Population Governance in China: An Analysis from the Household Registration System (Hukou) Perspective by Marcella Siqueira Cassiano A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology University of Alberta © Marcella Siqueira Cassiano, 2020 Abstract China’s population governance apparatus includes a system of household registration referred to as “hukou” that collects detailed data on individuals and their families. This information includes people’s birthplace, ancestral origin, ID number, religious affiliation, military service status, blood type, height, place of residence, address changes, among other attributes. The state bureaucracy relies on hukou to classify households and individuals legally, socially, and geographically, as well as regulate their rights and duties. It also uses hukou to order family relationships and influence people’s marriage decisions, geographic mobility, real estate investment, among other aspects of life. While state actors use hukou information for policymaking and policing, extra-state actors use hukou to sort people’s social standing and navigate interactions in daily life. Using Michel Foucault’s and Max Weber’s scholarship on power, this study analyzes the hukou reforms, which are ongoing since the late 1970s. My analysis demonstrates that today’s hukou is markedly different from that of the Mao era. At that time, hukou endured primarily as a coercive institutional mechanism that divided China’s population into “agricultural” and “non-agricultural” families for welfare distribution and imposed upon the people state-made choices that guided nearly all aspects of their lives. In contrast, today’s hukou also includes a liberal facet. I argue that the hukou reforms are gradually transforming hukou into a “technology of governance” that is conducive to individual autonomy, personal choice, and private interest, providing people with more freedom in guiding their lives. Nonetheless, local governments still use hukou to regulate people’s lives, but they do so indirectly. They use policies relating to hukou status to condition people’s choices around marriage, migration, real estate investment, ii and even behavior on the Internet. Together, such policies construct an environment of opportunities and constraints that guide people’s actions invisibly and under the auspices of “free choice.” In this environment, the role of the state in guiding people’s life becomes invisible, hidden behind a sense of individual autonomy, and thus shielded from view. Hukou’s transformation indicates the emergence of a more liberal practice of population governance in China that relies on hukou data collection (i.e., surveillance) to manufacture social conformity based on voluntary compliance, as opposed to government coercion. My analysis results from extensive fieldwork in Jinan (9 months between 2015 and 2016), the capital city of Shandong Province, China. My research data consists of 250 interviews with a diverse profile of Jinan residents, ethnographic observations, and documentary information. My thesis demonstrates that hukou plays a vital role in creating citizens that comply with a private logic of capital accumulation, and which thrives in an environment that demands individual autonomy, personal initiative, competitiveness, productivity, decision-making skills, and risk management knowledge. It also calls into question viewpoints that portray China’s population governance strategies exclusively as coercive and authoritarian. Lastly, it supplements contemporary understandings of the hukou system through a new lens that focuses on its capacity to form liberal subjects, moving the hukou system beyond its traditional focus of analysis, which addresses its role in producing socioeconomic inequalities in China. iii Preface I have published two chapters of this thesis. Chapter 6 appears as “China’s Hukou Platform: Windows into the Family” in the journal Surveillance & Society,17 (1/2): 232–39, in 2019, while a preliminary version of Chapter 3 is available in the same journal as “The Reform of China’s Household Registration System: Authoritarianism with Liberal Characteristics” in 2017 (Surveillance & Society 15 (3/4): 404–17). iv Acknowledgments Numerous people and institutions helped me to accomplish my doctoral research, and I will be eternally grateful to them. Professor Kevin Haggerty, my supervisor, provided me continuous guidance and support. He also became my academic role model and a source of inspiration in my pursuit of excellence in teaching and research. My committee members offered me useful and encouraging suggestions to improve this thesis and further my research agenda. They are Professors Sara Dorow (University of Alberta), Lisa Hoffman (University of Washington in Tacoma), Gordon Houlden (University of Alberta), Ryan Dunch (University of Alberta), and Feng Xu (University of Victoria), my external examiner. Professor Juren Lin (Shandong University in China) enabled my data collection in Jinan. He supported my application to the Confucius Institute “Joint-Research PhD Fellowship,” which funded and facilitated my nine-month residential program at Shandong University. Professor Lin also introduced me to Professor Mark Selden (Cornell University), one of the most prominent hukou experts, with whom I had the opportunity to discuss some of my findings. Several friends assisted me during data collection, especially Xue Kong and her family (the Kong-Meng from Fucun Village in Qüfu, Shandong), Xiheng Zhang, Ming Chen, Wen Jing, Youjun Xu, and Gabriel Vital. These dear friends discussed my preliminary findings with me and helped me think of additional sources of information that I could explore. The University of Alberta awarded me with the Karol J Krótki Population Research Graduate Scholarship, the Society of Edmonton Demographers Award, and the Edward Chang Memorial Graduate Scholarship, which supplemented by research budget. v Concordia University of Edmonton, the University of Alberta, and the King’s University from Edmonton have hired me as a Sessional Instructor, playing a significant role in my professional development. The courses I taught at these universities allowed me to mature and consolidate my passion for teaching. Concordia—with the help of Professor John Jayachandran and Dr. Xinxin Fang—allowed me to design and propose an entire course dedicated to population governance in China, which I have already offered four times. Through my classes, I had the opportunity to meet a diverse group of brilliant students. They challenged me with smart questions, making me grow as an instructor and a researcher. Stephen Kuntz, Sophia Parks, the great Hammonds (Tina, Scott, Alex, Logan, Dean, and Tom), and my family (my mom Helena, Luciana, Cristina, Regina, Avó Mulatinha, Tia Maria Inês, Tia Tereza, Lúcia, and Rosa) encouraged my studies, cheered for my success, and supported me in meaningful and unique ways. Lastly, the research supporting this thesis includes knowledge accumulated over almost 20 years of exchanges with China, during which I learned Mandarin, lived, studied, and worked in China. However, I have not made this journey alone! My partner, to whom I dedicate this thesis, has accompanied, guided me, and encouraged me throughout the years, making it “our” “China journey.” Thank you, Maísa! vi Table of Contents Chapter 1 • Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 The Thesis ................................................................................................................................................................. 6 The Data .................................................................................................................................................................. 16 What Is Hukou? ....................................................................................................................................................... 21 The Household Register ...................................................................................................................................... 22 The Functions of Hukou ..................................................................................................................................... 31 Hukou in the Literature ........................................................................................................................................... 41 The Traditional Approach to Hukou ................................................................................................................... 41 The Core Studies in the Hukou Literature .......................................................................................................... 44 Thesis Relevance and Structure .............................................................................................................................. 57 Chapter 2 • Tackling the Hukou Transformation: Object, Questions, Theoretical Approach, and Methods .. 61 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 61 Research Object and Research Questions ............................................................................................................... 61 Theoretical Approach .............................................................................................................................................