A Comparative Documentary Review
Course: CULANTH 241-01 Migrant China, Duke University
Instructor: Ralph Litzinger
Peer Editors: Yihan Shi, Zehua Wang
While male figures in China’s rural-to-urban migrant force often being portrayed in mass media and state narratives, women’s unique characteristics in this migrant dynamic are not sufficiently disclosed. A special report published on China Labour Bulletin examines the unique difficulties of migrant women, especially their vulnerability to organized crimes and their lack of proper maternal healthcare (Chan 2009). Moreover, what makes them unique is also their assumption of many roles and responsibilities both within and beyond their families, including changing the village outlook and contributing to neoliberal market consumption (Gaetano and Jacka 2004; Tadiar 2013). In both Fan Lixin’s Last Train Home and Ji Dan’s When the Bough Breaks, we witness vivid representation of women’s agency within the context of China’s rural-to-urban migrant families, in the forms of protection, leadership, and independence.
Women’s Agency of Protection
In Last Train Home, Chen Suqin – mother of Qin – is a perfect demonstration of one of the most common roles of women in the floating families: protectors. In the shocking and iconic scene of people crowding and climbing the fences at Guangzhou Railway Station during huge train delays amid the Spring Rush, Suqin sheds tears silently by herself after both her husband and her daughter reach the other side having climbed the fences. She finally decides to also climb the fences trying to reach her daughter and husband, uttering “my daughter is inside” (Fan 2009, 52:16-54:34).
It is without any doubt that her husband’s and daughter’s safety concerns her the most. That year’s large-scale train delays, caused by rare snowstorms in Southern China, stopped over 300,000 travelers from returning home on time and caused a few collision between the travelers and the police (Associated Press 2008). We witness the harshness and cruelty that travelers must face while attempting to board the trains. It is a mother’s instinct to protect her family, especially her child, also future and hope of the family, from being involved in dangerous situations. Another evidence to this can be found in the film when she prays for her daughter’s safety (Fan 2009, 1:11:42-1:12:36).
But her protection goes beyond that. Her tears are not just worry and anxiety, but also frustration and agony. She’s frustrated that they would miss the only chance to reunion with the rest of the family, the only chance to keep the family together, and the only chance to set aside homelessness. Not as the family’s primary source of income or the primary decision maker, mothers of these migrant families actively assumes the role of protecting the integrity of family and the notion of “homeness”, which plays an indispensable role in the dynamics of Chinese rural-to-urban migration as the traditional perception of home is challenged by the increasing mobility especially for the migrant community (Dalle 2011).
Women’s Agency of Family Restructure
Xia, the second-eldest daughter of the migrant family in When the Bough Breaks, takes the role and responsibility of the actual leader and decision-maker of her family. Without her parents’ care, she develops the ability to not only take care of herself but also take care of her brother and sister as well as safeguarding the future of this family, as it is often the case for the children of migrant workers in China (Chan 2009).
In the film, she leads the discussion on their future school choice and ways to raise money (Ji 2012, 29:50-35:47). She constantly talks back to her sister and brother and insists on her ideas or at least maintains her dominance throughout the conversation, as if she really is the parent among the three children whose responsibility is to make important decisions. “Stop doing my job for me,” she stops her sister from restating the general situation for their future path of education (Ji 2012, 34:16).
The lack of parental care, social support, and inclusive education system pushes migrant workers’ young children like Xia to assume the family leadership. Unlike Xia’s mother who passively accept her submissiveness to her husband and the life misery they are confronting, young girls like Xia are proactive. The young girls develop this new way of restructuring the traditional and historically rooted patriarchal structure within Chinese families, not by deploying economic superiority or leverage, but by assuming more responsibilities as leaders, protectors, and decision-makers of the families.
Women’s Agency of Independence
Contrary to the protector and leader of a family, Qin could be somewhat regarded as a black sheep of her family. Her defiance of parents’ decision, her dropping out of school and becoming a migrant worker, and her altercation with her father all signifies her strong will of self-determination and independence from her parents’ commands and pressures (Fan 2009). But apart from conflicts and enmity, one of the few joyful scenes in Last Train Home, where Qin goes shopping for fashion clothes and does her hairs, also eloquently demonstrates her agency of seeking for independence (Fan 2009, 35:52-37:48).
Attracted by cities’ promise of freedom and mobility in the neoliberalism setting, Qin is eager to gain social status, which is one of the indicators for her to claim independence from her parents. As argued in the Wang article, Qin is enchanted by the notion of consumption as a way to declare independence from her parents as well as from the disillusioned reality of harsh and dreary physical labor (Wang 2016). Another research by Cao et al. also provides evidence that hedonic consumptions upgrade the migrants’ social status in urban markets, since survival-oriented consumptions are predominant in rural-to-urban migrant families (Cao et al. 2017).
Similar to Qin, many migrant women, especially those with younger age, develop and demonstrate their agencies of independence, both financially and socially, by upgrading her level of consumption. However, this type of female agency that originated from delinquency and defiance from family would generate negative consequences far from independence. Wang contends that their blinded pursuit of independence deliberates them from patriarchal power structures but puts them into “a profusion of capitalist edicts regarding their jobs” (Wang 2016). Fan Lixin eloquently reveals this harsh reality by adding delightful music and focusing on Qin’s smiling face in the hedonic consumption scene, pointing out the illusionary nature of this sense of freedom as well as the biased agency of independence (Fan 2009, 35:52-37:48).
Conclusion
Women are never passive actors either in the films and documentaries or in the broader dynamics of China’s rural-to-urban migrant community. Women’s agencies not only safeguard their belief of homeness, reconstruct their family structure to create more possibilities for the future, but also seek ultimate autonomy and function beyond family units. The harshness of living and the injustice of society seems to constrain the migrant women’s identification and development, making them either submissive to patriarchal powers or become man-like characters. Yet the uniqueness of women and their agencies paints one and another chapter of the rural-to-urban migrant narratives, as well as new chapters of their life and future.
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