Getting by in Urban China Sociality, gender and political identity among migrant petty entrepreneurs

Abstract

This thesis examines the social lives and subjectivity of domestic migrant vendors at a night market located at the urban rim of Nanjing city, China. The thesis asks what kinds of social connections (guanxi) are produced when migrant vendors try to adapt to city lives. The effective cultivation of guanxi is vital for migrant vendors, or household-based producers (getihu) to get a foothold and profit in the local market, particularly when general environs and local conditions brought about by contemporary urban transformations are unfavourable for these non-local petty entrepreneurs. By exploring the ways vendors (mainly men) make connections with local hooligans, grassroots government/local institutions as well as amongst themselves and with the other gender, this thesis argues that local terms such as hun (literally to get by, to scam or to muddle through) in Society (in Chinese shehui) precisely capture the subjectivity and sociality of these self-employed entrepreneurs. Society represents the fluid, complex social tapestry which entails riskiness and uncertainties rendered by migration, local conditions and business competitions. Hun entails a variety of tactics, ethics and masculinities and bears rich performative meanings when subjects are adapting to Society. Both hun and Society are crucial for understanding the subjectivity, gender and political identity of the self-employed rural migrants in contemporary China.