Intra-Social Disparities in Contemporary China - Research Paper Example

? A STUDY OF THE URBAN-TO-RURAL MIGRATION: INTRA-SOCIAL DISPARITIES IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA Introduction My paper essentially seeks to examine the current rural-urban dichotomy and migratory1 trends and development in contemporary China, through an inter-textual, inter-cultural and socio-economic analysis with certain political and socio-historical references. Post 19492, China’s history records a radical change in terms of its regional and intra-social politics. Especially, significant are the large-scale migrations of rural population to the fast developing urban settings and the consequent socio-cultural ramifications of such development. My focus will remain largely on the effects and defects of these past and present trends urbanization and village-to-city migration defection. In this context, I will also give particular focus upon the relatively new research done on the position and plight of migrant women in the social structure of the modern, urbanized, industrial China, in broad reference to the central issue of migration. My topic will refer particularly to the works of contemporary urban and social theorists like Martin King Whyte, Wu Jieh-Min, Arianne M. Gaetano and Tamara Acka, among others. I will also consult authoritative government demographic reports and journals to expand the purview of my research and present a comprehensive analysis of the same. Urban-Rural Relations: A Brief Look into the Past The Maoist revolution of China, spanning the 1950s, led by the dynamic leader Mao Zedong, as well as the related economic reforms of 1966-78, had aimed to create a society of equals replacing a dense capitalist system of greed, corruption and exploitation. One the iconic and historically significant socialist uprisings, it had ventured to establish a communist and ‘egalitarian social order’(Whyte 2010). There existed, however a large gap between theory and reality. Instead, of stabilizing and equalizing the various social strata by creating an economic and cultural balance of sorts, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution deepened the gulf between the social classes and created a kind of politicized ‘serfdom’ that kept China away from an ideal communist reconfiguration of the society. (Whyte 2010) Migration and Intra-social Disparities The post-Mao era saw an unprecedented influx of rural migrants to the rapidly developing cities and urban centers of flourishing business, creating a cheap labor force. This rural to urban defection of poor Chinese laborers, especially during the 1980s, can be cited as the most extensive labor flow in the history of the world (Zhao 1999) This proved to be both an economic blessing as well as an indicator of social upheaval. The Rural migration to the urban area of China has been the focus of several social, cultural as well as demographic and anthropological studies. In 1992, records indicate that a staggering 150,000 people were stranded in the railway stations of the Sichuan and Hunan provinces during the ‘Spring Festival Migration’. (Bakken 1998) Laborers from flooded and poverty-stricken rural regions also defected for shelter and jobs to Shanghai, Fujian or other wealthy cities. Under the strict social and political system of hukou or householder registration, they existed mainly as second-class citizens, even outcasts, as Wu Jieh-min pertinently points out in her essay “Rural Migrant Workers and China’s Differential Citizenship” (2010). Due to the government restriction on rural to urban migration, a deep economic disparity developed between the two. As a result, a trend of added incentives attracted rural migrants illegally to the large industrial cities. While the labor source was fully utilized by the greedy and profit driven industries, factories, conglomerates and corporations, however, the socio-cultural history as well as economic and political evidence suggest systematic marginalization. The differential system of perception is a sad reality in the lives of the Chinese migrant families. Case in point, the unequal system of hukou has persisted well into the present and become a monolithic part of the current Chinese society. The socio-cultural implications of the system had also survived along with the practice. In 1982, certain measures and decrees were implemented that intended to drive the homeless migrant population to their previous inhabits, without recurring the cost of housing them or degrading the aesthetics and sanitation of the cities. While, the lucrative promise of employments drew thousands of labor force into the industrial areas, and the state economy demanded the aid of this ‘floating’ population, there was a social reluctance to allow these workers to share the profits and fruits of their labor. Over five decades ago, Chinese social anthropologist Fei Xiaotong had noted this different mode of intra-social association in China. In Fei’s conception, traditional china had a deeply authoritative social structure that did not permit universal rights to all its subjects, as opposed to the more emancipated Western society. Furthermore, a familial line secured the rights of a person. In both terms, the migrant, un-assimilated population of workers were culturally ostracized and forced into the background of the social scene (Jieh-min 2010). The contemporary scene does not, unfortunately, exhibit any significant difference. The migrants are still pushed to a subliminal position in the society, to endure a kind of cultural segregation without any permanent state aids or legal and social remedies. Hierarchical relational dynamics between the urban population and the rural defectors are marked by a kind of potent socio-cultural tension that often find expression in intermittent acts of violence and segregating politics. Despite, the equality of legalities and rights ensured to the rural migrants by the present Constitution of China, the social reality show a alarming tendency to breach certain basic rights like the right to movement, the right to residence, the freedom to choose one’s employment, or even the right to unfettered justice or education. (Jieh-min 2010) The promise of equal treatment, unbiased justice and protection, as proclaimed by the Chinese Constitution, are never fully realized in the lives of a large section of the national population. Migration, Women and Gender Issues The current demographic estimate of the migrant population in China number to above 100 million and a remarkably sizeable portion of these migrating peasants are women. Thus, issue of gender disparities becomes a significant feature of studying the trend of urban-to-rural migration and the related intra-social dynamics. In this context, I wish to examine the reasons behind the widespread rural migration of peasant women. Rampant and violent patriarchal oppression and gender disparities are, of course, the primary driving force behind the large-scale migration of women to urban set ups. The high suicide rates among young rural women points at the abysmal conditions under which they are forced to live. Economic independence, thus holds a special lure to the rural women population, which accounts for their tendency to migrate. The promise of employment gives them a kind of liberation, a certain sense of self-assertiveness from the oppressive dictates of the patriarchal familial orders, headed by the father or the husband. Migration offers them the right to make informed choices about their lives, a new sense of freedom to choose and build their own fates. Migration offers them a kind of dislocation from the deeply rooted patriarchy of the Chinese society, that harks back to the shibboleths of pre-modern, autocratic China, For these women, the facts suggest, not much has really changed since then. The hope of some form of economic, sexual and reproductive liberation thus holds a special pertinence to female section of the migrant population (Gaetano 2004). Gender oppression is not bound by any relational specificity. It exists in every society, in every culture and religion. Yet, the issue of migration and gender violations among rural Chinese women offers a relatively new vision of intra-social exploitation and disparities. While, migrants of both sexes are victims of segregation and unfair politics, women are doubly victimized, in terms of wage inequalities as well as sexual abuse, rape and physical exploitation. The differential economic gap along with the political dividers between urban and rural populations deter, even actively prevent, assimilation of the migrants and their integration into the larger socio-cultural scene. For a large number of migrant women, the time of defection generally between 15-35. (Gaetano and Acka 2004) This presents a particular complexity as traditionally women carry with them certain set, social expectations. Adolescent, young women are constantly put under societal as well as familial pressure to marry and dutifully present children to their husbands as norm and culture dictates. In several cases, therefore, the unmarried, young female migrants find themselves facing stringent opposition both from within and without. Rapes and sexual abuse are often culturally institutionalized and normalized through a shared socio-cultural patriarchal consent that regards women as male objects of desire and sexual property. A detached migrant woman existing on the fringes of the society, therefore, becomes an extremely easy target of such abuses. Justice, in most cases like these, is casually diverted from the victim who is systematically shamed and doubly marginalized. Some cultural theorists, however, take a more positive view of the situation. They believe that the female migrants returning to their rural homes after a period of urbanization will, in turn, positively influence the backward population in their villages through their acquired knowledge and liberated urbanized ideals. This, they believe, will help to counter, in some measure, the deep-seated patriarchy under which the women are traditionally oppressed. However, as Gaetano warns us, a synonymous association between the ideas of urban progressiveness and feminist or proto-feminist ideals can be essentially misleading and incorrect. Conclusion Alienation is perhaps the most pervasive aspect among the varied facets of migrant experience. Systematic exclusionary methods of socio-politic and cultural segregation are still rampant and seem to be the unalterable fate of the rural migrants. While efforts are being made to integrate these working forces within the urbanized dynamics of the modern Chinese society, not much has changed in the last few decades. In context of a globalized world, China continues to utilize and exploit its cheap labor sources from the rural interiors for economic gains, but where do these ‘floating’ men and women really stand in the contemporary social order? The intra-social dynamics, as explored in my paper, conjure a frightening picture. Their exploitation has taken many forms – social, economic, cultural, sexual, physical. The exploitative capitalist tactics of the urban industries do not end at these forms of abuse. In conclusion, however, it must be noted that, while the history of the Chinese urban-migrant relationship is not particularly reassuring, socio-political and economic reforms are being made and studies are in progress to counter this cultural evil. China hopes, in time, to achieve at least some kind of balance between its urban and the rural migrant population. References 1. Economic and the Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Reducing Disparities: Balanced Development of Urban and Rural Areas and Regions within the Countries of Asia and the Pacific. ST/ESCAP/2110. New York: United Nations Publications, 2001 2. Jieh-min, Wu. “Rural Migrant Workers and China’s Differential Citizenship”. One Country, Two Societies: Rural-urban Inequality in Contemporary China. Edited by Martin King Whyte. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010 3. Migration in China. Edited by Borge Bakken. Copenhagen:NIAS Press, 1998. 4. On the Move: Women and Rural-to-Urban Migration in Contemporary China. Edited by Arianne M. Gaetano and Tamara Acka. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004 5. Yumin, YE and Richard LeGates, Coordinating Urban and Rural Development in China: Learning from Chegendu. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013 6. Zhao, Yaohui. "Leaving the countryside: Rural-to-urban Migration Decisions in China." The American Economic Review 89, no. 2 (1999): 281-286. Read More