Anita Chan | The Australian National University (original) (raw)
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Papers by Anita Chan
The China Journal, issue no. 90, 2023
During the Anti-extradition Movement in Hong Kong, a wave of new unions surfaced-18 newly registe... more During the Anti-extradition Movement in Hong Kong, a wave of new unions surfaced-18 newly registered unions in 2019 and 491 in the first half of 2020. This article examines and analyzes the factors behind this upsurge in new union activism and asks how protesters acquired trade union consciousness. Previously, in the throes of an earlier protest movement in 2014 led by young people who valued individualism, self-activism, spontaneity, and postmaterialism, hierarchically structured institutions were distrusted and scorned, including trade unions. Yet half a decade later, during the 2019-20 protest movement, many thousands of participants joined forces to form the new unions. These took the shape of a new type of union known in labor studies as "social movement unionism." Despite having little experience, the new unions were able to sustain themselves, and some began to engage not only with political activism but also with management-labor issues and worker rights. This article draws on extensive interviewing during 2020-22 with labor activists and trade union organizers from old and new unions.
Cornell University Press, Nov 15, 2011
Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective, 2018
In the Western press, there regularly have been reports about the plight of Chinese paid a pittan... more In the Western press, there regularly have been reports about the plight of Chinese paid a pittance for working long hours making products for export1. The reports are accurate, and in fact, in a great many factories labour standards have continued to decline. But there are new developments in the labour arena that herald change. The formerly vast pool of impoverished workers from the countryside has begun drying up, as increasing numbers consider it not worthwhile to migrate from their villages. Western multinationals have devised "corporate codes of conduct" setting a floor for labour standards and, under pressure from the international anti-sweatshop movement, are seeking to enforce the codes in the Chinese factories that produce goods bearing their brands. The Chinese Federation of Trade Unions has mounted new efforts to establish union branches in foreign-run enterprises, and has begun organising enterprise-level trade-union elections in state-owned enterprises. These and the several other important developments, which will be examined in this paper are still just emerging. Tracking them helps us see what may lie ahead in the coming decade in Chinese labour relations
Children of Mao, 1985
When Mao Zedong gave young people the green light to assail the established order in 1966, the te... more When Mao Zedong gave young people the green light to assail the established order in 1966, the tensions, antagonisms, anger, self-disdain and bottled-up frustrations of the preceding years exploded into violence. The conscious basis for the young people’s behaviour was to ‘defend Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line’; but this became, as shall be seen, a rationale for the expression of their personal interests and emotional yearnings.
The China Journal, issue no. 90, 2023
During the Anti-extradition Movement in Hong Kong, a wave of new unions surfaced-18 newly registe... more During the Anti-extradition Movement in Hong Kong, a wave of new unions surfaced-18 newly registered unions in 2019 and 491 in the first half of 2020. This article examines and analyzes the factors behind this upsurge in new union activism and asks how protesters acquired trade union consciousness. Previously, in the throes of an earlier protest movement in 2014 led by young people who valued individualism, self-activism, spontaneity, and postmaterialism, hierarchically structured institutions were distrusted and scorned, including trade unions. Yet half a decade later, during the 2019-20 protest movement, many thousands of participants joined forces to form the new unions. These took the shape of a new type of union known in labor studies as "social movement unionism." Despite having little experience, the new unions were able to sustain themselves, and some began to engage not only with political activism but also with management-labor issues and worker rights. This article draws on extensive interviewing during 2020-22 with labor activists and trade union organizers from old and new unions.
Cornell University Press, Nov 15, 2011
Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective, 2018
In the Western press, there regularly have been reports about the plight of Chinese paid a pittan... more In the Western press, there regularly have been reports about the plight of Chinese paid a pittance for working long hours making products for export1. The reports are accurate, and in fact, in a great many factories labour standards have continued to decline. But there are new developments in the labour arena that herald change. The formerly vast pool of impoverished workers from the countryside has begun drying up, as increasing numbers consider it not worthwhile to migrate from their villages. Western multinationals have devised "corporate codes of conduct" setting a floor for labour standards and, under pressure from the international anti-sweatshop movement, are seeking to enforce the codes in the Chinese factories that produce goods bearing their brands. The Chinese Federation of Trade Unions has mounted new efforts to establish union branches in foreign-run enterprises, and has begun organising enterprise-level trade-union elections in state-owned enterprises. These and the several other important developments, which will be examined in this paper are still just emerging. Tracking them helps us see what may lie ahead in the coming decade in Chinese labour relations
Children of Mao, 1985
When Mao Zedong gave young people the green light to assail the established order in 1966, the te... more When Mao Zedong gave young people the green light to assail the established order in 1966, the tensions, antagonisms, anger, self-disdain and bottled-up frustrations of the preceding years exploded into violence. The conscious basis for the young people’s behaviour was to ‘defend Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line’; but this became, as shall be seen, a rationale for the expression of their personal interests and emotional yearnings.
This is an English translation of 3 chapters from a book published in Chinese about the 1989 Tian... more This is an English translation of 3 chapters from a book published in Chinese about the 1989 Tiananmen progests, titled Xiangzheng yu Anliu [Symbolism and Undercurrents (Taipei: Daohe Press, 1994), by Zhu Xiaoyang and Anita Chan, 347 pp. The first half of the translated chapters were published in the translation journal Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Winter 2000-2001), and I have made this available as a pdf. Three additional chapters were published in the following issue, Vol. 33, No 3 (Spring 2001), and I am making these chapters available here.
Sybolism and Undercurrents: The 1989 Mass Movement, Part I, 2000
This is an English translation of chapters from a book published in Chinese about the 1989 Tianan... more This is an English translation of chapters from a book published in Chinese about the 1989 Tiananmen progests, titled Xiangzheng yu Anliu [Symbolism and Undercurrents (Taipei: Daohe Press, 1994), by Zhu Xiaoyang and Anita Chan, 347 pp. Half of the translated chapters were published in the translation journal Chinese Sociology, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Winter 2000-2001), which is available here. The other half of the translated chapters were published in the following issue, Vol. 33, No 3 (Spring 2001), I am making it available as a separate pdf.