Producing mobility: visual narratives of the rural migrant worker in Chinese television

Abstract

This paper employs literatures of mobility to explore the ways which rural migrant workers in China are represented publicly via television drama. Through an analysis of the popular serial Mingong, the paper examines the underlying politics of contemporary migration in China through three themes: the territorialisation of rural and urban spaces; the embodiment of boundaries via corporeal practices and subjectivities; and the politicisation of rural migrant desires. This analysis demonstrates the significance of television in crafting discursive understandings of mobility and migrants that are suffused with contemporary governmentalities of generating but also managing and excluding migration.

摘要

基于与“流动”相关的文献，本文致力于探索中国民工在电视剧中的公众形象。通过分析康洪雷于2005年所制作的电视剧《民工》，本文围绕以下三个主题来探究影响中国当代（民工）人口流动的潜在政治因素，即1）乡村与城市的界限划分；2）城乡分界在民工自身行为和主体性两方面的具体呈现；3）民工欲望的政治化。分析结果表明国家治理在当代（民工）人口流动的生成，管理以及限制等方面都扮演着重要角色，而电视剧在定义和理解当代（民工）人口流动的复杂性方面起着不容忽视的重要作用。

Keywords:

• Migrant worker
• mobility
• China
• television
• gender
• desire

关键词:

• 民工
• 中国
• 电视
• 主体性
• 欲望
• 性别
• 界限划分

Notes

1. There is a traditional Chinese idiom (yi shan bang shui) that suggests the best location for settlement is ‘leaning against the mountain, in companion of water’.

2. All texts are translated by Yu Shi.