Guest Editor's Introduction: Cultures of Labor and the Labor of Culture

Abstract

This special issue originates from the workshop “Cultures of Labor, Inequalities, and Eviction: Migrant Worker Literature and Media Practices in Contemporary China” held at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing in June 2019. The workshop brought together scholars and activists to discuss the ways in which migrant workers cope with dislocation and precarity through cultural practices such as writing, music, theater, and use of the internet and social media. By “cultures of labor” we meant the expressive forms and meaningmaking practices by and about those who are referred to or identify as “rural migrants” (nongmingong 农民工), “precarious laborers” (dagongzhe 打工者), or “new workers” (xin gongren 新工人): fluid, overlapping, and internally diverse categories characterized by conditions of subalternity largely due to exploitative labor relations and unfair distribution of rights rooted in the Chinese household registration system (hukou 户口) and