University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses October 2019 CLASS, GENDER, AND MEDIATED LABOR ACTIVISM IN GLOBALIZING CHINA Siyuan Yin University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, and the Other Communication Commons Recommended Citation Yin, Siyuan, "CLASS, GENDER, AND MEDIATED LABOR ACTIVISM IN GLOBALIZING CHINA" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations. 1783. https://doi.org/10.7275/14720934 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1783 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. 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CLASS, GENDER, AND MEDIATED LABOR ACTIVISM IN GLOBALIZING CHINA A Dissertation Presented by SIYUAN YIN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2019 Department of Communication © Copyright by Siyuan Yin 2019 All Rights Reserved CLASS, GENDER, AND MEDIATED LABOR ACTIVISM IN GLOBALIZING CHINA A Dissertation Presented by SIYUAN YIN Approved as to style and content by: ____________________________________ Jonathan Corpus Ong, Chair ____________________________________ Martha Fuentes-Bautista, Co-Chair ____________________________________ Lisa Henderson, Member ___________________________________ Cara Wallis, Member ____________________________________ Sut Jhally, Department Head Department of Communication ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my dissertation committee, Dr. Martha Fuentes-Bautista, Dr. Jonathan Corpus Ong, Dr. Lisa Henderson, and Dr. Cara Wallis, Who have been fabulous mentors to guide and support me throughout this long, fulfilled, and reWarding academic journey. My deep gratitude also goes to all the professors and students with whom I have worked and/or studied from the Department of Communication and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at UMASS Amherst. I have been and will continue to be so proud of being part of this intellectual community to develop rigorous and engaged scholarship. Our shared commitment to change the world towards equality and justice has motivated me to overcome many difficulties and frustration. Without the tremendous love and encouragement from my parents, grandparents, and family members, I would never have become whom I am and arrived at where I stand now. I would also like to show my great affection and thankfulness to my best friend and lifetime partner, with whom I share companionship, worldvieWs, values, and goals. Last but not least, I present my greatest admiration and respect towards all the participants in my research and all the fighters who strive and thrive to make a just and equal world. iv ABSTRACT CLASS, GENDER, AND MEDIATED LABOR ACTIVISM IN GLOBALIZING CHINA SEPTEMBER 2019 SIYUAN YIN, B.A., PEKING UNIVERSITY M.A., UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Jonathan Corpus Ong and Professor Martha Fuentes-Bautista My dissertation analyzes the relationships betWeen mediated labor activism and the formation of counter-hegemonic forces in contemporary China. As China becomes a seemingly ideal model to justify the normalization of global capitalism, this study seeks to demonstrate how resistance from disenfranchised groups can challenge hegemonic power. Rural-to-urban migrant workers, who have been among the most disadvantaged groups since China’s economic reform of the 1980s, suffer from institutionalized discrimination, economic exploitation, and social exclusion. Approaching the analysis from an intersectional feminist lens, I explore the politics and possibilities of working- class resistance in searching for a just and equal China. Based on online and offline ethnographic fieldwork from March 2016 to July 2018 and using mixed qualitative methods, I analyzed communicative and mediated practices of rural migrant workers, NGO staff, activists, scholars, and other social actors in terms of their advocacy for social equality. v By identifying and explicating four sites of activism: performance, music, social media, and alternative/community media, my study shows that the fight for migrant workers’ equal rights has become not only a moral but a political and ideological standpoint from which to resist capitalism, consumerism, and urban and middle-class superiority in post-Mao China. Feminist agendas have been incorporated – but still rather marginalized – in contemporary Chinese labor activism and working-class resistance. By demonstrating how workers’ collective resistance is embedded in their daily lives and explicating the ways in which media and culture become both sites and means for resistance, my dissertation contributes to labor studies in China and bridges the fields of media research and resistance studies. The study also enhances theoretical discussions on mediated activism and social movements by examining China as a unique case. I demonstrate that mediated activism facilitates the formation of counter-publics and counter-power, with possibilities to grow into more enduring and large-scale movements in non-democratic regimes such as China. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1. DEPOLITICIZED CHINA AND STRUCTURAL INEQUALITIES .............................1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 RevieWing Literature on Rural Migrant Workers’ Resistance ................................3 Research Questions ..................................................................................................9 Theoretical and Methodological FrameWorks .........................................................9 Resistance Studies ........................................................................................9 Mediated Activism .....................................................................................12 Representations of activism/protests in mainstream media ...........13 Mediated activist practices .............................................................14 Debates on ICTs and social movements ........................................15 Alternative media ...........................................................................17 Feminist media activism ................................................................19 Research Sites ........................................................................................................21 Performance as Communicative Resistance ..............................................21 Migrant Women’s Club (Dagongmei Zhi Jia) ...............................21 Advocating Class Equality through Media and Cultural Production .........24 Migrant Workers’ Home (Gongyou Zhi Jia) .................................24 Gendered Activism through Music: A female activist group ....................26 Feminist Media Activism ...........................................................................27 A Media NGO: Jianjiao Buluo ......................................................27 Data Collection ......................................................................................................28 Issues of Access and Ethics .......................................................................29 Reflexivity and Positionality ......................................................................31 Methods..................................................................................................................33 Archival Research ......................................................................................33 Participant Observation ..............................................................................33 IntervieWs ...................................................................................................35 Chapter Outlines ....................................................................................................36 2. RURAL-TO-URBAN MIGRANTS, RESISTANCE, AND NGOS .............................39 vii Introduction ............................................................................................................39 Inequalities of Rural-to-urban Migrant Workers ...................................................41 Production and Distribution: State Policies and Market Economy ...........41 Marginalization and Objectification in Mainstream Media and Dominant Culture .................................................................................44 Migrant Workers’ Resistance ................................................................................50