Rural Origins, City Lives: Class and Place in Contemporary China

A new understanding of rural-urban migration and inequality in contemporary China

Many of the millions of workers streaming in from rural China to jobs at urban factories soon find themselves in new kinds of poverty and oppression. Yet, their individual experiences are far more nuanced than popular narratives might suggest. Rural Origins, City Lives probes long-held assumptions about migrant workers in China. Drawing on fieldwork in Nanjing, Roberta Zavoretti argues that many rural-born urban-dwellers arecontrary to state policy and media portrayalsdiverse in their employment, lifestyle, and aspirations. Working and living in the cities, such workers change Chinas urban landscape, becoming part of an increasingly diversified and stratified society. Zavoretti finds thatmore than thirty years after the Open Door Reformclass formation, not residence status, is key to understanding inequality in contemporary China.