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After four decades of market reform, China has developed a fast-growing, prosperous economy—the second largest in the world. Despite this prosperity, social inequality has persisted and expanded, particularly among rural migrant workers, and oppressive labor conditions have given rise to an increase in worker protests. In China's authoritarian political context, worker strikes often face suppression and receive little attention in mainstream media, which has led burgeoning forms of alternative mediated practices to become key, if complicated, components of worker resistance. In Contesting Inequalities, Siyuan Yin traces the historical and structural forces surrounding the plight of migrant workers, especially women workers, and examines the relationship between media and different forms of collective action in China. Moving beyond considerations of short-term strikes, she analyzes how mediated practices have been incorporated as both means and ends in labor activism.
Based on long-term, multi-sited, and digital ethnography, and drawing on feminist methodologies, Yin examines different forms of mediated labor activism—including theater performance, advocacy music, and digital community media—to survey the politics and impact of worker mobilization and actions. By explicating how mediated labor activism has enabled new subjectivities, counter-discourses, and informal networks, Yin demonstrates that the surge in Chinese working-class resistance highlights the interconnectedness of class struggles and feminist activism.
"This compelling book explores how rural migrant workers in China are using innovative forms of mediated labor activism to resist inequality and fight for justice. Through rich ethnographic research and sharp analysis, Yin reveals the transformative power of cultural production, performance, and digital media in fostering collective resistance and reimagining worker identities in contemporary China." —Ya-Wen Lei, Harvard University
"With breadth and depth, passion and compassion, Siyuan Yin offers a situated analysis of various forms of rural migrant workers' mediated labor activism that deepens our understanding of how these networked practices serve as a form of counter-power with long-term transformative possibilities. Yin's deployment of an intersectional feminist lens and her commitment to social justice should encourage all who read this book to believe that another world is truly possible." —Cara Wallis, University of Michigan
"[A] record of this sort is essential if organizers are to effectively weigh their options going forward. For China scholars, meanwhile, the book rounds out our understanding of how citizens marginalized from the country's official narratives have nonetheless found their voice at critical moments—and how they might do so again." —Manfred Elfstrom, The China Quarterly
"Contesting Inequalities is an engaging and thought-provoking read for scholars in labor studies, China studies, and feminist studies focused on China. It especially offers a stimulating perspective for Chinese feminist scholars and activists, encouraging reflections from a working-class, grassroots standpoint and reimagination of a more inclusive feminist future." —Sanshan Lin, Asian Ethnology
"This important book arrives at a consequential moment for scholarship on labor politics, media, and authoritarian governance in China. As market reforms deepen, controls tighten, and the official trade union and labor NGO space narrows, Siyuan Yin asks a simple question: How do rural migrant workers make claims, cultivate solidarities, and contest injustice when overt collective action is risky and organizationally constrained? Contesting Inequalities advances a compelling answer." —Kaxton Siu, The Developing Economies
Introduction: Forming Counterhegemonic Forces: Resistance Movements and the Possibility of Change
1. Encountering Unequal China: Rural Migrant Workers and the Global Working Class
2. Transforming Subjectivities: Female Migrant Domestic Workers and Advocacy through Theater Performance
3. Challenging Capitalism and Neoliberalism: New Workers and Working-Class Cultural Production
4. Articulating Feminism: Feminist Labor Activism and Intersectional Interventions
5. Building Alliances: Pluralistic Counterpublics and Networks of Labor Activism
Conclusion: Another World Is Indeed Possible
Notes
Bibliography
Discography
Index