For today's post, I have been asked to write about work in modern China...in the space of only 1,000 words. I "spend" a little more verbiage than that here, but not much. The approach I have taken is that the classic schema regarding the "levels of worth" surrounding work in China has been flipped on its head...and this "flipping" began at least 1,500 years ago.
Feel free to peruse the other Modern China posts in Asian Miscellany.
6 Entertainment 7 Sports/Games 8 Urban/Rural 9 Family Life 10 Children
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| [b] Working RF |
“Work” (工作; gongzuo) is a powerfully loaded term in today’s China. In traditional times, the term conveyed images of labor in fields or on construction projects, often for the benefit of family or the state. Even in the context of family life, it held connotations of “working” the soil or maintaining buildings and fences on a large family estate. The sense of the term was physical, and focused on action in a world of plants, buildings, and family life. Today, the term has taken on meanings that go so far beyond traditional senses of the phrase as to make it almost quaint. To be sure, the term “work” always had a somewhat academic and literary sense. From even our earliest historical records, scholarship and farming were perceived to be near the top of an idealistic hierarchy that demoted artisanal and (especially) mercantile activity. Even in early times, life was much more complicated, but the template stuck for twenty centuries. In today’s China, many people still struggle with the multiple senses of the term “work,” as we shall see.
"Work" in Chinese History
"Work" in Chinese History
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| [c] Wok RF |
As mentioned above, the traditional schema—which persisted in many ways well into the twentieth century—held that scholarship and farming were the most "useful" occupations, followed by artisans (who at least made things). The lowest rung was reserved for merchants, who only sold things others had made. Almost as soon as the idealized order was promulgated, the reality of mercantile wealth began to make the ranking seem silly, at best. Still, it persisted in forms that made it difficult even for wealthy merchants to be respected in society. Their “revenge,” if it can properly be called that, was to live far beyond the means of scholars who mocked them and—this is the key strategy—to educate the next generation in their families, so that the family would be both wealthy and highly placed in society.
These four kinds of “work” continue to occupy the minds of many people even today, although the “ranking” system has long been defunct. Teachers are still admired, even if their compensation trails many other professions. Artisans can be divided into wealthy large-scale operations building furniture and other items, on the one hand, and the laborers who work for them. In the same way, merchants range from shopkeepers with a local, streetside clientele to the most important CEOs in China. It has often been said that China today has more billionaires than any other country in the world. It also has more farmers, shopkeepers, and small-income artisans (not to mention an army of teachers and professors) than almost any country in the world.
The range of “work” activities in China is vast. What is often forgotten is that it has always been so. Small shopkeepers were working their trade, as can be seen in the first printed sources in China, from the tenth and eleventh centuries. Farmers have been working the fields since the advent of recorded history, and merchants have dominated the economic landscape on a formidable scale since the first Chinese dynasties. Finally, Confucius was a teacher, and the profession has only gained momentum from his time.
Rural Work
These four kinds of “work” continue to occupy the minds of many people even today, although the “ranking” system has long been defunct. Teachers are still admired, even if their compensation trails many other professions. Artisans can be divided into wealthy large-scale operations building furniture and other items, on the one hand, and the laborers who work for them. In the same way, merchants range from shopkeepers with a local, streetside clientele to the most important CEOs in China. It has often been said that China today has more billionaires than any other country in the world. It also has more farmers, shopkeepers, and small-income artisans (not to mention an army of teachers and professors) than almost any country in the world.
The range of “work” activities in China is vast. What is often forgotten is that it has always been so. Small shopkeepers were working their trade, as can be seen in the first printed sources in China, from the tenth and eleventh centuries. Farmers have been working the fields since the advent of recorded history, and merchants have dominated the economic landscape on a formidable scale since the first Chinese dynasties. Finally, Confucius was a teacher, and the profession has only gained momentum from his time.
Rural Work
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| [d] Rural RF |
It cannot be pointed out often enough that China—despite the glittering urban scenes from the 2008 Olympic Games or the 2010 Shanghai Expo—remains a profoundly rural and agricultural society. Ideas of “work” in China to this day are profoundly connected to the working of the soil. Although people of lesser means and rural locations, even in an earlier China, do more than occasionally rise to the highest levels of urban success, the “ladder of success” from a rural perspective is literally grounded in the land itself. Land, more than any other feature in the social and economic equation, was the factor that separated the rich from the poor, and families of moderate means from families of ample means.
Westerners were introduced to the relentless logic of land acquisition through the narrative of Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth, in which the protagonist slowly gains land and moves from poverty to comfort to eventual status as one of the richest men in his region. It is only as a secondary process that he gained additional status through shrewd decisions in marital alliances and the education of his sons. In rural China, even to this day, the working of the land (and the ownership of it—which remains a powerful issue in an economy that is only three decades removed from a very different sense of “ownership”) is foremost, and even those without the benefits of extensive education know that the kinds of “work success” of importance in a rural setting are centered on the soil. A very old poem can still be recited to this day by everyone in China, from the farthest rural country corner to the heart of Shanghai:
Westerners were introduced to the relentless logic of land acquisition through the narrative of Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth, in which the protagonist slowly gains land and moves from poverty to comfort to eventual status as one of the richest men in his region. It is only as a secondary process that he gained additional status through shrewd decisions in marital alliances and the education of his sons. In rural China, even to this day, the working of the land (and the ownership of it—which remains a powerful issue in an economy that is only three decades removed from a very different sense of “ownership”) is foremost, and even those without the benefits of extensive education know that the kinds of “work success” of importance in a rural setting are centered on the soil. A very old poem can still be recited to this day by everyone in China, from the farthest rural country corner to the heart of Shanghai:
Pitying the Farmer (Li Shen, 780-846)
Working the grain beneath the heat of the day
Sweat drips down to the grain-bearing soil
Who can comprehend—that of the food in one’s bowl
Every single grain comes with great toil?
Urban Work
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| [e] Lineman RF |
It would be a serious misinterpretation to assume that urban life in China began in the last few decades, or even the last few centureis. Urban "work" has been a powerful feature of Chinese life since at least the twelfth century, when cities of well over a million began to dot the landscape, and necessities were sold side-by-side with luxury goods. Perhaps the first true metropolis in China was Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), which boasted the beauty of West Lake and an urban culture that mixed its power as a political capital with the economic wherewithal of one of southern China’s most magnificent cities.
It remains so to this day, but it is certainly not alone. In Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and countless other mega-cities, the “work” that has occupied at least a thousand years of city dwellers (small shops, furniture makers, house builders, road construction companies, and so forth) has been joined by things never even contemplated by people of previous centuries. These include car dealerships, department stores, large scale book stores, computer and camera outlets, and large restaurant chains selling not only “worldwide” products (McDonald’s, KFC, Sizzler), but traditional Chinese cuisine on a much larger scale than ever before, such as Quanjude Beijing Duck and other outlets.
China’s largest cities are also the home of another kind of work—that of transnational companies, NGOs, and a wide array of Chinese companies, many of which have become transnational operations in their own rights. Cities such as Beijing house the International Red Cross, major transnational companies, and (not insignificantly) the Chinese central government bureaucracy. The largest provincial cities boast an array of these organizations, combined with the provincial government apparatus. The variety of work, then, that can be found in today’s urban centers in China rival those seen in any of the world’s most influential cities. The Chinese “twist” is not mere overlay. The Chinese economy has its own specific needs, not to mention its own powerful ties to the rural countryside (it is not uncommon for, say, construction companies to hire from kinship networks in the countryside, where workers can be trusted because of their family connections). It is intimately connected on both sides to China’s countryside, which gives it sustenance in many ways, to a globalized world economy that sees China increasingly as one of its leaders.
It remains so to this day, but it is certainly not alone. In Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and countless other mega-cities, the “work” that has occupied at least a thousand years of city dwellers (small shops, furniture makers, house builders, road construction companies, and so forth) has been joined by things never even contemplated by people of previous centuries. These include car dealerships, department stores, large scale book stores, computer and camera outlets, and large restaurant chains selling not only “worldwide” products (McDonald’s, KFC, Sizzler), but traditional Chinese cuisine on a much larger scale than ever before, such as Quanjude Beijing Duck and other outlets.
China’s largest cities are also the home of another kind of work—that of transnational companies, NGOs, and a wide array of Chinese companies, many of which have become transnational operations in their own rights. Cities such as Beijing house the International Red Cross, major transnational companies, and (not insignificantly) the Chinese central government bureaucracy. The largest provincial cities boast an array of these organizations, combined with the provincial government apparatus. The variety of work, then, that can be found in today’s urban centers in China rival those seen in any of the world’s most influential cities. The Chinese “twist” is not mere overlay. The Chinese economy has its own specific needs, not to mention its own powerful ties to the rural countryside (it is not uncommon for, say, construction companies to hire from kinship networks in the countryside, where workers can be trusted because of their family connections). It is intimately connected on both sides to China’s countryside, which gives it sustenance in many ways, to a globalized world economy that sees China increasingly as one of its leaders.
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| [f] Balance RF |
It’s all work, and it always has been. The mistake is to equate work either exclusively with toil in the fields or corporate development in cities. The world’s press has badly misinterpreted the latter, failing to see just how significant the rural workforce is in understanding China’s economy and even political future. As in any other aspect of Chinese life, we will be mistaken if we fail to understand the tricky combination of tradition, rural life, and a vibrant urban present.
Feel free to peruse the other Modern China posts in Asian Miscellany.
6 Entertainment 7 Sports/Games 8 Urban/Rural 9 Family Life 10 Children
Feel free to peruse the other Modern China posts in Asian Miscellany.
6 Entertainment 7 Sports/Games 8 Urban/Rural 9 Family Life 10 Children
Hi Friends,
ReplyDeleteThere are many advantages to working in a foreign country like China. One such advantage involves learning a new culture. Applying for and obtaining a work is one way to expose yourself to Chinese culture while supporting yourself financially. Thanks a lot for sharing with us...
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