International Conference on Mobile Communication and Asian Modernities

1
International Conference on Mobile
Communication and Asian Modernities

• 20-21 October 2005Peking University, China

2

• Mobile Cultures of Migrant Workers
• in Southern China
• Literacies, Consumption, Leisure and Gender
  Relations of the New Working Classes
• Angel Lin, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Avin Tong, City University of Hong Kong

3
Introduction

• Rural-to-urban migration in China since mid-1980s
• A promise of a taste of middle-class lifestyle
• A fantasy for migrant workers.
• A newfound freedom for the rising middle class.
• Two tracks of social mobility reinforcing each
  other.
• Young urban professionals actualizing the early
  dream of modernity.
• Grassroots workers fancying the success stories
  of the middle class.
• A double helix of development.
• A seemingly realizable dream for one.
• A near illusion for another. (Ma and Tse, 20058)

4
Individuating project

• An individuating project driven by the desire for
  an urban middle-class life
• Pun (2005) studies a group of women workers in
  China and finds that they are proud of their
  earning capacities, work skills and new-found
  urban identities ? a promise of freedom and
  material comfort
• Pun (2005 9) describes the process of entering
  the factory at the beginning as actually a
  process of individuating the self, which
  makes someone realize that it had recourse to
  nobody but itself

5
Factory worker as a machine

• Haraszti (1978) even uses the term machine
  to describe a factory worker, as he puts it
• In the end, the only way out (of the factory) is
  to become a machine myself. The best workers are
  very good at this. It is as if an immovable mask
  was glued to their faces, whatever the type of
  work they are doing. (1978 54)
• All these harsh disciplinary conditions of the
  factory drive them to seek pleasure outside the
  workplace, mainly in different forms of
  consumption practices

6
The New work and spend culture

• Global Consumerism driven by the desire to
  consume
• Stripping off the rural skin, purchasing a
  cosmopolitan mask, and in the process becoming
  naked ness of modern bodies
• A new kind of work-and-spend culture is
  formed, in which all workers work hard, play
  hard to balance the boredom of alienating work
  with a pleasurable consumption life
• The working-class migrant workers desire a
  middle-class lifestyle, and they try to purchase
  a modern and cosmopolitan life style through
  their consumption practices ? entrapping the
  workers instead of empowering them?

7
Naked bodies

• Process of becoming naked bodies
• In the metaphor of Ma and Cheng (forthcoming),
  the migrant worker is in the process of
  de-clothing their rural body and re-making itself
  into an urban body
• They are thus rendered naked in their
  transition condition of trying to reach for urban
  modernity
• They have been caught between two discourses and
  embraced by neither ? traditional rural
  discourse vs modern urban discourse

8
Widespread use of mobile phones

• According to statistics released by the Ministry
  of Information Industry, by 2000 there were only
  85 million mobile phone users in Mainland China
• By mid 2004, the number of mobile phone
  subscribers had reached 305 million
• The national average penetration rate was 24
  percent, with Guangdong province having an
  above-national average penetration rate of around
  60 percent

9
Popularity of mobile phones

• Migrant workers are among the lowest-income
  groups in Guangdong, taking up largely skilled
  and semi-skilled jobs in factories with monthly
  salaries ranging from 400 to 800 Yuans (US1 is
  approximately 8.23 Yuans)
• However, a migrant worker is willing to spend
  double or triple her/his monthly salary to
  purchase a mobile phone
• They usually purchase new models, and mostly the
  well known imported brands such as Nokia,
  Motorola, and Samsung
• The price of the kind of mobile phones they
  bought averaged between 1,500 and 2000 Yuans, and
  even over 2000 Yuans
• 
  (Law and Peng, 2004)

10
Icons of urban identities

• Many migrant workers prefer spending more money
  on mobile phones, instead of contributing to
  their families
• This seems to show that mobile phone has become a
  symbol of social identity, which constitute
  symbols of the keenly desired urban and
  cosmopolitan lifestyle
• This also enables them to engage in different
  types of social relations, and to have a sense of
  belonging to the communities
• The mobile phones make them easier to cope with
  the harsh and tedious working environment in
  which they find themselves

11
The present study

• Research objectives
• To understand the lifestyle aspirations and life
  trajectories of the new young working classes in
  China who are experiencing the most rapid
  socioeconomic changes in society
• How they are negotiating their ways of being
  amidst much tension between old and new
  sociocultural values governing consumption,
  leisure, life aspirations, gender and familial
  relations
• Their problems and dilemmas will be discussed,
  and suggestions will be proposed for improving
  their situation

12
The present study

• Research design
• The present study examines mobile cultures among
  migrant workers in the industrialized villages of
  Tangxia and Humen Towns of Dongguan in the
  Guangdong Province
• 20 migrant workers, 8 females and twelve males
  were interviewed between July 2004 and March 2005
• They were young villagers from less-developed or
  poor provinces such as Hunan , Sichuan and
  Guangxi
• In-depth individual and group interviews with the
  migrant workers were conducted to analyze their
  mobile consumption practices, as well as to
  understand their work life, leisure life and
  dilemmas/conflicts that they might experience in
  their everyday social relations

13
Findings

• The creative SMS literacies of migrant workers
  Mobilizing limited linguistic resources to craft
  out arty messages
• Use of mobile phones and the consumption
  practices of migrant workers
• Maintaining familial and social relations with
  mobile phone calls and text-messaging
• Seeking and constructing virtual romance through
  the new technology

14
Limited literacy level

• All migrant workers interviewed prefer writing
  SMS messages in Chinese. Most of them use the
  Chinese keystroke text input method, and a few
  of them use the Chinese phonetic input system
  and Chinese handwriting input method
• One of the high frequent users, Miss Fung,
  insists on writing SMS in Chinese. She points
  out, English (message) is not funny at all!
  (???????????
• It is believed that their English level is
  relatively low, and they may find it difficult to
  compose a message in English. It will be much
  easier for them to express themselves in Chinese,
  which is their first language

15
Creative SMS literacies

• Despite their relatively low literacy level, most
  of our informants claim that they wont rely on
  SMS manuals and prefer creating messages on their
  own
• Miss Fung, criticizes those typical examples in
  SMS manuals as not interesting (???)
• One of the male workers Mr. Yu says,
• Those (SMS) written on the manuals bought are
  already outdated. Those messages that come out
  from ones mind are the bestthink and create a
  message, its a kind of training.
• (????????????????????????????????,???????)

16
Creative SMS literacies

• Some informants even have the experience of
  receiving poems from their friends, which show
  their creativity and originality, and also a high
  Chinese literacy level
• Factory work does not involve literacy work, and
  they have no literacy practices in the workplace.
  SMS thus provides them with a medium for
  practicing their everyday literacies
• Through creating and re-creating different types
  of SMS messages, it is possible for them to
  acquire literacy skills informally

17
Popularity of mobile phones

• In China, Guangdong has the highest number of
  mobile phone users
• With the rapidly soaring penetration rate, mobile
  phone is becoming an essential part of workers
  life
• Mr. Cheung describes it as a common phenomenon,
• Nowadays almost everyone has a mobile phone.
  Even they need to eat pickles and pickled cabbage
  resembling sauerkraut for a month, he (they) will
  still buy a mobile phone.
• ??????????????,??????????????,???????????

18
Mobile phones as fashion

• They like following the trends and buying the new
  models, using up a large sum of money (which is
  often several times of their monthly salary)
• It seems that both male and female migrant
  workers consider mobile phones to be a kind of
  fashion, an icon of cultural taste, and a symbol
  of modern lifestyle
• Some informants point out that men also keep an
  eye on the trends of mobile phones.
• Those boys in my circle change their mobile
  phones quickly, (what they bought are) the latest
  ones, and also the most expensive ones.
• ?????????,????????????????,???????

19
Mobile phones as symbols of identity

• A factory owner called Miss Sung believes that
  workers regard mobile phones as symbols of
  identity
• When they just come to work, after getting the
  salary for the first month, they will buy a
  mobile phone immediately. Actually they do not
  need (it). A mobile phone is used for keeping
  contact (with others) conveniently, right? But
  they just always carry their mobile phones it
  seems that having a mobile phone is equal to
  having an (important) identity.
• ??????,????????????,??????????????????????,???????
  ?????????,???????????!?

20
High expenditure on mobile phones

• The migrant workers actually find it hard to
  afford the relatively high expenditure on mobile
  phones
• On average the workers earn around 700-900 Yuans
  per month, and some earn a bit more (say like
  1000-1200 Yuans)

21
High expenditure on mobile phones

• A female worker Miss Fung admits that her mobile
  phone nearly used up all her salary.
• I am making around 500 Yuans each month for my
  work, I bought that (old) mobile phone with
  around 1400 Yuans. I work out there, sometimes
  when I get the salary, I dont even have a penny
  in my pocketafter buying the mobile phone, I
  have no single penny left on my body!
• ???????????,?????????????,??????,?????????????????
  ???????????????????!?

22
Pleasurable consumption

• In addition to buying and keeping a mobile phone,
  other consumption practices like buying clothes
  and accessories, playing and eating around also
  seem to help the migrant workers to balance off
  the pain of boring work
• Most of these workers, particularly young girls,
  spend a large sum of money on shopping and
  entertainment, with very high consumption rates
  as compared to their earning capacities
• A factory owner, Miss Sung, makes the comment
  that most young working girls in her workplace
  spend all their income without saving a single
  penny

23
Womens consumption practices

• A female factory manager Miss Leung says,
• Workers in our factory have a relatively high
  consumption level, they are wasteful and
  extravagant in their consumption. Girls are
  always buying clothes that cost a hundred or two
  hundred Yuansone piece of clothes, one skirt,
  one little vest nevertheless, (they are) quite
  pretty when wearing them, more trendy than
  before.
• ????????????????,???????,????????????????????????
  ?????,??????????,?????????????

24
Womens consumption practices

• One of the illustrative examples is Miss Fung,
  who is a crazy fan of fashionable clothes
• (What I spend most is on) buying clothes, I have
  many clothes, but I find them not enough when I
  need to wear themI almost need to buy clothes
  every month, when I go shopping, I have to buy
  clothes.
• ?(?????????)???,?????,?????????????????????,?????
  ????,???????

25
Little family burden

• Many young migrant workers do not need to support
  their families, or at least their families do not
  expect them to contribute much financially
• As Miss Sung points out,
• All of them wear rings, earrings, all things
  (accessories) like that, and also necklaces.
  Everyone is like that. Changing all the
  timemaybe all that (they have) earned is all
  used in this way, and their families do not
  really need their money.
• ?????????????????,??????????????????????????????,
  ????????????????

26
Little family burden

• Miss Fung admits that she does not have to send
  money to her parents
• My family wont take my money, (they) just say
  you are no longer young, need to keep some money
  as dowrymy mother wont accept a single penny
  from me. And I spend crazily outside.
• ?????????,?????????,????????????????????,????????
  ??

27
Changing image of migrant workers

• In the past, working hard and saving hard were
  the dominant images of rural people
• Those who moved to urban cities for work need to
  earn a lot for supporting their families, living
  a rather harsh and uncomfortable life
• The workers interviewed do work hard for making
  more money, but they also spend hard and play
  hard, particularly in the case of young women
  workers
• This enables them to have a taste of being
  middle-class (or at least being close to feeling
  it), in the case of female workers, to escape
  from the patriarchal familial relations in the
  rural village

28
Limited social circles

• It is not easy for migrant workers to develop new
  social relations, due to the highly mobile nature
  of factory work
• Most of them do not stay in one factory for a
  long period of time, and they move freely when
  they find another factory offering higher incomes
  and better welfare (Law and Peng, 2005)
• According to the ethnographic observation of Pun
  (2005), different local or ethnic groups in the
  workplace seldom make friends across their group
  boundaries

29
Transcient friendship

• Miss Fung finds that many newly developed
  relationships are temporal and frugal
• I have told you before that I dont have many
  friends. Whenever I go, there are large groups of
  people playing with me, but (we) just forget
  (each other) afterwards, and wont keep in touch
  with one another. Its transientSometimes I find
  myself very lonely, cant even find someone to
  talk to.
• ???????????,?????,??????????,????????,??????????,?
  ????????????????,???????????

30
Self-enclosed state

• Miss Sung has made a similar remark
• You imagine someone working at the factory,
  (always) moving from one site to another. How can
  (we) find an intimate friendmaybe we just work
  in this factory for one or two months, and so we
  cannot develop a deep relationshipafter a long
  time, it will form a self-enclosed state in ones
  heart.
• ??????,????,????,???????????????????????,???????
  ??????????????????????????

31
Maintenance of social relations

• Law and Peng (2005) suggest that without mobile
  phones to make the physically absent present,
  friendships cannot be prolonged
• Therefore, mobile phones help maintain existing
  social relationships in expanded spatio-temporal
  contexts (Pertierra et al, 2002)
• As Gergen (2003) maintains, the mobile phone
  serves the function of pulling people who are
  physically far away into immediate cyber presence
• Many of our informants also use mobile phones to
  arrange social gatherings and to send greetings
  to friends during festivals

32
Contact with old friends

• Most of the workers find mobile phones useful in
  maintaining close relations with their old
  friends in the hometown
• Mr. Ho, considers the mobile phone as an
  important means of maintaining friendship
• Particularly between friends, some friends do
  not contact (one another) for a few days, maybe
  they have gone back to the hometown, having a
  mobile phone enables us to keep in touch (with
  them).
• ????????,??????????,????????,??????????

33
Contact with new friends

• Miss Au says that she uses mobile phones to
  contact both new friends in the city and old
  friends in the village.
• I am the kind of people that wont set any fixed
  criteria for making friends once (I) find them
  chummy then (we) can be friends, not necessarily
  from the same village.
• ????????????,??????????????,????????
• It shows that mobile phones are personal devices
  sustaining relationships and commitment, tools of
  building small social worlds with new and old
  social relations

34
Importance of familial relations

• For those migrant workers floating far away
  from their home villages, mobile phones enhance
  their ties with family members back in their home
  villages
• A young female worker Miss Fung says that mobile
  phone enables her to share the ups and downs with
  her mother, who is the closest person in her
  life, at any time and any place.
• I need to call (home) once to twice each week,
  and (I) must call during festival days.
  Particularly when I miss my family sometimes, and
  feel uncomfortable in heart, then (I will) call
  my mother and share my grievances
• ???????????,????????,????????,??????,???????????

35
Use of SMS

• In addition to voice calls, sending SMS (Short
  Messaging Services) messages is essential in
  developing and maintaining ones connections with
  friends/family members
• In our study, some workers prefer using SMS to
  contact their friends/family members
• Miss Wu, a female worker, considers sending SMS
  to be a very important leisure activity among her
  friends
• I will send (SMS) to others. We almost find a
  time every day (to send SMS). (We) must play it
  for a while when (we) have a little
  timeotherwise life will be very boring.
• ????????,?????????????,????????????????????

36
Use of SMS

• Another female worker, Miss Ho, has a practice of
  sending SMS to her mother in the village
• My mother knows how to send SMS, but only
  confined to those default ones installed (in the
  mobile phone) What are you doing now? Have you
  eaten yet?
• ???????,??????????????????????
• In our study, both phone calls and SMS are major
  ways for migrant workers to maintain close
  relationships with old friends and family
  members, sharing with them their ups and downs

37
Popularity of SMS

• According to statistics, 18.9 billion messages
  were sent in 2001 in Guangdong in 2002, the
  number of messages increased strikingly to 90
  billion, averaging 247 million a day
• SMS is regarded as an ideal tool for making
  social arrangements, storing appointments and
  addresses they can also reach their friends
  within a minute and responses are often very fast
  (Haig, 2002)

38
Popularity of SMS

• In our study, most informants both like and
  practice text-messaging
• They usually send messages for fun, to chat with
  friends and family members, to exchange sweet
  words with lovers, and some to exchange
  information, and some to fix a date and place to
  meet each other
• On average the workers send no more than 300 SMS
  (quota for most mobile service packages) per
  month, and most of them send/receive around
  100-200 messages each month

39
Heavy users of SMS

• A female worker, Miss Fung, has a record of
  sending 160 messages within one day, and a few
  workers send out/receive around 80 messages each
  week
• Miss Fung also breaks another record of chatting
  with a few targets at the same time.
• I can chat with seven to eight people at the
  same time. I used a Nokia mobile phone before to
  play SMS, during the peak time I sent out 160 SMS
  a dayit is because I am not just talking to one
  personI chat with so many people, if you dont
  talk to me, I can talk to another.
• ??????????????,???????????????,?????????160??????
  ?????????????????,???,?????????

40
Low noise level

• In our study, many workers like to send SMS
  during working hours, which is described as
  rather low profile as compared to talking on
  phone
• One of the factory owners Miss Sung says
• (They) cant make phone calls during work hours,
  but they can bring (the mobile phone with them).
  If they send those things like SMS and no one
  discovers it, then its okay. If (someone)
  discovers it, money will be deducted (from their
  salary).
• ???????????,?????????????????,???????,?????????

41
Economical

• Another advantage of using SMS is that it is
  relatively economical
• As compared to other communicative means such as
  direct phone calls (particularly IDD), sending
  messages is a less expensive way of maintaining
  connections in the cyberspace
• Most of our informants subscribe to a package
  that includes SMS, which costs them no more than
  100 Yuans each month for using this function

42
Gendered communicative practices

• Men and women seem to express themselves
  differently, as revealed in their practices of
  using mobile phones/SMS
• According to Law and Peng (2003, 2005), many male
  workers claim that they would prefer making voice
  calls to sending messages, while female workers
  enjoy sending messages
• This point is made by our female informant, Miss
  Fung, as her boyfriend seems to have no interest
  in sending SMS, and he always replies to her
  message with only a few words

43
Gendered communicative practices

• Miss Fung recalls some unhappy experiences
• Whenever he sends me messages, they are centered
  around me, ask me whats happening here. If I
  send him messages, ask him what he is doing, he
  will reply I am busy...every time he says he
  is busy after chatting for a few sentences. Every
  time its he who uses busy as a reason for
  closing the conversation.
• ??????????????,?????????????????,??????,??????
  ??????????????,????????????????????

44
Gendered communicative practices

• Miss Fung also criticizes her boyfriend as not
  romantic in writing messages
• She prefers more expressive writing styles
  instead of instrumental and practical ones
• He never seriously sends me three words saying
  I miss you, he never sends it. He uses other
  ways to ask me out. I know he misses me, wants me
  to go out with him , but he never sends (me)
  those three words. Every time I talk to him on
  phone I ask him do you miss me?, he says
  miss, and I asks why dont you tell me then?,
  then he says you know that, its okay.
• ??????????????????????,???,???????????,???????,?
  ???,?????????,???????????????????,???,?????
  ????????????????????

45
Gendered communicative practices

• However, some male informants are actually
  willing and eager to use, and even very
  interested in using, this new means of
  communication
• Mr. Ho, admits that SMS has become an important
  part of his leisure life, and he will feel
  depressed if no one sends him SMS
• If I havent received any message for a few
  days, I will feel a bit unhappy in my heart. (I)
  will have a feeling of being isolated.
• ??????????????,????????,?????????

46
Gendered communicative practices

• Another male informant Mr. Au says,
• If I havent received SMS for two or three
  days, I will think how come I dont receive any
  SMS? (My) friends dont send (SMS) to me, then
  why doesnt the SMS center send me some?
• ?????????????,??????????????????,???????????????
• A female worker, Miss Lau, points out that some
  male workers are heavy users of SMS.
• I know one boy who is fond of sending SMS, each
  time (the message) he sent me contains two
  hundred to three hundred words.
• ????????????????,?????????????????

47
Effort in composing SMS

• Some of them will make efforts in creating
  messages, and sometimes getting inspiration from
  their friends messages and also SMS manuals
  (Lin, 2005)
• They find it more meaningful to learn from the
  classic examples and then create their original
  messages. Mr. Yu says,
• Those (SMS) written on the manuals bought are
  already outdated. Those that come out from ones
  mind are the bestthink about one, its a kind of
  training.
• ????????????????????????????????,???????)

48
Dating through SMS

• In some cases, male workers make use of SMS in
  settling arguments with girlfriends, and some of
  them like Mr. Kok will use SMS for dating and
  courtship in the initial stage, as they can
  express their feelings more freely (and of course
  to avoid embarrassment) in a textual world than
  in a face-to-face context
• This attitude seems to deviate from the
  stereotypical image of men, who are often thought
  to be relatively instrumental and lacking in
  creativity in expressing themselves

49
Virtual romance

• There is a popular network called Mobile Fantasy
  Network (????????) organized to help men and
  women find good friends, and in most cases
  lovers
• Some join this kind of network mainly to develop
  a virtual romance. A few informants admit that
  they enjoy developing intimate online
  relationships in this way
• Miss Fung has started participating in the chat
  room a few years ago, and has now become very
  professional in searching suitable male
  virtual partners
• She usually chats with netizens for a while and
  if she finds them interesting, they will exchange
  mobile phone numbers and then keep in contact by
  sending SMS

50
Searching for netizens of the opposite-sex

• Though many informants claim that they are not
  purposefully searching for romance, most of them
  admit that it is much more fun to chat with
  netizens of the opposite-sex
• When asked about the gender of his online
  friends, our male informant, Mr. Chung, says, of
  course (chat) with girls who will chat with
  guys?
• Miss Fung also agrees that the feeling of talking
  to members of the opposite-sex is much better
  than with those of the same-sex. She explains,
• Chatting with girls is not interesting it is
  because girls have similar mind sets and will
  talk about similar topics. But chatting with boys
  will involve different topics, and those things
  heard in the conversation will be meaningful and
  interesting.
• ???????????,????????????????,???????????????,?????
  ????????????

51
Ambivalent relationships

• In some cases, the workers are not involved in
  typical romance relationships, but they are
  sending ambivalent messages with netizens or
  other friends
• This practice is more common among male workers,
  who insist that they just find it playful to
  write/receive such kind of messages
• Mr. Ho likes to send SMS with girls though he
  already has a close girlfriend, and the content
  of the message reveals their intimate
  relationship. Here is one of the examples,
• Cutie you, what are you thinking of?
• ?????,??????

52
Sweet words

• Our young female worker, Miss Fung, illustrates
  the role that mobile cultures play in offering a
  fantasyland that fulfills the sweet dreams of
  many women
• She is addicted to the sweet words heard in
  this virtual space, such as I miss you, havent
  met you for long.
• In this online space, most (messages) are sweet
  words and honeyed phrases. These cannot be heard
  in real life...just like we sometimes say, wont
  talk to you, no money left for the mobile phone,
  then he will say, Ill help you to pay for it.
  But (you know that) he wont really pay it for
  you, (this is) just a sweet talk.
• ?????????????,??????????????????????????,?????,??
  ???????,?????????,????????,???????

53
Daydreams and fantasy

• This kind of ambivalent relationship and virtual
  romance provide the workers with daydreams and
  fantasy, which can be useful in consoling their
  lonely spirits
• As the workers dreamed, desired and determined to
  live up to the hegemonic mode of life, they are
  also yearning for love and sex to balance the
  boring and sometimes frustrating work life
• In our study, alienation seems to be lessened by
  the sweet words and honeyed phrases in this
  virtual reality created through mobile phones

54
Absence of romance in reality

• This kind of pleasure obtained from virtual
  romance fulfills workers (especially young
  womens) desires for romantic love
• Some of our informants are dissatisfied with
  their love life in reality, for example, having
  communication problems with their lovers
• As Miss Fung points out in the above examples,
  she enjoys the sweet words and honeyed phrases
  that are absent in reality. She often compares
  her virtual romance with the boring relationship
  with her boyfriend in real life situations, and
  criticizes her boyfriend as unromantic and
  boring

55
Absence of romance in reality

• What makes Miss Fung more frustrated is that her
  boyfriend has no improvement even when he uses
  other communicative means, such as SMS, which can
  avoid face-to-face/voice-to-voice contexts
• Now we just send one or two SMS in three or four
  days. These days he sends me messages, ask me
  what I am doinghe doesnt know how many words I
  write for my netizens. I ask him what he is
  doing he replies I am busy. When you say you
  are busy, how can I continue to write? He says,
  Chat later, I will chat with you when I come
  back. I have high spirits originally, but then
  lose them all after being discouraged by him.
• ??????????????????,?????????,??????????????????,?
  ?????,?????,??????,???????,???????,???????,?
  ????,???????????????

56
Influence on offline relationships

• Constructing virtual romance may have an
  influence on real life love relations
• In the case of Miss Fung, her boyfriend dislikes
  her spending so much time and money on sending
  SMS/chatting with other men
• During that period he told me, I dislike you
  chatting on the net. I ask why, he said it
  particularly hurt a relationship. He doesnt know
  how to say (sweet words). He believes that all I
  heard online are sweet words and honeyed phrases,
  which cannot be heard in real lifeit is because
  things on the net are so insincere and (they)
  hurt our relationship. But sometimes when I feel
  annoyed alone, I will want to chat with someone.
  
• ?????????,??????????,?????,???????????????,???????
  ??????????,?????????????????????,???????,????????
  ?????,?????????

57
Transient love relations

• In modern day China, many love relations are
  transient and without commitment
• They are rather light-minded, seems that when
  love changes then just find another onemany
  people consider (love) as a game, courting for a
  period of time, and then separate without reason,
  and then find another one very soon.
• ?????????,???????????????????,???????,???????????
  ,??????????????
• Some of them (referring to young women) are not
  so beautiful, they seem to be playing a love
  game. But actually some men are very able too,
  changing girlfriends every day.
• ???????????,????????????????,??????????,??????????
  ?

58
Online vs Offline

• Walther (1996) suggests the term hyperpersonal
  interaction, which means that mediated
  communication is more desirable as compared to
  face-to-face interaction (Hoflich, 2003)
• This kind of hyperpersonal interaction enables
  migrant workers to develop ambivalent and even
  intimate online relations with netizens
• Nevertheless, as indicated in the case of Miss
  Fung, virtual romance satisfies the desires for
  being loved in the workers hearts but also
  creates communicative problems (e.g. wrong
  expectations, frequent quarrels) between real
  lovers in reality

59
Changing life aspirations of women

• One important phenomenon we see here is the
  changing life aspirations, both in career and
  love, of the young women in China
• Many of them are now encouraged to go out and
  leave their villages, look for their own love and
  life (Pun, 2005)
• Some of them have become active agents in pursing
  their desired life, and hope to acquire both
  individual freedom and a higher social status
• In our study, it is found that women workers
  often have more job opportunities than men, and
  they even make more money than their male
  counterparts

60
Changing expectations of women

• The rising social status and increasing economic
  power of women grant them more freedom in
  marriage, and also in pursing ones life goals.
  They are both eager and confident to choose a
  better partner whom they really love.
• These young working women will have higher
  expectations on men, as their qualities have
  improved and their social circles have enlarged
• Miss Sung, a factory owner, believes that it is
  difficult for a female worker to find a suitable
  male partner in the workplace.
• If you ask our (female) workers to choose a man
  in the factory, (they) absolutely cannot choose
  one. These men are poor and not good-looking
  either.
• ?????????????????,?????,???????,?????????

61
Conclusion

• As shown in our study, the young migrant workers
  need to seek fantasies and pleasures in their
  leisure life
• ambivalent relations and virtual romance
• strengthened or expanded social relations
• different types of consumption practices
• All help to balance the alienating and
  individuating factory life, as well as to live a
  completely new life as compared to the old times
  in rural areas

62
Pleasure offered by mobile cultures

• Through the use of mobile phone and SMS, these
  migrant workers in China search for pleasure and
  emotional release in their monotonous work life,
  and take a break from the small social circles in
  the factory world
• Besides, they have been disciplined into a strong
  discursive system of individualistic and
  consumerist romance in capitalism, as they
  participate in various consumption activities to
  purchase an urban, modern identity

63
Vicious cycle of consumption

• This repeats a vicious cycle as follows the
  harder they work, the more they want to spend.
  The more they desire to spend, the harder they
  need to work (Pun, 2005 163)
• Ma and Tse (2005) use a poem to vividly describe
  their situation
• Migrant workers have a vain hope for a new life,
  
• the modern lifestyle of the petty bourgeoisie.
• The myth for migrant workers to work hard
• Work Hard, Play Harder.
• Migrants workers seek pleasure and keep working
• Play hard, Work Even Harder.

64
Limitations of online relations

• Another problem can be that the relationships
  developed online may not be extended to the
  reality, and they are just confined to and
  sustained in the virtual context
• Therefore, the perceived pleasure actually do not
  seem to have any structural impact on workers
  life
• Most of the workers prefer enjoying the fantasies
  purely and exclusively in virtual reality, and
  not to know each other too deeply. As Miss Fung
  says,
• What does he look like, just imagine then its
  okay, no need to know the details clearly.
• ??????,????????,??????????

65
Limitations of online relations

• Mr. Yen says, Sometimes, not meeting
  face-to-face, then two people chat nicely, thats
  okay. It may not be the case when (they) meet
  face-to-facejust like we are ordinary friends,
  chat (with each other), talk about work, talk
  about personal love problems, (we) can chat and
  share with each other. Once we meet, (we) may not
  chat like that.
• ????,??????,??????,???,????????????????????????,?
  ??,????????????????,????????????,??????????
• It seems that the pleasure obtained from
  consumerism, including purchasing an urban
  identity through a mobile phone and enjoying
  virtual romance (particularly for working women)
  absent in reality are superficial and transient.

66
De-skilling and re-skilling

• The process of embracing tradition and modernity
  is a harsh task for migrant workers, who may need
  to adopt some tactics in coping with the clash
  between the two discourses
• According to Ma and Cheng, it involves both steps
  of de-skilling and re-skilling, in order to
  taste a temporary urban experience
• The de-traditionalized and de-territorialized
  migrant workers are de-skilling their rural
  bodies and re-skilling themselves into urban
  bodies which celebrate individualized intimate
  relationships however, this de-skilling and
  re-skilling are oftentimes re-worked in the
  opposite direction. Migrant workers are trading
  their vitality and youthfulness for a temporary
  urban experience. (Ma and Cheng, forthcoming)

67
Any way out?

• In this modern, urban, alienating workplace,
  women have been presented as the major victims in
  many academic discourses
• Pun (2005) is rather pessimistic in concluding
  the future life of the female migrant workers, as
  she finds them under multiple and inescapable
  oppressions
• In our study, the women workers attitudes toward
  pleasurable leisure life and new love/gender
  relations reveal an attempt in breaking away from
  the traditional fate of rural women
• However, they might also be satisfying their
  desires at a great price, without changing their
  lives structurally

68
Seemingly realizable dreams

• Their habit of over-spending, or we can say
  addiction to consumption, makes them fall into
  the trap of consumerism
• Once they fall into this trap, they cannot get
  out of it easily and become the victims of
  capitalism
• As Ma and Tse (2005 8) point out, the
  middle-class/bourgeois lifestyle is actually an
  illusion and a seemingly realizable dream for
  grassroots workers.
• Even though they are fancying the success of the
  middle-classes, their factory life is completely
  different from the work conditions of the real
  middle-classes

69
Unreachable dreams

• Virtual romance is also developed at the expenses
  of their capacity to negotiate with real life
  relations
• As some of them (particularly women) enjoy
  pleasurable romance online, they are even more
  dissatisfied with the love relations in the
  off-line world, and some may choose to ignore
  their real life partners
• They are given the chance of moving out of the
  village, to get away from the traditional rural
  peasantry lifestyle, and to pursue their career
  and to search for free love
• However, there are also some real life
  constraints on them, which make the urban, modern
  and middle-class lifestyles actually rather
  unreachable for them

70
Any alternative?

• Instead of being too celebrative of or optimistic
  about their life choices, we should ask an
  important question
• Is there any alternative to these two lifestyles
  (i.e. the rural peasantry lifestyle and urban
  middle-class lifestyle)?
• In order to open up more choices for migrant
  workers, life education might be useful in
  empowering them to make real resistance

71
Suggestions

• Life education programs can be developed to help
  these migrant workers explore alternatives ways
  of living their lives, to empower the migrant
  workers
• tactics of unionizing or collective negotiation
  with the employers for improving their working
  conditions
• Support social groups and networks can be formed
  by different non-government organizations (NGO),
  helping workers to increase their critical
  awareness of their own situations, and to
  discover alternative lifestyle choices and
  possibilities
• We should also pay attention to the psychological
  health of the workers, especially that of women
  workers, and to help them develop and maintain
  good social/heterosexual relations in real life
  situations

72
Conclusion

• To conclude, mobile cultures and other
  consumption practices seem to offer a symbol of
  urban identity, a taste of cosmopolitan
  lifestyle, and a convenient medium for social
  contact as well as virtual romance
• However, all these perceived pleasures are
  transient and in most cases cannot initiate
  long-term changes in the lives of migrant workers
• They may even bring with them undesirable
  consequences, for example, driving them to work
  harder and harder to sustain the expensive
  city lifestyle, and also hurting the real
  relationships developed in the off-line world

73
Conclusion

• Life education programmes can also include some
  literacy interest groups (e.g., based on their
  SMS creative interests), which can help them to
  improve their literacy skills. This may enable
  them in the long run to leave the factory and
  find other jobs (e.g. finding some white-collar
  or semi-white-collar work)
• This kind of education/support should be offered
  to both men and women
• This can help them to understand more about the
  gender relations and communicative practices
  (both on-line and off-line) of each other, and to
  choose the appropriate ways of expressing ones
  feelings (developing both the linguistic and
  literacy skills to do so) and to develop workable
  ways of relating to and understanding each other

74
Future studies

• Further studies can also work on the different
  cultural and social practices of male and female
  workers to help them explore more about their own
  needs and situations, and to enable them to build
  more harmonious gender relations in the rapidly
  changing Chinese society today
• Much more work, both of the research and social
  activist kinds, needs to be embarked on in the
  near future

75

• The End
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