Cosmopolitanism, mobility and transformation: Internal migrant women in Beijing's Silk Street Market

Abstract

This paper explores the transformative process of female vendors in the Silk Street Market, Beijing. They are female internal migrants hailing from a wide range of provinces including Anhui, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang and the city of Shanghai. The Silk Street Market has undergone a transformation beyond recognition from a makeshift open air market into an iconic place of modern Beijing located in the Central Business District. This global-meet-local marketplace not only provides female vendors with a living but also serves as an arena where they learn how to create upward mobility and thus contribute to the well-being of the family. Despite the obstacles of low educational attainment they manage to acquire everyday cosmopolitan skills enabling them to survive and flourish in the postmodern competitive urban jungle of Beijing.

Keywords::

• cosmopolitanism
• female migrants
• social mobility
• marketplaces
• China

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded within the Framework of the Bilateral Scientific Cooperation between Tsinghua University and KU Leuven.

Notes on contributors

Ching Lin Pang

Ching Lin Pang (彭静莲) is anthropologist, researching and teaching in the area of interculturalism, migration and translation at KU Leuven and University of Antwerp. Her research interests include: mobility, identity, inter/transcultural and -lingual interactions, and multicultural space(making) in the urban context.

Sara Sterling

Sara Sterling attended Fordham College in Manhattan before she obtained a Master's and PhD degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology at KU Leuven. She just completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her research interest is in mobility, migration, identity and intercultural and youth urban consumption.

Denggao Long

Denggao Long (龙登高) is a Professor of Economics at Tsinghua University, focusing on overseas Chinese Business, the history of market economy including land transaction. He is the Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University. He is also the Director of the Tsinghua Center for Chinese Entrepreneur Studies.