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The Role of Narrative in Identity Formation among New Generation Rural Migrant Women in Chongqing, China

Li, Zhou
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1426855888

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Communication Studies (Communication).
In this dissertation, I focused attention on the narratives of what I defined as “these new generation rural migrant female workers.” In explaining their existence, I addressed the issue of significance in highlighting what I have termed “macro discourse”—the One-Child policy, the Household Responsibility System, and the discursive reality that they have been embedded in, along with the “micro discourses” that were represented in the discourses of the rural migrant female workers. In order to approach these new generation rural migrant female workers’ identity (re)construction in both macro and micro narratives, I engaged in a rhetorical analysis of the two policies and the social-historical discourse that they were embedded in as well as went to the field to conduct 20 in-depth interviews with members from this group of female workers. Under the guide of Nietzsche’s understanding of discourse and language as well as Foucault’s theory of discourse, I asked: 1) What and how image(s) of new generation rural migrant female workers have been constructed in the One-Child policy and the HRS? 2) How, if at all, the policies are reflected in the stories told by these new generation rural migrant female workers? 3) What, if possible, alternative understanding of the relationship between discourse and agency can be offered as rural migrant female workers talk about their way of acting/negotiating/reconstructing their identities? and 4) How might questions 2 and 3 provide a deeper conception of these new generation rural migrant female workers in this particular historical time? Nietzsche’s aesthetic language philosophy as well as Foucault’s theory of discourse offered me lenses to carefully examine the texts of the two policies and the social-historical discourse that they were ensconced within. Meanwhile, the abductive nature of grounded theory offered me insights as I was analyzing the raw materials collected from the field about what to focus on when examining the texts of the two policies and the interview data. Therefore, as I analyzed the two political texts—the Open Letter and the HRS, I answered the first research question in Chapter Four. I noted that these new generation rural migrant female workers, a group born after the launch of the OL and the HRS, were described in the OL to be “the origin of problems” for the family and for the country as they would definitely jeopardize the progress of the “Four Modernization” and retard economic development. In Chapter Five, through analyzing the 20 in-depth interviews with these new generation rural migrant female workers, I answered the second research question as I argued that the rural migrant female workers’ stories were around two themes: receiving love and care from their parents, and experiencing hardships in the discourses that they have lived in. While the love and care that they received was mainly embodied with the authenticity of parenting, the hardships that they have suffered as they grew up were mixed with issues from gender to economy, and politics to rural/urban dualism. In the last chapter, after juxtaposing Chapters Four and Five and doing a comparison study on both macro and micro narratives, I offered answers to research questions three and four. Being described as sacrifice-able individuals even before their birth, these new generation rural migrant female workers left the governmental portrayal alone and learned to be authors for their own lives. In order to do so, they focused on the construction of “a complete home,” “jia” in their words, the whole meaning of their lives. For my participants, “jia” means 1) all the reasons that they wanted promotions in their jobs, 2) the careful protection of every family member’s heart, the well planned family life, and the comfortable and cozy place, and 3) where life is. In addition, they started to narrative their own understandings of “peasant-worker.” “Peasant-worker,” the word for word translation from the Chinese phrase “nong min gong,” the term that was first brought up in 1984 was finally left in that period of history.
Raymie McKerrow (Committee Chair)
Jerry Miller (Committee Member)
William Rawlines (Committee Member)
Risa Whitson (Committee Member)
Communication; Gender Studies; Geography
Rural Migrant Female Workers; Identity; Outsided; Urban-Rural; Rhetoric; Discursive Construction; Chinese Feminism; Space-Power

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Li, Z. (2015). The Role of Narrative in Identity Formation among New Generation Rural Migrant Women in Chongqing, China [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1426855888

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Li, Zhou. The Role of Narrative in Identity Formation among New Generation Rural Migrant Women in Chongqing, China. 2015. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1426855888.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Li, Zhou. "The Role of Narrative in Identity Formation among New Generation Rural Migrant Women in Chongqing, China." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1426855888

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.