Often called the largest migration in human history, internal migration in China, driven by urbanization, is a crucial part of economic growth in the country. Chinese migrant workers have also been a major force in shaping the global economy in the last four decades. China has adopted an economic strategy premised on rapid industrialization based on a rural-urban dual socioeconomic system and created a gigantic army of super-exploitable labor, estimated to be about 170 million in total in 2019, about the same size of USA total laborforce. In this course, after a brief overview of China’s recent history and geography, we will study the institutions and the state-created rural-urban segregation that formed the basis of that strategy. A central state tool is the household registration (hukou) system in regulating geographic mobility of population and access to social services. Before 1980, peasants were banned from going into cities and confined to growing food to support industrialization. Since the early 1980s, they were gradually allowed to enter the cities to work in low-paid industrial and service jobs but denied access to urban welfare and service. This huge pool of low-cost labor has enabled China to dominate the world's low-end manufacturing. It has also generated a new geography of production and social relations. A new middle class has emerged; so have large numbers of split families, with significant impacts on the life, work and opportunity structures of many Chinese, and serious implications for the world.
This is a fully online asynchronous, distance-learning course. No in-person attendance is required.
| Instructor: | Kam Wing Chan |
| Email: | kwchan@uw.edu |
| Office hours: | Wed 2-3 pm |
| Number of Credits: | 5 |
| Required Textbook: | No |
List of Topics to Cover:
1. Overview of China
2. Industrialization strategy and rural-urban divide
3. The hukou system and migration
4. Migration in Mao's era
5. Migrant labor and the "world's factory'
6. The geography of migration
7. Children of migrants
8. Migration and China's future
See a full syllabus under Modules/Course Overview
Course Schedule
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Week |
Week beginning on Monday on |
Narrated PowerPoint lectures
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Work to complete |
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1 |
9/26 |
Lesson 1: Overview - Geography and history |
Discussion 1 Assignment 1 |
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2 |
10/3 |
Assignment week |
Assignment 2 |
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3 |
10/10 |
Lesson 2: Rural-urban divide |
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|
4 |
10/17 |
Lesson 3: The hukou system |
Assignment 3 |
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5 |
10/24 |
Lesson 4 : Migration in Mao’s era |
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6 |
10/31 |
Lesson 5: Migration in post-Mao era; "China Blue" (movie); |
Discussion 2 |
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7 |
11/7 |
Lesson 6: Geography of migration |
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8 |
11/14 |
Lesson 7); Children of migrants; "Last Train Home" (movie); |
Discussion 3 |
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9 |
11/21 |
Lesson 8: Migration and China’s future |
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10 |
11/28 |
Research week |
Research Paper due |
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11 |
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Final Exam on Dec 8 (Thur) at 7 pm
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LIVE COURSE SCHEDULE
The schedule below is automatically generated for this course and contains a list of assignments and due dates in the table. The calendar located in the upper right hand corner of this page highlights the due dates of all the assignments. Hovering over that date will highlight the corresponding assignment in the Schedule table.