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China's Contentious Pensioners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2002

William Hurst  and
Kevin J. O'Brien
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Abstract

China has seen a surge of working class protests in recent years. Many of these have involved retirees. Pensioners are found to be particularly prone to take to the streets because their grievances are intense and are widely perceived to be legitimate, they are “biographically available,” and they often feel nostalgic for aspects of the Maoist past. Their actions also display elements of moral economic resistance. This article draws on the available literature as well as interviews with 30 workers, retirees, laid-off workers, managers and local officials in five cities.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 170 , June 2002 , pp. 345 - 360
Copyright
© The China Quarterly, 2002

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Footnotes

This article benefited from the assistance of many Chinese friends and colleagues in Benxi, Datong, Shanghai, Chongqing and Beijing. Marc Blecher, Kenneth Foster, Ching Kwan Lee, Lianjiang Li, Xiaobo Lü, Elizabeth Perry, Matthew Rudolph, Dorothy Solinger and Kevin Wallsten also offered helpful comments. For their generous financial support, we would like to thank the Institute of East Asian Studies and Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California-Berkeley, the Yanjing Institute at Harvard University, Beijing University, the University of Hawaii, the National Security Education Program, and the Fulbright Institute of International Education Program.