Organised by

Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

China Research and Development Networks, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

in collaboration with

The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC)

Speakers:

Eric Florence, Director of CEFC Hong Kong and Associate Professor of the Centre for Ethnic and Migrations Studies, University of Liege:

Abstract:

In this talk, Dr. Eric Florence will explore and document how Chinese peasant workers are represented in Chinese documentary films in post-Mao China. Interrogating how workers’ experiences of migration and labor are mediated through a selection of documentary films, he will argue that these films provide a valuable vantage point in order to engage with the rich and highly contradictory features of peasant workers’ identity and agency made of struggles, hardship, as well as disillusion, but also of desires, aspirations and hopes. The material used for this talk includes a selection of Chinese documentary films, popular literature, songs, ethnographic observation, as well as scientific literature on migration and labor in post-Mao China.