Migrant China

A critical introduction to the culture and politics of migrant life, labor, education, and mobility in China. Explores the forces that have led more than 250 million people to abandon the countryside and seek work in China's cities, new factory towns, construction projects, and domestic and entertainment service industries. To understand the complex worlds, desires, and struggles of migrant life and labor, this course also examines how migrants have been represented through documentary and experimental film, photography, activism, cinema, journalism, and ethnography. It asks questions about activism, advocacy, appropriation, and voyeurism; the ethics of viewing migrant lives; and the cultural politics of migrants representing themselves as they build new lives and worlds in urban spaces.