Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T15:19:53.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Migration and Popular Resistance in Rural China: Wukan and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2017

Yao Lu ,
Wenjuan Zheng  and
Wei Wang
Yao Lu*
Affiliation:
Columbia University.
Wenjuan Zheng
Affiliation:
CUNY Graduate Center.
Wei Wang
Affiliation:
University of Southern California.
*
Email: yl2479@columbia.edu (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study draws on a case study of Wukan and interviews with migrants and peasants in other sites to examine how migration shapes popular resistance in migrant-sending communities (i.e. rural China). Findings demonstrate multidimensional roles played by migrants and returned migrants who act as a vehicle of informational and ideological transmission and at times directly participate in or even lead rural resistance in origin communities. Both the transmission and participation processes foster political consciousness and action orientations among peasants. The importance of migrants is exemplified in the Wukan protests but is also found in other settings under study. In general, migrants represent a latent political force that acts upon serious grievances back home. The findings provide a useful lens for understanding the diffusion of popular resistance and the linkage between urban and rural activism in China.

摘要

通过对乌坎事件的个案研究和对多个省市农民及农民工的访谈, 本文旨在探讨农民工对其流出地 (中国农村) 民众抗争的影响。通过研究发现农民工并非完全脱离其流出地, 而是在农村抗争中发挥了多重作用。他们向农村社区传递新信息和新观念, 有时返乡参与或领导村民抗争。农民工的传播和参与有助于提升农民的权利意识和政治参与。他们的作用在乌坎事件中尤为显著, 但并非局限于乌坎。总而言之, 农民工是一股不可忽视的潜在政治力量, 尤其当流出地出现土地纠纷等情况, 他们的作用即有可能被激发。本文提供了一个理解中国民众抗争的传播以及城市与农村抗争之间关联的视角。

Keywords

migrationmigrantspopular resistanceprotestrural ChinaWukan迁移农民工抗争抗议农村乌坎
Type
Section on Rural China
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 229 , March 2017 , pp. 1 - 22
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bernstein, Thomas P., and Lü, Xiaobo. 2003. Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2010. Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chan, Chris King-Chi, and Pun, Ngai. 2009. “The making of a new working class? A study of collective actions of migrant workers in South China.” The China Quarterly 198, 287–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Kam Wing. 2013. “China: internal migration.” In The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration. Blackwell Publishing online. DOI: 10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
China Digital Times . 2014. “Wukan youth: Zhang Jianxing,” 19 June, http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/06/wukan-youth/. Accessed 15 January 2015.Google Scholar
Démurger, Sylvie, and Xu, Hui. 2011. “Return migrants: the rise of new entrepreneurs in rural China.” World Development 39(10), 1847–61.Google Scholar
Eng, Irene, and Lin, Yi-Min. 2002. “Religious festivities, communal rivalry, and restructuring of authority relations in rural Chaozhou, Southeast China.” The Journal of Asian Studies 61(4), 1259–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Givan, Rebecca Kolins, Roberts, Kenneth M. and Soule, Sarah A.. 2010. “Introduction: the dimensions of diffusion.” In Kolins Givan, Rebecca, Roberts, Kenneth M. and Soule, Sarah A. (eds.), The Diffusion of Social Movements: Actors, Mechanisms, and Political Effects. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1–15.Google Scholar
He, Shenjing, and Xue, Desheng. 2014. “Identity building and communal resistance against landgrabs in Wukan village, China.” Current Anthropology 55(S9), S126–S137.Google Scholar
Hu, Feng, Xu, Zhaoyuan and Chen, Yuyu. 2011. “Circular migration, or permanent stay? Evidence from China's rural–urban migration.” China Economic Review 22(1), 64–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, Andrew. 2011. “Chinese village of Wukan locked in rebellion against authorities,” The New York Times, 14 December, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/asia/chinese-village-locked-in-rebellion-against-authorities.html. Accessed 15 December 2014.Google Scholar
Kolo, K., and Zhang, Shuijie. 2012. “Wukan: citizens fight to keep land,” Human Rights in China, 18 December, http://www.hrichina.org/en/crf/article/6454. Accessed 20 November 2014.Google Scholar
Kong, Sherry Tao, Meng, Xin and Zhang, Dandan. 2010. “The global financial crisis and rural–urban migration.” In Garnaut, Ross, Golley, Jane and Song, Ligang (eds.), China: The Next Twenty Years of Reform and Development. Canberra: The Australian National University, 241–265.Google Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan. 2007. Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Lianjiang. 2010. “Rights consciousness and rules consciousness in contemporary China.” The China Journal 64, 47–68.Google Scholar
Li, Lianjiang, and O'Brien, Kevin J.. 2008. “Protest leadership in rural China.” The China Quarterly 193, 1–23.Google Scholar
Liang, Zai, Li, Zhen and Ma, Zhongdong. 2014. “Changing patterns of the floating population in China, 2000–2010.” Population and Development Review 40(4), 695–716.Google Scholar
Lie, Anne Christine. 2014. “Rethinking Rural Resistance in China: A Case Study of the 2011 Wukan Incident in Guangdong Province.” M.A. Thesis, University of Oslo.Google Scholar
Liu, Jun. 2015. “The dynamics of real-time contentious politics: how ubiquitous internet shapes and transforms popular protests in China.” In Bechmann, Anja and Lomborg, Stine (eds.), The Ubiquitous Internet: User and Industry Perspectives London: Routledge, 74–96.Google Scholar
Liu, Li-Juan, and Guo, Qiang. 2007. “Loneliness and health-related quality of life for the empty nest elderly in the rural area of a mountainous county in China.” Quality of Life Research 16(8), 1275–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance in the Chinese Countryside. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J. 2009. “A new rights consciousness?” Journal of Democracy 20(3), 17–20.Google Scholar
Qiu, Jack Linchuan. 2009. Working-class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-less in Urban China. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy J. 1999. “Citizenship issues in China's internal migration: comparisons with Germany and Japan.” Political Science Quarterly 114, 455–478.Google Scholar
Tang, Wenfang, and Yang, Qing. 2008. “The Chinese urban caste system in transition.” The China Quarterly 196, 759–779.Google Scholar
Tomba, Luigi. 2005. “Residential space and collective interest formation in Beijing's housing disputes.” The China Quarterly 184, 934–951.Google Scholar
Waldinger, Roger. 2015. The Cross-border Connection: Immigrants, Emigrants, and their Homelands. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Jianhua. 2011. “Mobilizing on the internet and the protest of foundry workers.” Open Times 11, 114–128.Google Scholar
Wong, Edward. 2011. “Canny Wukan villagers grasp keys to loosen China's muzzle,” The New York Times, 22 December, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/world/asia/canny-wukan-villagers-grasp-keys-to-loosen-chinas-muzzle.html. Accessed 15 December 2014.Google Scholar
Yang, Guobin. 2009. The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Zeng, Zhimin. 2013. “Wukan: the whole story.” The China Nonprofit Review 5, 17–101.Google Scholar
Zhang, Isabelle. 2012. “Wukan – a symbol of popular resistance,” 24 March, http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article2548. Accessed 31 October 2015.Google Scholar
Zhang, Wu. 2015. “Protest leadership and state boundaries: protest diffusion in contemporary China.” The China Quarterly 222, 360–379.Google Scholar
Zhu, Yu. 2007. “China's floating population and their settlement intention in the cities: beyond the Hukou reform.” Habitat International 31(1), 65–76.Google Scholar