©2009 Ju-chen Chen ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION CAPITAL DREAMS: GLOBAL CONSUMPTION, URBAN IMAGINATION, AND LABOR MIGRATION IN LATE SOCIALIST BEIJING By JU-CHEN CHEN Dissertation Director: Louisa Schein This dissertation addresses the remaking of Beijing, with a focus on social differentiations within and beyond the city, under the impacts of the late socialist Chinese state and the expansion of global capitalism in the early 2000s. It is argued that the early 2000s witnessed China transforming from being external-referencing to self-referencing. This research simultaneously investigated the city in global, national and local contexts. Multi-site ethnographic research was performed and a design of multiple informant groups was employed. This dissertation focused on Beijing, but included perspectives external to Beijing. Beijing was the main field site, but extensive ethnographic fieldwork was also conducted in Xi’an, together with several shorter research trips to various locations. Shifting perspectives within and outside of Beijing offered insights into how the physical place of Beijing is variously imagined and created. New social groups are emerging in Beijing during the Economic Reform era, and Beijing is a different place for every distinct group of inhabitants, meaning conclusions about Beijing depend on “whose Beijing” one is addressing. This dissertation focuses on three economically-differentiated ii informant groups in the emergent social hierarchy of Beijing: a new privileged elite of business professionals, a poor working class of native Beijingers, and a new marginalized underclass of migrant laborers. The dynamics among these groups are examined through their consumption practices and use of mass media because these two domains of daily practice are crucial for identity negotiation in late socialist China. Analyzing social differentiations within and beyond Beijing, I posit that migrant laborers are the key group mediating different people and places. This dissertation argues that Beijing is more than a bounded place or ethnographic site but also a space of concrete social differentiations and virtual imaginations, often involving people and places external to the city. In terms of globalization, this dissertation argues that it is theoretically productive to examine a few areas within Beijing as “contact zones” of global and local communities and of emerging classes rather than considering the city a homogenous place that is undergoing globalization. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Writing this dissertation has been an adventure and has taught me a lot about myself. I started the quest with only the courage and curiosity typical of young minds. Now at the end of my journey, in addition to, hopefully, acquiring some knowledge, I have learned the importance of modesty and perseverance. This adventure would not have been possible without the many kind and critical people I encountered along the way. Without them simultaneously challenging and supporting me, I would never be here, ready to begin the next journey in my life. My gratitude to the following people and institutions exceeds what words can convey. The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University supported me through the years of coursework by offering me teaching assistantships (1996 – 1999 and 1999 – 2000, respectively). The National Science Foundation offered me not only the first major grant (Cultural Anthropology Program, Re: BCS-9904387, 1999 - 2000) to conduct long-term field research in China but also their strong and generous confidence in my scholarship. An ethnographic research small grant (2000 – 2001) from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc., supported me in staying in the field longer and enabled the multiple-sited ethnography. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing generously hosted my years of fieldwork research in China (2000 – 2001). Without the faculty and staff there and the support of the institute, my research in China would not have proceeded as smoothly as it did. The Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (USA) offered Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship iv (2001 – 2002) to support the writing phase of this project. Academia Sinica Fellowships for Doctoral Candidates in the Humanities and Social Sciences provided me not only writing grants (2002 – 2004) but also an intellectual home at the Sun Yat-Sen Institute for Social Sciences and Philosophy of Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. My gratitude to my home department, the Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, is both immense and complex. The department allowed me to meet many wonderful fellow students and teachers. I thank the department for both the support and challenges it gave me. The training it offered made a stronger person. Many teachers and senior scholars I met during different stages of my journey generously guided me through my moments of naivety, confusion, distress and excitement. In Taiwan, Professor Der-hui Yee was the first to encourage me to pursue Anthropology. Professor Ruey-ling Chu looked after me during every stage of my study. She provided me important connections that helped me begin my research in Beijing and supported my writing at Academia Sinica. I am immensely grateful to her confidence in and support for me. At Rutgers, Professor Richard V. Simmons proved a kind employer and teacher who supported me through my coursework years and remains a caring friend. Professors Xudong Zhang and Chun-fang Yu both gave me invaluable advice in the conceptual phase. Both of them reminded me of my unique Taiwanese perspective on China studies and encouraged me to consider this perspective seriously when analyzing my research materials. Professor Michael Moffatt, with his solid experience in ethnographic research, gave me precious suggestions during my proposal defense. Professor Caridad Souza has been a very special mentor and friend. On various occasions, both within and outside of the classroom, she introduced to me the perspectives of v minorities and hence the fascinating experience to examine a phenomena through various possible positions. She contributed to the focus of the project on intersecting categories of identities. Her peculiar style of mentoring was based on an equal and friendly relationship between master and apprentice. Among other social scientists in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professors Luo Hongguang and Guo Yuhua patiently guided me in how best to do research in China. I want to give my special thanks to Professor Luo Hongguang who, despite his own busy research schedule, gave me a tour of his field site and shared generously his knowledge about China and anthropology. There are many other teachers and scholars who I cannot thank individually here. Our encounters were shorter, sometimes simply involving them offering a wise comment. Nevertheless, the influence was equally critical and my gratitude to them is equally sincere. I have the most supportive and encouraging dissertation committee I could possibly wish for. Professors Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas and Daniel Goldstein both generously agreed to join my committee as my journey approached its end. While they only became involved towards the end of my journey, their enthusiastic support and suggestions were crucial in getting me to my destination. I am very grateful for the new perspectives and inspirations they provided. I only regret that our paths did not cross earlier. Professor Dorothy Ko offered criticism and advice during every stage of the project. She encouraged and accepted my bold proposal, reined me in whenever my imagination strayed too far, helped me develop several key arguments and focuses of the dissertation, and took my research seriously by encouraging and soliciting factual evidence and data. Professor Ko had an incredible ability to help clarify and develop unfinished thoughts, identify gaps in research and writing in an encouraging way, and kindle passion to pursue vi an intellectual quest. She was an inspirational model teacher. It is impossible for me to properly express my gratitude to my advisor, Professor Louisa Schein. There were many scary stories about difficult advisors and their unfortunate students, but I experienced none of this. Professor Schein is a serious scholar. From my earliest days at Rutgers she showed her respect for me by always being critical during our discussions and insisting on soliciting responses from a relatively quiet foreign student. She is a great mentor. Whenever she detected something interesting in my thoughts she never hesitated to nurture those thoughts through providing generous encouragement. She believed in me and persuaded me to think big before I realized my own potential. She constantly demonstrated not only enthusiasm for knowledge, but also the importance of prioritizing scholarly development. While patiently and carefully directing every stage of the project, she remained constantly open to my untested and often immature ideas. Her natural style of being both critical and encouraging nurtured my courage and confidence, and helped me systematically build up my knowledge and research ability. Besides being a great scholar and teacher, Professor Schein is also a caring friend. I often jokingly and affectionately called her “my Mama at Rutgers”. She had an amazing ability to understand the confusion and fear experienced by graduate students, and was always willing to offer generous help.