Strangers in the City

Zhang (anthropology, Univ. of California, Davis)has reworked her dissertation into a readable though still scholarly study of China's "floating population," i.e., the one million peasants from Chinese rural areas who have "floated" into urban areas to form a workforce that has changed the dynamics of Chinese society, commerce, and power relations. Arguing that such changes symbolize post-Mao China's move toward democracy, Zhang centers her study around the largest migrant community who moved to Beijing from rural Wenzhou, establishing themselves in 48 large compounds. She explores the ways their leaders build power bases by controlling the market space and carefully details the many challenges they face, such as discrimination, crime, and governmental harassment. Background on China's system of household registry and some knowledge about migration within the country are needed to understand this study fully. Most suitable for academic libraries.

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