At the Bottom of the Heap: Socioeconomic Circumstances and Health Practices and Beliefs among Garbage Pickers in Peri-Urban China

ABSTRACT

This article explores the health, disease and socioeconomic circumstances of garbage collectors in Guiyang, southwestern China. It aims to contribute to medical anthropology and understandings of Chinese society by examining garbage collectors’ understandings of waste picking, pollution and the health risks and diseases associated with their struggles for survival at the “bottom of the heap” of peri-urban society in contemporary China. Drawing on one month of ethnographic fieldwork, it provides new insights into the oft-neglected subjectivity of individuals struggling for survival at the margins of Chinese society, and how this subjectivity is shaped by their structural position as well as by their own agency in making sense and making the best of their lives.

Keywords:

• China
• migrant labor
• Guizhou
• health
• garbage

Acknowledgments

The author would like to express her sincere thanks towards Dr Jennifer Holdaway of The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and Dr Tamara Jacka of Australia National University who devoted their time and knowledge in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Yang Lichao is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University. She obtained her Doctoral Degree in Gender Studies from the Department of Political and Social Change, College of Asia and the Pacific, the Australian National University in 2012. Her research interests include approaches to gender and development, and environmental health.

Notes

1 1 yuan is approximately USD 0.15.

2 1 mu = 0.067 ha.

3 The household registration is requested under China's unique household registration (hukou) system. The household registration record officially identifies a person as a resident of an area and includes indentifying information such as name, parents, spouse, date of birth, and it can also refer to the births, deaths and moves of all members in the family. Tian Liu has excess children under the Chinese family planning policy; therefore, he had to pay fines when getting the excess children registered as family members.

4 This is also the case among those picking and sorting garbage from bins on the streets of Guiyang.

5 Garbage collection is not considered real “work” by these people. They characterize real work as a decent job with guaranteed payment. As Tian Liu explained, “[real work is] a well-dressed man who works in an office building, just like you.”

6 Kleinman 1995.

7 Lora-Wainwright 2013, 30.

8 See discussions in Millar 2008, 29 and Douglas 2003, 2.

9 I refer here to the New Rural Cooperative Medical Insurance System, established in 2003. It is voluntary and aims to reform both private and public sectors of health. Today, it is universal across rural China. The specifics of the program vary by county but are funded by individual contributions and government subsidies for the poor.

10 Waldman 2011, 68.

11 Young 1976, 14.

12 Schooman and Ma 2012, 142.

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was supported by the Social Science Research Council [RBF/SSRC-CEHI/2012–05-07].