| Instructor: | Kam Wing Chan |
| Email: | kwchan@uw.edu |
| Office hours: (TBA) |
Zoom: If you want to meet in person, please schedule with me. |
| Number of Credits: | 5 |
| Required Textbook: | No |
In-person class meetings: T & Th 9:30-10:50 am in Smith 415C on selected dates.
Web page: http://faculty.washington.edu/kwchan
This course is offered in a hybrid format, combining asynchronous online lecture videos with in-person discussion sessions and 2 in-person tests.
Course Description:
Often described as the largest migration in human history, internal migration in China—driven by urbanization—has been a central force in the country’s economic growth and its rise in the global economy. Over the past four decades, Chinese migrant workers have played a pivotal role in that process. China’s economic strategy, centered on rapid industrialization within a rural-urban dual socioeconomic structure, has created a vast pool of highly exploitable labor. In 2020, this labor force had reached approximately 170 million—comparable in size to the entire U.S. workforce.
The course begins with a brief overview of China’s recent history and geography before examining the institutions and state-engineered rural-urban duality that support this strategy. A key mechanism is the household registration system (hukou), which regulates geographic mobility and access to social services. Before 1980, rural residents were prohibited from migrating to cities and were confined to agricultural work to support industrialization. In the early 1980s, they were gradually permitted to take low-wage industrial and service jobs in urban areas but remained excluded from urban welfare and services. This vast supply of inexpensive labor has enabled China to dominate global manufacturing, reshaping production landscapes and social dynamics alike. The resulting separation of millions of families has profoundly affected individual lives, work opportunities, and social structures—carrying far-reaching implications for China and the global community.
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