Book Review: On the Move: Women in Rural-to-Urban Migration in Contemporary China

Abstract

Reviews the book "On the move: Women in rural-to-urban migration in contemporary China," edited by Arianne M. Gaetano and Tamara Jacka (2004). This edited volume is a good combination of analytical articles of migrant women in postsocialist China and seven pieces of women's stories themed "My life as a migrant worker" and narrated by migrants themselves. In addressing the advent of global capitalism and the social transformation of Chinese society, this volume provides detailed ethnographic research on the women's lives, attempting to tease out the complexity of individual life struggles in the context of great social change. It provides insights into rural women's struggles for migration, their kin and ethnic ties to home, their hardship of work and life in the city, the strategies they employ to negotiate with their urban employers, the everyday tactics to combat their inferior status in the workplace, their efforts in negotiating a new self and identity, and last but not least, their aspirations for shaping a future. This volume helps deepen our understanding of migrant women's lives at the crossroads, of China's incorporation into global capitalism and the search for Chinese modernity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).