Made in China Journal: Volume 5, Issue 3, 2020
Edited by: Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas LouberePlease read Conditions of use before downloading the formats.
Description
China’s increased global engagements in recent years have been the source of unending controversies. While public attention generally focuses on geopolitical, economic or even environmental issues, labour also plays an important part in emerging narratives surrounding the ‘spectre of global China’. The media in countries that have received a significant influx of investment from mainland China has often complained about ‘invasions’ of Chinese workers, who are allegedly snatching away job opportunities from local workers. In many places, there are pervasive rumours that Chinese workers are nothing less than convicted felons sent abroad by the Party-State to expiate their crimes, which would explain why they seem to work without interruption day and night, at a pace that some believe no free person would deem acceptable. This has also led to concerns that workers from China are playing an important role in driving down labour standards in countries where institutions are weak and legal enforcement lacking. Inflows of Chinese workers have also been associated with surges in crime and prostitution that supposedly have wrought havoc on local communities. In the best of circumstances, these narratives flatten the figure of the Chinese worker abroad into that of an agent unwittingly promoting the agenda of the Chinese Party-State abroad; in the worst, they frame these overseas Chinese labourers as criminals. In so doing, the complex dilemmas that these workers face, their inner conflicts and the rights violations that they themselves are subjected to go unnoticed. This issue challenges these prejudices and provides some glimpses into the subjectivities and the plight of Chinese workers toiling abroad today.
Details
- ISSN (print):
- 2652-6352
- ISSN (online):
- 2206-9119
- Publication date:
- Feb 2021
- Imprint:
- ANU Press
- DOI:
- http://doi.org/10.22459/MIC.05.03.2020
- Journal:
- Made in China Journal
- Disciplines:
- Business & Economics; Social Sciences: Politics & International Studies, Social Policy & Administration
- Countries:
- East Asia: China
PDF Chapters
Made in China Journal: Volume 5, Issue 3, 2020 »
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Op-ed
- Fear in the Classroom: How Hong Kong’s National Security Law Suppresses Academic and Intellectual Freedom (PDF, 3.3MB) – Shui-yin Sharon Yam doi
China Columns
- Medical Disturbances as a Form of Patient Activism in China? (PDF, 0.4MB) – Xiao Tan and Tianyang Liu doi
- The Chongqing Model One Decade On (PDF, 1.9MB) – Yueran Zhang doi
Focus
- Migration and the Globalisation of Chinese Capital (PDF, 0.7MB) – Nyĺri Pál doi
- Africa Drifters (PDF, 0.6MB) – Miriam Driessen doi
- Doing Time, Making Money at a Chinese State Firm in Angola (PDF, 0.3MB) – Cheryl Mei-ting Schmitz doi
- The Double-Tongued Dilemma: Translating Chinese Workers’ Relations in Mongolia (PDF, 1.1MB) – Zhu Ruiyi doi
- Building the New Macau: A Portrait of Chinese Construction Workers in Sihanoukville (PDF, 0.9MB) – Ivan Franceschini doi
- Redefining ‘Labour’ Migration from a Sino-Japanese Perspective (PDF, 0.5MB) – Jamie Coates doi
- Encounter Ethnography and Making the ‘Made in Italy’ Brand: Chinese Migrant Experiences (PDF, 0.3MB) – Elizabeth L. Krause doi
- Legal Remedies for China’s Overseas Workers (PDF, 0.3MB) – Aaron Halegua and Xiaohui Ban doi
Forum
- Transformation of Shen Kong Borderlands (PDF, 1.2MB) – Mary Ann O’Donnell, Jonathan Bach and Denise Y. Ho doi
- Hong Kong, China: The Border as Palimpsest (PDF, 1.3MB) – Denise Y. Ho doi
- Embodied Borders: The Sino-British Maritime Frontier, 1950–1957 (PDF, 1.2MB) – Alice Du Liangliang doi
- From the Third Front to the Second Line: The Construction Soldiers of Shenzhen (PDF, 0.7MB) – Taomo Zhou doi
- Border at the Centre of Myth: Fishing Village, Caiwuwei, Shenzhen (PDF, 1.3MB) – Na Fu doi
- Narrating Mobility as an Achievement on the Shenzhen–Hong Kong Border (PDF, 0.7MB) – Dodom Kim doi
- The Enduring Importance of Space Within a Virtual Border: The Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s Trading Hall (PDF, 0.3MB) – Sben Korsh doi
- Politically Correct Masks: Navigating the China–Hong Kong Border During COVID-19 (PDF, 1.7MB) – Xin Sun doi
- Border as Sluice: Towards a Cultural Geography of the Shen Kong Borderlands (PDF, 0.5MB) – Jonathan Bach and Mary Ann O’Donnell doi
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