Comments on: Migrant Worker Blogger

By: A migrant worker… with a blog | China Hope Live

A migrant worker… with a blog | China Hope Live — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:55:51 +0000

[...] A Mainlander’s take (in English): Migrant Worker Blogger [...]

By: Debbie

Debbie — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:21:46 +0000

omg - Michael Jackson has died

By: Jenny Zhu

Jenny Zhu — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:28:32 +0000

@pketh,
Hukou (residential registration) certainly contributes to the division of ‘outsiders’ and ‘insiders’, especially during periods of planned economy where people could not move freely. Therefore, being able to move and obtain hukou in a city like Beijing or Shanghai had enormous status value. But now, the rules have been considerably loosened. Many people who live and thrive in big cities don’t have the local hukou. I would say that now hukou carries less status than it used to. What draws the line is a combination of where one was born and his current socio-economic status.

By: pketh

pketh — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:09:49 +0000

Does anyone think that this is also connected to the ingrained hukou system? Where - perhaps even though instituted with good intentions - the line is institutionally drawn between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, which has led to this ‘us’ versus ‘them’ kind of action and outlook in Chinese society?

By: Magnus

Magnus — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:57:25 +0000

So… his name is Wan Xiao Dong but the blog you posted is Wan Renping… but it goes to his blog. Strange.

Could you post a specific link to those articles where he says, DON’T MARRY A CITY GIRL… etc. That would be helpful since reading Chinese would take me…. FOREVER!

Jenny, seriously do a series of these CHINESE BLOGGERS. This is really interesting to all of us I’m sure.

ps. blogging is still important. You could write all you did above in a tweet…

By: Colin Jacobs

Colin Jacobs — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:16:30 +0000

Another really interesting post.

I think one of the themes that crops up in Western reporting about China is that of “simmering tensions” - tensions between the peasantry and local officials, tension between the cities and rural areas, tension between residents and migrant workers. There seems to be a lot of truth to this, and I’m tempted in my ignorance to see a connection between this and the central government’s continued (almost Confucian) obsession with “harmony”. What do you think?

The urban disdain for the mingong is not hard to understand. It can be witnessed in any country where populations and economic inequality mix. Do the residents of Beverley Hills feel any contempt for the illiterate Mexican watering their lawns than a Shanghainese might feel for the Anhui labourer carting away their trash? This isn’t only a Chinese problem, but it’s on a much larger scale. The stakes are certainly higher.

Only question, how representative of this underclass can a web-savvy blogger actually be?