Migrant Labor in China

Pun Ngai is Associate Professor and Director of the China Research and Development Network at Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• MapChronologyAcknowledgements1. China and its Labor in the Neoliberal World2. Capital Meets State: Re-emergence of the Labor Market and Changing Labor Relations3. Building China: Struggle of Construction Workers4. Making and Unmaking of the New Chinese Working Class5. Spatial Politics: Production and Social Production of the Dormitory Labor Regime6. Monopoly Capital in China: Foxconn Experience and Chinese Workers7. Radicalization and Collective Action of the New Chinese Working ClassReferences

"This book lucidly exposes the underside of the Chinese economic miracle, revealing the plight of the migrant laborers who are part of the world's largest working class. Drawing on rich ethnographic data as well as careful political and economic analysis, Pun Ngai examines the conditions these workers face daily both on the job and in the dormitories. She also documents their recent radicalization and militancy, suggesting that, in China at least, working-class struggle is alive and well, contrary to popular belief. An authoritative overview that will be useful for students and general readers alike." Ruth Milkman, City University of New York "The re-making of the Chinese working class is one of the greatest stories of contemporary world history. With her well-grounded account of the struggles of migrant workers, Pun Ngai has given us a generous and insightful version of this vast transformation." Andrew Ross, New York University, author of Fast Boat to China: Lessons from Shanghai "In a series of engaged and engaging studies of China's massive transformation, Pun Ngai exposes the despotic worlds of dormitory regimes, militarized factories, and subcontracted workers, creating a terrifying vision of an insurgent proletariat. Anyone interested in the future of planet Earth must take her findings into account." Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley"Pun Ngai, one of the most cited scholars in this field, will again fascinate the readers with her recent book […]. Her book covers a topic that has received wide coverage, yet this work displays the vigour and passion of an activist scholar who used to complete her ethnography by working and living as a factory worker."Journal of Contemporary Asia”Stepping away from Marx’s classical approach of capitalist production, Pun Ngai employs cultural class analysis through a theoretical lens by situating her research in the working labourers’ living experience. This methodology provides a vivid portrait of the working labour of China.”Asian Journal of Social Science