Labor migration, gender, and the rise of Neo-Local marriages in the economic boomtown of Dongguan, South China

Journal of Contemporary China

Volumn 18, Issue 61, 2009, Pages 639-656

  Zhang, Hong ^a  

^a Colby Humanities Division Travel Grants ^*  (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC GROWTH; GENDER ROLE; LABOR MARKET; LABOR MIGRATION; MARRIAGE; MIGRANTS EXPERIENCE; RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION;

ASIA; CHINA; DONGGUAN; EURASIA; FAR EAST; GUANGDONG; ZHUJIANG DELTA;

EID: 70450159918     PISSN: 10670564     EISSN: 14699400     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10670560903033935     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Cindy Fan, 'The transitional state, rural-urban migration and gender division of labor in China', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27(1), (2003), pp. 24-47.
2. Cindy Fan, 'Out to the city and back to the village: the experiences and contributions of rural women migrating from Sichuan and Anhui', in Arianne M. Gaetano and Tamara Jacka, eds, On the Move: Women in Rural-to-Urban Migration in Contemporary China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), pp. 177-206.
3. Louise Beynon, 'Dilemmas of the heart: rural working women and their hopes for the future', in Gaetano and Jacka, eds, On the Move, pp. 131-150.
4. Yixi Huang, 'Divided gender, divided women: state policy and the labor market', in Jackie West, Zhao Minghua and Cheng Yuan, eds, Women of China: Economic and Social Transformation (London: Macmillan, 1999), pp. 90-107.
5. Rachel Murphy, How Migrant Labor is Changing Rural China (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
6. Shen Tan, 'The relationship between foreign enterprises, local governments, and women migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta', in Loraine A. West and Yaohui Zhao, eds, Rural Labor Flows in China (Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Press, 2000), pp. 292-309.
7. Hairong Yan, 'Spectralization of the rural: reinterpreting the labor mobility of rural young women in post-Mao China', American Ethnologist 30(4), (2003), pp. 579-594.
8. Huang, 'Divided gender, divided women', p. 98.
9. Fan, 'Out to the city and back to the village', pp. 199-203.
10. Christina Gilmartin and Lin Tan, 'Fleeing poverty: rural women, expanding marriage markets, and strategies for social mobility in contemporary China', in Esther Ngan-ling Chow, ed., Transforming Gender and Development in East Asia (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 203-216.
11. Lin Tan and Susan Short, 'Living as double outsiders: migrant women's experiences of marriage in a county-level city', in Gaetano and Jacka, eds, On the Move, pp. 151-176.
12. Laurel Bossen, 'Village to distant village: the opportunities and risks of long-distance marriage migration in rural China', Journal of Contemporary China 16(50), (2007), pp. 97-116.
13. Li Tao, 'Kuaye yu fenlie: eryuan jiegouzhong de chengxiang lianyin' ['Bridging and rupturing: urban-rural marriages in a dual social system'], in Xie Lihua, ed., Huji zhidu yu nuxing liudong [Household Registration System and Female Migrants] (Guizhou People's Press, 2002), pp. 119-139.
14. Zhou Haiwang, 'Shanghai Wailaixi jiqi zinu de hukou zhengce yanjiu' ['A research on the household registration policy on married women of rural origin and their children in Shanghai'], in Xie Lihua, ed., Huji zhidu yu nuxing liudong, pp. 140-152.
15. Li Tao, 'Kuaye yu fenlie', pp. 130-131.
16. Zhou Haiwang, 'Shanghai Wailaixi jiqi zinu de hukou zhengce yanjiu', p. 143.
17. Tan and Short, 'Living as double outsiders', pp. 162-168.
18. Delia Davin, Internal Migration in Contemporary China (London: Macmillan and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), p. 77.
19. Bossen, 'Village to distant village', pp. 107-114.
20. Kenneth Roberts, Rachel Connelly, Zhenming Xie and Zhenzhen Zheng, 'Patterns of temporary labor migration of rural women from Anhui and Sichuan', The China Journal 52, (July 2004), pp. 49-70.
21. One was the above-mentioned Hong Kong-owned factory which specializes in manufacturing network cables in Qingxi township of Dongguan, the second one was a Taiwan-owned shoe factory in Gaobu township, and the third one was a joint venture company manufacturing circuit boards for computers and cell phones in Dongguan city district.
22. The demographic features based on my sample reflect data on migrant workers who work in the manufacturing sector. In Dongguan, many migrants also engage in retail, restaurants, transportation, and other service sectors. This current study does not cover those types of migrants.
23. Some couples were married prior to their labor migration to Dongguan. These couples had a post-marital home in their hometown. However, I still include them in neo-local marriages since they set up another post-marital home in Dongguan.
24. Dongguan Yearbooks (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005). Available at: http://history.dg.gov.cn/DgNet/book/index.htm.
25. In her study of female migrant workers in Shenzhen in the early 1990s, Lee also noted that 'interprovincial dating' occurred among migrant workers. See Ching Kwan Lee, 'Engendering the world of labor: women workers, labor markets, and production politics in the South China economic miracle', American Sociological Review 60, (1995), p. 386.
26. See Tiejun Cheng and Mark Selden, 'The origin and social consequences of China's hukou system', China Quarterly 139, (1994), pp. 644-668.
27. Kam Wing Chan, Cities with Invisible Walls (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1994).
28. Dorothy J. Solinger, Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999).
29. Arianne Gaetano, 'Filial daughters, modern women: migrant domestic workers in post-Mao China', in Gaetano and Jacka, eds, On the Move, pp. 41-79.
30. Feng Wang, Zuo Xuejin and Ruan Danching, 'Rural migrants in Shanghai: living under the shadow of socialism', International Migration Review 36(2), (2002), pp. 520-545.
31. Li Zhang, Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China's Floating Population (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001).
32. For Beijing data, see Beijing Statistical Information Net, http://www.bjstats.gov.cn/tslm/sjbjrk/rkml/200208080011.htm.
33. For Shanghai data, see http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjgb/rkpcgb/dfrkpcgb/t20020331_15423.htm.
34. Referring to 'three processing imports and one compensation', 'sanlai yibu' is a form of business where the Chinese firms process raw materials on the client's demand, assembling parts for the client, processing according to the client's samples, and receive compensation trade in exporting the finished products. The compensation trade was adopted in the early reform phase up to the 1980s when the special economic zones areas were created.
35. Guojia laodong shehui baozhang bu [Ministry of Labour and Social Security], Guanyu Mingong duanque baogao [Investigation Report on Labor Shortage] (2004), available at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2004-09/08/content_1957487.htm. According to this government report, low wages, poor working conditions in the Pearl River Delta, better jobs and pay in the lower Yangtze Delta, and an increase in farmers' income, were among the factors causing the labor shortage in the Pearl River Delta and other coastal areas. The labor shortage in the Pearl River Delta and coastal areas has been widely reported in the media since the second half of 2004.
36. See Peter Goodman, 'In China's cities, a turn from factories: labor pool shifts as urban workers seek better lives', Washington Post, (25 September 2004).
37. Alexandra Harney, 'Going home: Chinese migrant workers shun long factory hours and low pay', Financial Times, (2 November 2004).
38. Jim Yardley and David Barboza, 'Help wanted: China finds itself with a labor shortage', The New York Times, (3 April 2005).
39. Goodman, 'In China's cities, a turn from factories'.
40. Huang Zhaocun and Qin Yingfu, 'Wailai dagong fufu zhongke tongchuanggongmian' ['Migrant couples can finally share the same bed'], Yangcheng wanbao [Yangcheng Evening], (18 July 2005).
41. Han Chengliang, 'Aichao: Humen dagong fuqi fang' ['Lovers' nest: conjugal homes for migrant couples in Humen'], Nanfang Dushibao [Southern Metropolitan Daily], (17 October 2005).
42. Li Yingmin, 'Xingfu guanhua jin qiye, Dongguan fenjian wailaigong fuqifang' ['Dongguan companies turn their attention to "sex happiness", and have began to build "rooms for migrant couples"'], Zhongxinshe [China News], available at: http://www.chinanews.com.cn//news/2006/2006-02-23/8/694104.shtml.
43. Huang and Qin, 'Wailai dagong fufu zhongke tongchuanggongmian'.
44. Li, 'Xingfu guanhua jin qiye, Dongguan fenjian wailaigong fuqifang'.
45. Fei Guo and Zhanxi Zhang, 'Rural migrants and shantytown communities in Chinese cities', in The Proceedings of ACESA 2006 International Conference: Emerging China: Internal Challenges and Global Implications, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne (2006).
46. Murphy, How Migrant Labor is Changing Rural China.
47. Martin K. Whyte and William L. Parish, Urban Life in Contemporary China (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984).
48. Albert I. Hermalin and Shiauping R. Shih, 'Support received by the elderly in Baoding: the view from two generations', in Martin K. Whyte, ed., China's Revolutions and Intergenerational Relations (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2003), pp. 121-141.
49. Martin Whyte and Qin Xu, 'Support for aging parents from daughters versus sons', in Whyte, ed., China's Revolutions and Intergenerational Relations, pp. 167-195.
50. Hong Zhang, 'China's new rural daughters coming of age: downsizing the family and firing up cash earning power in the new economy', Signs, Journal of Women in Culture and Society 32(3), (2007), pp. 671-698.
51. Wu et al., 'Wailaigong zinu: li pingdeng jiaoyu jiujing duoyuan?' ['Migrants' children: how far away are they from enjoying equal rights to education?'], Xinhua Focus, (29 March 2005), available at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/focus/2005-03/29/content_2753912.htm.
52. 'Dongguan: youxu jian minxiao, huiji xin guanren' ['Dongguan: set up privately-run schools in an orderly way to benefit new Dongguan people'], Yangcheng Wanbao [Yangcheng Evening News], (4 September 2007).
53. Ching Kwan Lee, Against the Law: Labor Protest in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007), p. 230.
54. Lee, 'Engendering the world of labor', p. 385.
55. Zai Liang and Yiu Por Chen, 'Migration, gender and return to education in Shenzhen, China', in Brígida Garcia, Richard Anker and Antonella Pinnelli, eds, Women in the Labour Market in Changing Economies: Demographic Issues (London: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 184-206.