On the Move

by Gaetano, Arianne M.

• ISBN13: 9780231127066
• ISBN10: 0231127065
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

In China in recent years, one of the most dramatic and significant manifestations of modernization and globalization has been a massive increase in rural-to-urban migration. Termed the "floating population," and numbering upwards of 100 million, these rural migrants are at the front line of both domestic and global capitalist development, working for the lowest wages in occupations that urbanites shun, and often in dangerous conditions with little or no security or legal protections. Women comprise a significant proportion of the migrant population, yet the influence of gender and the unique circumstances of women migrants have yet to receive sufficient scholarly attention. On the Move focuses on the experiences of rural-to-urban migrant women in contemporary China and the political, social, economic, and cultural contexts that shape their experiences. Arianne M. Gaetano, Tamara Jacka, and their contributors present original fieldwork as well as analyses based on in-depth research in multiple regions of China to explore the impact of migration on the identities, values, worldviews, and social positions of migrant women themselves. This book also documents how migration transforms social relations, identities, and gender ideologies both in urban areas and in the countryside.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction: Focusing on Migrant Women	1	(40)
Tamara Jacka
Arianne M. Gaetano
PART 1. NEGOTIATING IDENTITIES
Filial Daughters, Modern Women: Migrant Domestic Workers in Post--Mao Beijing	41	(39)
Arianne M. Gaetano
From Peasant Women to Bar Hostesses: Gender and Modernity in Post--Mao Dalian	80	(29)
Tiantian Zheng
Indoctrination, Fetishization, and Compassion: Media Constructions of the Migrant Woman	109	(22)
Wanning Sun
PART 2. SEEKING A FUTURE
Dilemmas of the Heart: Rural Working Women and Their Hopes for the Future	131	(20)
Louise Beynon
Living as Double Outsiders: Migrant Women's Experiences of Marriage in a County-Level City	151	(26)
Lin Tan
Susan E. Short
PART 3. CHANGING VILLAGE LIFE
Out to the City and Back to the Village: The Experiences and Contributions of Rural Women Migrating from Sichuan and Anhui	177	(30)
C. Cindy Fan
The Migration Experiences of Young Women from Four Counties in Sichuan and Anhui	207	(36)
Binbin Lou
Zhenzhen Zheng
Rachel Connelly
Kenneth D. Roberts
The Impact of Labor Migration on the Well-Being and Agency of Rural Chinese Women: Cultural and Economic Contexts and the Life Course	243	(36)
Rachel Murphy
PART 4. WRITING LIVES
Migrant Women's Stories	279	(7)
Tamara Jacka
My Life as a Migrant Worker	286	(23)
Tamara Jacka
Song Xianlin
Let Bygones Be Bygones	286	(1)
Cui Jingyu
The Law Is by My Side	287	(2)
Huang Zhihua
Burdened Youth	289	(5)
Mian Xiaohong
I Am a Cloud	294	(1)
Pang Hui
Looking Back, I Am Proud	295	(2)
Wang Xiangfen
Leaving Huaihua Valley: A Sichuan Girl's Own Account of Being a Migrant Worker	297	(7)
Zhou Rencong
Working for Myself	304	(5)
Li Jianying
Glossary of Chinese Terms	309	(8)
References	317	(20)
Contributors	337	(4)
Index	341