Contesting Inequalities - by Siyuan Yin

About the Book

After four decades of market reform, China has developed a fast-growing, prosperous economy--the second largest in the world. Despite this prosperity, social inequality has persisted and expanded, particularly among rural migrant workers, and oppressive labor conditions have given rise to an increase in worker protests. In China's authoritarian political context, worker strikes often face suppression and receive little attention in mainstream media, which has led burgeoning forms of alternative mediated practices to become key, if complicated, components of worker resistance. In Contesting Inequalities, Siyuan Yin traces the historical and structural forces surrounding the plight of migrant workers, especially women workers, and examines the relationship between media and different forms of collective action in China. Moving beyond considerations of short-term strikes, she analyzes how mediated practices have been incorporated as both means and ends in labor activism. Based on long-term, multi-sited, and digital ethnography, and drawing on feminist methodologies, Yin examines different forms of mediated labor activism--including theater performance, advocacy music, and digital community media--to survey the politics and impact of worker mobilization and actions. By explicating how mediated labor activism has enabled new subjectivities, counter-discourses, and informal networks, Yin demonstrates that the surge in Chinese working-class resistance highlights the interconnectedness of class struggles and feminist activism-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

After four decades of market reform, China has developed a fast-growing, prosperous economy-the second largest in the world. Despite this prosperity, social inequality has persisted and expanded, particularly among rural migrant workers, and oppressive labor conditions have given rise to an increase in worker protests. In China's authoritarian political context, worker strikes often face suppression and receive little attention in mainstream media, which has led burgeoning forms of alternative mediated practices to become key, if complicated, components of worker resistance. In Contesting Inequalities, Siyuan Yin traces the historical and structural forces surrounding the plight of migrant workers, especially women workers, and examines the relationship between media and different forms of collective action in China. Moving beyond considerations of short-term strikes, she analyzes how mediated practices have been incorporated as both means and ends in labor activism.

Based on long-term, multi-sited, and digital ethnography, and drawing on feminist methodologies, Yin examines different forms of mediated labor activism-including theater performance, advocacy music, and digital community media-to survey the politics and impact of worker mobilization and actions. By explicating how mediated labor activism has enabled new subjectivities, counter-discourses, and informal networks, Yin demonstrates that the surge in Chinese working-class resistance highlights the interconnectedness of class struggles and feminist activism.

Review Quotes

"This book makes vital contributions to scholarship on China, specifically on the searing social inequalities in the country today, on labor activism, and on social forms of media as potential sites of activist resistance among minoritized groups. Yin does an excellent job of analyzing how these emergent forms of media importantly create changes in consciousness and enable new forms of contestation and challenges to various hegemonic powers (state, market, patriarchy)." --Lisa Rofel, University of California, Santa Cruz

"This compelling book explores how rural migrant workers in China are using innovative forms of mediated labor activism to resist inequality and fight for justice. Through rich ethnographic research and sharp analysis, Yin reveals the transformative power of cultural production, performance, and digital media in fostering collective resistance and reimagining worker identities in contemporary China." --Ya-Wen Lei, Harvard University

"With breadth and depth, passion and compassion, Siyuan Yin offers a situated analysis of various forms of rural migrant workers' mediated labor activism that deepens our understanding of how these networked practices serve as a form of counter-power with long-term transformative possibilities. Yin's deployment of an intersectional feminist lens and her commitment to social justice should encourage all who read this book to believe that another world is truly possible." --Cara Wallis, University of Michigan

About the Author

Siyuan Yin is Assistant Professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University.