This dissertation is a historically and politically grounded ethnography of bangbang, an estimated 200,000 to 1,000,000-strong crew of male porters, who serve the transportation sector of Chongqing in southwest China. Bangbang are mostly Chinese rural migrant men who work as informal day laborers. Based on fifteen months of ethnographic field research conducted in Chongqing in 2004 and 2006-2007, my research examines the labor and gender inequalities that bangbang experience within the context of post-reform Chinas economic development and modernization. My dissertation examines the cultural logics, social and cultural forces, and the discursive conditions and contradictions embedded in bangbangs decisions to migrate, their occupational choices, their imagining of modernity and success, as well as their understanding of masculinity. It also documents the strategies bangbang adopt to defend their dignity and the changes that bangbangs migration brings to their social relations.
I argue that in Chongqing, rural mens migrations are not just an important attempt to pursue economic advancement, but also part of their quest for decency and masculine pride. Out-migration constitutes a valuable approach for these men to elevate their reputation as responsible and capable men. However, the majority of poor rural men experience systematic and gendered violence during migration which forces them to remain exploited and socially marginalized in the urban region. I also argue that the informality of bangbangs employment is the result of Chinas labor market deregulation and economic restructuring. The rhetoric of freedom which is made popular among bangbang by the Party-state, functions as a pro-growth strategy that reorganizes the flow of knowledge, capital, labor, social relations, and the formation of worker subjectivities. Lastly, this research has found that the fragmentation of employment contributes to the lack of large-scale, public, collective protests among bangbang against the government.
Overall, this dissertation contributes to anthropological studies of development, labor, migration, and post-socialism. Furthermore, it contributes to gender studies in general and to masculinity studies in particular by contributing to an understanding of Chinese working-class masculinity. This research also provides insights into gender and class conditions in post-reform China.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04132011-022941 |
| Date | 01 July 2011 |
| Creators | Zhang, Xia |
| Contributors | Joseph S. Alter, Nicole Constable, Kathleen M. Blee, Gabriella Lukacs, Evelyn Rawski |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04132011-022941/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds