Thanks for your comment.

I think it is important to understand that the above quotes came from migrant workers who came to the city and are making a living in relatively less stressful environments (all of them make their own hours), and see this as an economic opportunity of some kind (above farming) Shanghai taxi drivers are Shanghai hukou holders (many from Chongming island) … who are probably viewing this opportunity in a very different light.

As you say, they are Shanghai’s midwives..

To compare apples to apples though, in our interviews of several cab drivers we hear much the same as you:

We dislike it since it is too hard work and we are not paid reasonably. If you work beyond 8 hours, according to labor law, you will get double or triple pay, but we don’t. It’s not fair. (Nicole: Have you complained this to relevant institutes?)…Yes, the Tax-driver Administration Committee shall know this, but no change at all. I don’t think anyone will think for us. Besides, most of us are suffering from the professional deceases. When we are getting old, all the troubles will come to us.

So.. different jobs.. different people… different context….Same conclusion.

These people are putting up with a lot of crap to make their living, and NONE of them want their kids to do it.

R

But they aren’t going to say that kind of thing to a Chinese in a streetside interview.

I need to check whether or not everyone is/was Shanghaiese, however I can tell you that of the 10 people who have conducted interviews 9 were Chinese and 1 was foreign.

Also, when I say that they were surprised, I do not mean it in a negative light. All of them are socially aware people, but this project gave them a completely different lens to look through.

With regard to Mao Ruiqi’s point, I agree. I already know of several people who have moved from the city to escape what they think is the wrong path.

R

Mao Ruiqi wrote:
That is, will they, perhaps unwisely–grow nostalgic for a time less greed-oriented? And, accordingly, will the have-nots not continue the dream? Indeed, only the rich can truly grow disgusted with the accruements of affluence.

Yes, I think like entrenched middle-classes everywhere, in the future Chinese urban middle class will begin to romanticize the past in some ways. Another decade or so and rural life will no longer be viewed solely as a hardship that was escaped, but a simpler, “earthier” time, with some spiritual overtones. In fact, I already see this.

As a boy in the family, my parents have long hoped that one day I could “jump the dragon gate”, a term meaning that one no longer toils and moils in the “yellow soil” and can live a better-off life. And the most wanted job in their minds is a position in the government.

This is Chinese culture, a very important part you shall not miss when you study Chinese people.

Thanks for your comment, and you are correct to say that these stories are ones that would represent the whole of migrant laborers. The structure of these interviews were to find a wide range of people working, and that by itself would bias the results.

but.. I honestly did not fully appreciate the optimism that existed until these interviews were conducted. I know it existed, and I have spoken about it many times, but I learned a lot through this assignment.

R