NEW PERSPECTIVES ON CHINESE POLITICS AND SOCIETY Beyond Tears and Laughter Gender, Migration, and the Service Sector in China Yang Shen New Perspectives on Chinese Politics and Society Series Editor Yang Zhong Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China Rapid growth has posed new challenges for sustainable political and economic development in China This series is dedicated to the study of modern Chinese politics and society, drawing on case studies, field work, surveys, and quantitative analysis In addition to its empirical focus, this series will endeavour to provide unique perspectives and insights by publishing research from scholars based in China and the region Forthcoming titles in this series will cover political culture, civil society, political economy and governance More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14734 Yang Shen Beyond Tears and Laughter Gender, Migration, and the Service Sector in China Yang Shen Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China New Perspectives on Chinese Politics and Society ISBN 978-981-13-5816-6 ISBN 978-981-13-5817-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5817-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018968443 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2019 This work is subject to copyright All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Preface I was born in Shanghai seven years after the establishment of the Reform and Opening-up policy in China In the year I was born, the country still operated as a planned economy in which food was rationed and purchased by food stamps In the early 1990s, my parents started a small business My father resigned from his job at a state-owned enterprise (SOE), which was an extraordinarily risky and unusual decision to make at that time because SOE jobs were regarded as an ‘iron rice bowl’ (tie fanwan): a permanent job with sufficient social benefits (Whyte, 2012) The reform of SOEs commenced in the mid-1990s and as a result, 28.18 million workers were laid off from 1998 to 2003; by 2003, only 68.76 million workers remained employed in SOEs (SCIO, 2004) Several years after my father’s resignation, the factory where he had worked was closed down and all the workers were laid off; by that time, my father had invested in the Chinese stock market and become one of the most financially successful people from that factory My family benefitted from my father’s risky decision, and we have been relatively well off ever since Yet, I could not take my family’s wealth for granted Individuals’ life chances can take different turns during the dramatic social transformations in China By contrast, many of my father’s former colleagues lost their jobs during the massive layoffs, and they are living rather difficult lives like millions of city dwellers I became aware of the rural-urban disparity thanks to a television documentary and through people I encountered in China In 2007, I watched ‘The rich and the poor’, a documentary made by the Japanese media group NHK. It displayed the drastic differences between the newly rich and migrant workers in China I was sentimental to see a middle-aged rich man v vi PREFACE decorate his house like a palace, whereas a middle-aged male migrant worker in Guangdong province searched for the cheapest toy for his child, who still lived in a rural area, in the hope of taking the toy back to his village during the Spring Festival.1 It echoed a case I came across around 11 pm on a midsummer night in 2010 Some women were waiting by the roadside in an attempt to make a living by carrying passengers by scooter Planning to take the ‘scooter taxi’ home, I agreed upon a price with one of these women Before leaving, she spoke to a little girl, three or four years old, who was sleeping on the cold concrete floor: ‘Mum has to leave for a while Please stay here and don’t move around.’ Her child was half awake and remained lying on the floor On the way to my home, the woman told me that local Shanghainese children went to bed earlier, whereas her child had to be there until late at night She worked during the day in a supermarket and as a scooter driver during the night, and her husband worked as a scooter driver full-time She had to bring the child with her because there was no one at home I felt great compassion for them The interaction with my roommate Xiuxiu during my M.A studies from 2007 to 2010 reinforced my resolution to something for deprived people She came from rural Shanxi province, where coalmine explosions occurred frequently During late-night chats, she told me a lot about her hometown Although coal mining is risky work, it is more profitable than farming As a result, many men choose to be miners My roommate was the first person in her village to complete a master’s programme She wanted to something to help her fellow villagers, but as a migrant who was new to Shanghai, her schedule was dominated by career development, such as doing internships and searching for a job in order to find a footing in this metropolis This did not leave much time and energy for focusing on the development of her village She was the first person from rural areas I have come to know, and meeting her made me realise how different life trajectories could be The encounter with Xiuxiu reinforced my belief that those who not need to worry about their own financial wellbeing are more likely to have the ability to help others, so they should take more social responsibility In the summer of 2008, motivated by Xiuxiu’s story, my friends and I organised a volunteering group to help children in rural Guizhou province Spring Festival is the biggest celebration in China It begins on January of each year according to the lunar calendar, which is different from the Gregorian calendar The Chinese New Year holiday usually lasts for one week It is a festival in which families gather together, so millions of migrant workers are on the move during this period PREFACE vii It was the first time I had visited rural China Through teaching and home interviewing, I gained a glimpse of life there I was frustrated to witness poverty there, but was unable to think of any solutions During the global economic recession in 2008, many rural workers went back to their villages, so this gave me my first opportunity to talk to people who had experienced migration As a result, I observed that hukou can help explain the deprived situation of rural migrants before pursuing my PhD studies In summer 2010, a friend and I made a documentary about an 82-year- old Shanghainese woman who collected used newspapers in order to sell them to recyclers She narrated her life experience of leaving Shanghai to support the construction of inner China in the Mao era Her hukou was transferred from Shanghai to Sichuan province, and she was not able to transfer it back to Shanghai even after she came back At that time, living in Shanghai without Shanghai hukou made it impossible for her to apply for permission to use gas, a property ownership certificate and even a TV licence Seeing how obsessed she was with her hukou status, I came to realise what it meant to more marginalised people After this, the suicides committed by migrant workers in Foxconn made me decide to focus on migrants I felt sad about the tragedy, but it also made me feel that I had a duty to something to change their situation I felt compassion for pupils who lack sufficient educational resources and for people who are destitute because they were born in rural areas and live a hard life The compassion for the less fortunate was one of the motivations for me to carry out this research When I was writing about reflexivity, I recalled George Orwell, one of my favourite writers, who worked as a casual worker in restaurants in Paris and wrote a book called ‘Down and out in Paris and London’ His vivid account of working in restaurants and experiencing poverty was a great inspiration to me ‘In the face of difficulties, people should maintain their own integrity In times of success, they should favours to the world’, is a famous saying by Mencius (372–289 BC) It is one of my favourite mottos, guiding and reflecting my principles Rural/urban disparity, persisting gender inequality, the growing gap between rich and poor: China has many problems waiting to be solved It is my hope to devote myself to making China a better country Shanghai, China Yang Shen viii PREFACE References SCIO (2004, April) Zhongguo de jiuye zhuangkuang he zhengce [The current situation of the labour market and its related policies in China] Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://www.scio.gov.cn/zt2008/gxb2zn/06/200812/t249382 htm Whyte, M. K (2012) China’s post-socialist inequality Current History, 111(746), 229 Acknowledgements The process of carrying out this research and writing this book for me has been one of constant self-exploration It has been an interactive process that has reshaped my intellectual orientation and made me adapt my lifestyle choices It has been a project that has transcended the book-writing itself, and may foster some life-long transformations I am greatly indebted to my previous teachers and colleagues at the London School of Economics, especially Professor Diane Perrons She provided invaluable critical feedback at every stage in the writing of this book I am much indebted to Professor Rachel Murphy, Dr Hyun Shin, Dr Ye Liu, Dr Ania Polemia, Professor Charles Stafford, Dr Hans Steinmüller, Dr Bo Hu, Dr Yingqin Zheng for reading earlier drafts of the book and to Dr Bingqin Li, Dr Kalpana Wilson and Dr Marsha Henry, Dr Amanda Conroy, Dr Alessandro Ribu and Dr Nicole Shephard for reading chapters at various stages All of them provided invaluable comments Also, I indebted to my current colleagues at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, especially Professor Yang Zhong, who encouraged me to keep on revising the book during the time I was preoccupied with teaching, paper-writing and extra-academic life I am also grateful to Dr Yang Hu and anonymous reviewers for providing constructive feedback for the book proposal My gratitude for my partner Dr Fan Yang is combined with a guilty sense of indulging in romantic love The emotional and intellectual support he has provided is beyond my expectation But without his company the book could have been published significantly earlier Lastly, special thanks to all the fieldwork informants who shared their bittersweet stories with me Our encounters have enriched my life I hope ix ... mirrors China s burgeoning consumption levels In 2016, business revenue in the catering sector in Shanghai ranked the second among all the municipalities and provinces in China (NBS, 2017e) The catering... is insufficient in three ways when considering gender, migration and the service sector First, despite the fact that there is a small and growing body of qualitative research in Chinese and in. .. situations in the context of China In this book, I examine how gender, class and hukou operated in the daily lives of these migrant workers I will focus on how gender, class and hukou are intertwined