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This book explores the experiences of ethnic performers in a small Chinese city, aiming to better understand their work and migration journeys. Their unique position as service workers who have migrated within the same province provides valuable insights into the intersection of social inequalities related to the rural-urban divide, ethnicity and gender in contemporary China. Introducing the concept of ‘intimacy as a lens’, the author examines intimate negotiations involving emotions, sense of self and relationships as a way of understanding wider social inequalities.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the book reveals the bordering mechanisms encountered by performers in their work as they navigate between rural and urban environments, as well as between ethnic minority and Han identities. Emphasising the intimate and personal nature of these encounters, the book argues that they can help inform understanding of broader social issues.
“A pioneering piece of work calling for readers to recognise the systemic limitations and pervasive social inequalities that many in China’s ethnic rural populations are faced with daily.” Suvi Rautio, China Perspectives 2025
“The book provides a clear, concise, but very rich narrative for those who want to understand the internal migration and the recent dynamics of identity in modern China.” Oğuz Bulut Kök, International Migration
“Mao Jingyu has produced a richly evidenced sociological study of ethnic performers in order to make the case for the importance of intimacy as enabling a kind of relational self-making in which personhood – specifically ethnic self-making – emerges out of dense work interactions.” Louisa Schein, The China Quarterly
“This thought-provoking and meticulously researched book offers a fresh perspective on how the intersections of labour, migration, ethnicity and gender shape and reshape the lives of these ethnic performers.” Fengqiang Wang, Emotions and Society
1. Introduction
2. Ethnic Performance Work
3. Intimate Negotiation Along the Rural-Urban Borders
4. Encountering Ethnicity
5. Gendering the Border Struggles
6. Conclusion