The new Chinese working class in the globalized world: a response to Ngai Pun
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The new Chinese working class in the globalized world: a response to Ngai Pun Simeng Wang 1
# Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
This commentary on Pun Ngai’s forum statement focuses on several questions that her insights provoke. These questions relate to the role played by media in the mobilizations, regional differences amongst participants, the relationship between anti-foreign and anticapitalist sentiment, and also the sociological background of student radicals. Keywords Commentary . Chinese . Working class . Globalization Ngai Pun gives us a fascinating historical reading on the formations of the Chinese working class. She focuses on how the working class in contemporary China has been reconfigured over last few decades. By distinguishing the generations of the working class, her analysis sheds light on several central questions that have emerged in contemporary Chinese society since 1980s: the evolution of employment in public/private sectors; agrarian reforms; the democratization of education; individualization; political voices and fights for social justice among subordinate people; and social inequality exacerbated by rural-urban dichotomy. As described by the author, deep mutations in the composition of Chinese working class are the result of the shift from “Made in China” to “innovation in China.” Linked to the shifts across the globe to an increasing focus on services and less on industry, in China, this means encouraging both labor-intensive manufacturing and scientific innovation. Workers in this new economy are required to be more skilled and highly educated people. Given such characteristics of new Chinese workers, the collective action and political claims they make will also be modified accordingly. Ngai Pun illustrates these modifications by focusing on a variety of mobilizations carried out by the new laboring class: strikes, defiance, suicides, street actions, demonstrations, often “accompanied by a strong antiforeign capital sentiment” (p. 12). I wonder here if the author would like to talk about specially the “anti-foreign capital sentiment,” or more broadly the “anti-capitalism sentiment.” Also, during these collective actions of the new Chinese working class, are there any links and
* Simeng Wang [email protected]
1
The French National Centre for Scientific Research – CNRS, Paris, France
S. Wang
networks between the latter and foreign syndical associations, international NGOs or foreign media? She might address how these connections change the ways in which the new Chinese working class is able to mobilize and voice their demands? More generally, with the democratization of smartphone, what is the role played by the new media in the radicalization and collective actions? In capturing recent collective actions of the new Chinese working class, Ngai Pun might also offer some insights on whether there are any geographical differences, in terms of locality of struggle (North vs. South China, as well as other areas in the vicinity of special economic zones). Through the case studies
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