Migrants' dreams and technology - Tricia Wang

Sociologist Tricia Wang investigates the dreams and ambitions of migrants in China, and their usage of mobile phones and the internet. Agenda Beijing interviewed her on her findings and how her search fits into her own life. A snippet:

We’ve also seen one of the world’s most rapid expansions of mobile phones and Internet architectures in China, and the Chinese administration has successfully ensured that its digital revolution has reached an immense number of new users. This alone makes China an incredibly unique place to do for research on digital culture. 

What are some of these workers’ hopes and dreams? 

They actually share the same dreams with most people around the world: finding a stable job, meeting someone special, giving their parents a more comfortable life, and having opportunities to improve their life chances. This current period of development in China is like a big race to reach the dream of having a comfortable life, but not everyone has an equal start; people from villages and smaller cities face challenges that more long-settled or life-long urbanized people do not. 

Is technology the ticket into the middle-class for migrant workers? 

I wouldn’t say ever say that technology alone is the ticket for upward economic mobility—technology per se is almost never a silver bullet for economic development. However, I would say that digital technology is an important factor among many others such as social and economic stability, access to education, and health in helping migrants get ahead. 

In what ways do you see migrant workers’ constructing their own technological needs?   

I don’t necessarily see people constructing technology needs, but I see people constructing social needs and using technology to fulfill them. Young people (but not limited to them) want to feel validated. They want someone to listen to them, and to care about them. Deep friendships are created out of multi-player games. In the in-game chat or post-game chat on QQ, they are often willing to share really emotionally complex and deep things about themselves that they feel they can’t share with their offline friends or family.

More in Agenda Beijing

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Internet cafe's: alternative childcare for migrant workers - Tricia Wang

The China Digital Times points at research by sociologist Tricia Wang, in an article about the problems surrounding childcare for migrant workers. By lack of alternatives, internet cafe's have become an unlikely replacement for schools and other childcare. Earlier in TechRice:

Internet cafes are a huge phenomenon across China. They have a somewhat unsavory reputation as a place to play games or watch porn, but internet cafes serve as a second home or cheap child-care for some Chinese. This an older slideshare that I somehow missed, but an amazing look into the lives of many Chinese netizens.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Sleeping in Internet Cafes: The Next 300 Million Chinese Users [Annotated]

View more presentations from TechRice

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Rating the internet cafe's - Tricia Wang

Sociologist Tricia Wang researches mobile and internet behavior among China's migrant population and rates the many internet cafe's she visits between 1 and 10. Warm hot dogs are a plus, the protein of the internet cafe.

Some fieldnotes on her weblog:

Cafe rating - 8 stars: air-conditioned, requires identification cards and they appear to check them, no mosquitos or flies, keyboard and mouse appear to be clean, available warm food (hot dog in food display, bathroom located on same floor as cafe (2nd floor), cloth on chairs are in place, no nuts or food scattered on ground, the workers seems responsive when customers need help, cubicles in back appear ot be new

keyboards are not stained with dirt though the keyboards are black so it would be hard to see the dirt -but I don't see food encrusted in between the keys

estimate: total of 100-120 computers, 60 computers are being used with around 40 people playing games and 15 people watching videos and 5 people on websites browsing, 40 females and 20 males, I see 5-6 couples together, there are 2-3 people napping at all times

most customers playing games have a soft-drink or sugar beverage with them, some have lots of wrappers of candies and other snacks spread around their keyboard

within the last hour, two customers (one male & one female) bought 1 hot dog each, the meat is kept warm in a transparent plastic food display with a light, you can see the oil on the hot dog bubbling up, 1RMB each, customers went back to their computer and began playing their game, the female was playing a dancing/clothing game of some sort, male playing first person CS-like game..

More at her weblog.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Living as a migrant worker "Are we too dirty?" - Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang

Sociologist Tricia Wang is trying to blend in as a migrant working in Wuhan and reports on her weblog about her experiences. "Are we too dirty for your eyes?"

When we sat down on the empty seat, I accidentally lightly brushed my backpack against the man sitting to my left. I immediately apologized.  But he didn't respond, he just looked alarmed that I had touched him and gave me a glaring look that told me immediately that I shouldn't even be sitting near him. He wiped off the part of his arm that my bag had brushed as if I had dumped dirt on his suit.

His action alone made me super conscious of my physical condition -  the dirt on my toes, my oily face, and my blackened clothing from working with food vendors. I hadn't showered in two days and that's all I kept thinking after he looked at me.  I glanced around around and saw people staring at us. I immediately made a boundary in my head and called them "city people." As Yang Jie kept talking, I kept noticing the "city people" in their daily showered bodies, freshly washed clothing, and dirt-free toes.

I then received a text message so I pulled my phone out. I immediately noticed the man next to me look at me curiously - he saw that I not only had a smartphone, but probably what looked like a real iphone (it is a real iphone). I texted back to my friend in English, and this is when he became super aware that something was off - it's hard to explain the look on his face, but he just kept looking over my shoulder as if his eyeballs were going to pop out. He then looked at  Yang Jie up and down and then at me up and down.

The more he looked, the more I just glared at him and the more upset I became. I wanted to say out loud, "what are you looking at? Do you have a problem? Aren't we too dirty for your eyes?"  But I was with Yang Jie and I didn't want to make a scene. I'm sure she receives this kind of treatment every day and she has learned to ignore it. It angered me that I could feel his judgement seeping onto me, and I could feel that the minute he saw me texting in English his level of disdain at me decrease. Texting in English in combination with owning an iphone are signifiers of an education and he picked up on it immediately.

More, including a fast growing number of comments, at Tricia Wang's weblog.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Wage inequality root of unrest - Wang Jianmao

Wang Jianmao

Increased social unrest is triggered off by the huge wage inequality in the country, tells CEIBS professor Wang Jianmao in the Australian news paper The National.

While official figures are hard to come by, "the people realise the situation is very bad", says Wang Jianmao, a professor of economics at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. Prof Wang partly blames China's model of development for the extent of inequality.

"The emphasis so much is, for example, on manufacturing and investment [but] services are underdeveloped," he says. "We ensure that capital can always get very high returns. We fail to generate enough jobs. That has suppressed the labour income."

While in the cities there is an income gap between many of China's 230 million migrant workers and the better-off locally registered residents, a key factor in inequality is the urban-rural divide.

More in The National.

Professor Wang Jianmao is a speaker at the Chinese Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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The fading line between graduates and migrant workers - Zhang Juwei

Zhang Juwei

More graduates take up jobs that do not require education, while more migrant workers have a college education, tells professor Zhang Juwei of the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing in PhBeta. "Demand and supply of the labor market are imbalanced.

“The largest group of graduates who’ve taken up jobs that do not require a college diploma has grow to be blue-collar workers,” says Zhang, who has been studying the labor difficulties in the country for a lengthy time. “Many other graduates have entered simple service sectors like security and housekeeping.”
Disproportionate availability of jobs across industries is the prime trigger of the trend, he says. The number of students graduating from colleges multiplied from 3.3 million in 2005 to 5.59 million in 2008. The graduates typically are employed in service sectors and function at office.

Zhang says the country’s relatively backward economic structure and inferior position in the world industrial chain is the trigger of this imbalance. China’s economic growth has relied heavily on the second industry(manufacturing and construction), which accounts for about half of the total economic output, while the tertiary industry accounts for only about 40 percent, significantly lower than in most developed countries.

Besides, China is still downstream in the global industrial chain, which deprives it of creating numerous jobs. “Many job opportunities including designing, analysis and development, and marketplaceing appeal to and will need individuals with higher qualifications but they’re not properly or adequately distributed in China, for several goods produced here are designed abroad.”

Take iPhone for instance. While foreign designers and researchers function out the best way to add value to the product and attract far more customers, Chinese workers only assemble and package them. That is why college graduates might have fewer opportunities in China than abroad. Having compared Chinese and foreign college graduates, Zhang discovered that much less than 3 percent of the country’s graduates are likely to begin their own business compared with 20 percent in developed countries. That dries up a lot of job opportunities, due to the fact if one individual starts a business, he/she could provide employment to numerous other people.

More in PhBeta.

Zhang Juwei is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

Hardship in China, and how to survive - Helen Wang

Helen Wang

Helen Wang publishes a chapter from her book on de hardship of migrant workers in China's big cities. And how they plan to pull themselves out of this misery, keeping faith in the future.

“Is that what you plan to do—become a manager?” I asked.
“Maybe,” he said. Then he added, “Well, in a few years, I may start my own business. Zhu Guofan encourages us to start our own businesses. He said he would help us. There are many opportunities.”
“Is it hard for you, leaving home and working in a big city like Beijing?” I was still probing for some sign of dissatisfaction or bitterness.
He looked at me, with a sparkle in his eyes, and said, “Only if you endure the hardship of hardships will you become the man above men” (a well-known Chinese saying)...

"When I read the story of a young American woman selling her ova for $7,000 in order to pay off her credit cards, I kept thinking about young women I met in China. They earned about $100 a month, yet saved 80 percent of their incomes to help pay for their siblings’ education."

More stories on her weblog, and of course in the book The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your conference or meeting, do get in touch.

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Migrant workers turned into online video hit

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