Chinese Citizenship: Views from the Margins

This book makes a novel contribution to the study of citizenship by examining how individuals at the margins of Chinese society deal with state efforts to transform them into model citizens. Based on extensive original research, it examines how individuals at the margins of Chinese society experienced the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This book shows how individuals dealt with state attempts to transform them into model citizens, arguing that social and cultural citizenship has a greater impact on peoples lives than legal, civil and political citizenship. The seven case studies in this book present intimate portraits of the conflicted identities of peasants, criminals, ethnic minorities, the urban poor, rural migrant children in the cities, mainland migrants in Hong Kong and Chinese youth studying abroad as they negotiate the perilous dilemmas presented by globalization and neoliberalism. Although the focus is on marginal groups, the book portrays thenature of citizenship in China overall. Drawing on a diverse array of theories and methods from anthropology, sociology, education, political science, cultural studies and development studies, Chinese Citizenship presents fresh perspectives and highlights the often devastating consequences that citizenship distinctions can have on Chinese lives.