<Working Class Formation in China Since 1920>
Date: 2022. 11. 09 (Wed) 10:00-11:30
Lecture link: https://snu-ac-kr.zoom.us/
Inquiry: ichina@snu.ac.kr
*The lecture will be conducted in English.
Lecture Overview:
China's working class is the fount of the country's world-changing rise. Following the works of numerous scholars, labor is the source of all material value - making Chinese labor the source of produced wealth. Yet the production of vast value production is attributed to the accession of various forces harnessing their labor. A key precondition for that acquiesence lies within the historical pattern of working class formation in China from its initiation until the present day. Chinese workers have been the subjects of analysis by diverse professions. Light has been shone on the rich tapestry of sectoral dimensions driving them into employment associated with instability and transience, and the workers' perception of their living environment as well as their responses. This talk seeks the foundation for all this in three questions: what kind of class is the Chinese working class?; what are the historical forces and processes that have formed it?; and how does the pattern of class formation help explain the working class’s reactions historically, presently and even prospectively?