accomplished without the generous support of my supervisors. I am extremely lucky to have Bingchun Meng and Shakuntala Banaji to guide me step by step through this academic journey. Your knowledge, kindness and passion for a better and fairer world continue to inspire me. I also owe my thanks to parents. You have given everything you could offer to support me and accept me as who I am. Thanks are also due to many teachers, mentors and researchers who helped me at different stages of this intellectual journey, especially Bu Wei who not only introduced me to the Migrant Worker’s Home at the very beginning of this research but also provided consistent supports during my fieldwork. I am also indebted to the supportive fellow PhD researchers and friends within or outside of LSE. I particularly want to thank Shuwan Zhang, Li Yang, Yanning Huang, Yimin Zhao, Floyd Zhou and Haoran Hu for their friendship warm encouragement throughout the Ph.D journey. This study was made possible by the financial support of the Chiang-Ching Kuo Foundation (PhD dissertation fellowship) and Great Britain-China Educational Trust (Chinese Students Award). At last, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my informants and interviewees, for sharing their ideas, experiences, passions, dreams, pains, and hopes with me. Special thanks to May, for the friendship and sisterhood. 5 Table of content Declaration ............................................................................................................................................................... 2 Abstract: ................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................................ 10 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Encountering new worker’s cultural practice amongst the ruins of the old .......................... 11 1.2 Rationale of research........................................................................................................................... 15 1.2.1 Chinese migrant workers: The subaltern and the new working class ........................ 15 1.2.2 The cultural practice of migrant workers and the labour struggle .............................. 19 1.3 Elaboration of research questions .................................................................................................... 23 1.4 Aims of the thesis ................................................................................................................................. 25 1.5 Overview of the thesis ........................................................................................................................ 27 Chapter 2: Workers and Working-class Cultural Construction in China: A Historical Review ....... 29 2.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 29 2.1 The revolutionary era .......................................................................................................................... 30 2.1.1 The emergence of a Chinese working class ..................................................................... 30 2.1.2 Worker’s clubs and the labour movement......................................................................... 32 2.1.3 Women in revolution .............................................................................................................. 35 2.1.4 Mao’s Yan’an talks: The two principles ............................................................................ 37 2.2 Socialist China ...................................................................................................................................... 40 2.2.1 Master of the nation ................................................................................................................ 40 2.2.2 Worker’s arts and literature: Establishing socialist cultural leadership ..................... 42 2.2.3 Worker’s cultural palace: Creating a working-class public culture space ................ 44 2.2.4 ‘Women hold up half of the sky’........................................................................................