Willy Sier | Utrecht University (original) (raw)
Journal articles by Willy Sier
Modern China, 2019
China's marriage squeeze poses a profound challenge to the construction of masculinity in rural r... more China's marriage squeeze poses a profound challenge to the construction of masculinity in rural regions, where marriage continues to play an important role in the production of gender identities, marking manhood and its virtues. What are the consequences when men fail to marry and to assert respected male seniority? We show that in the context of China's imbalanced sex ratio, family members attempt to rescue or restore the dignity of their sons and brothers by "giving gender," gestures of care that are aimed to bolster gender authenticity and thereby strengthen a young man's marriage prospects. By discussing both the intergenerational and intragenerational dynamics of gender collaboration within the family, we furthermore challenge existing studies that project gender antagonism in the wake of radical demographic change, while complicating the image of China's rural bachelors as social outcasts.
Gender, Place & Culture
This article examines how, following increased participation of students from rural backgrounds i... more This article examines how, following increased participation of students from rural backgrounds in China's higher education system, the educational achievements of young women affect the gender dynamics of rural households. It shows that the contributions of university-educated daughters to rural households go far beyond what has been described in the literature on women in rural Chinese families. Decisions pertaining to the careers and marriages of highly educated daughters are shaped by the strategies of rural households aiming to establish independent households of brothers and sons. Drawing upon ethnographic research in Hubei province, this article sheds light onto the processes of intense negotiation underlying household strategies and articulates the dilemmas faced by female members of rural households after graduating from university. How can they best support their families while constructing a life they desire and without treading on dominant gender ideologies? ARTICLE HISTORY
The European Journal of Development Research, 2021
This article offers an analysis of the educational aspirations of China’s education migrants. Th... more This article offers an analysis of the educational aspirations of China’s education migrants. These rural youth, who enrol in Chinese universities in great numbers, are often the first in their families to pursue higher education. Thereby, education migrants play an important role in China’s rural–urban transition. Yet these youth continue to be confronted with rural–urban inequalities in Chinese society. This article draws on the framework proposed by Zipin et al. (Educ Philos Theory 47(3):227–246, 2015) to demonstrate how education migrants navigate the gap between the dominant belief that education is a meritocratic vehicle for social mobility and the realities with which they are confronted in the Chinese higher education system. It also suggests how this framework can be adjusted for studies of societies undergoing rapid social transformation. Finally, the article makes a case for bringing together discussions about aspiring youth and debates about the social structures in which young peoples’ aspirations are grounded.
Pacific Affairs, 2021
Between 1978 and 2018 the percentage of the Chinese workforce in the service sector rose from 12.... more Between 1978 and 2018 the percentage of the Chinese workforce in the
service sector rose from 12.2 to 46.3. A large share of this workforce is in
sales, selling products ranging from household goods, insurance, advertising
space, and education, to various other services. The proliferation of
salespeople in China is facilitated by the dramatic increase in the number of
university graduates. Personnel in sales jobs, which are particularly popular
among graduates from rural backgrounds with degrees from universities
with indifferent reputations, experience an extraordinarily high level of
mobility. They typically change jobs every few months, either because
they are fired or they pursue better opportunities. Based on one year of
fieldwork undertaken between 2015 and 2017, this article shows how the
rapid expansion of China’s higher education subjects students from rural
backgrounds to new inequalities, which, in turn, reconfigure the rural-urban
divide into multiple intersecting hierarchies. Building on the concept of
complexed development, this article analyzes how salespeople experience
contradictory mobilities in a web of intersecting hierarchies. It shows how
they achieve upward status mobility by breaking away from agricultural
and manual labour and becoming university graduates and white-collar
workers; but also, how they sometimes experience downward mobility in
terms of income in comparison to previous generations of migrants and
their less-educated peers.
China Information, 2021
This article employs the concept of care as a lens through which to examine the anti-COVID-19 mea... more This article employs the concept of care as a lens through which to examine the anti-COVID-19 measures taken in post-lockdown Wuhan. Based on photographs that depict the Chinese response to COVID-19 at the epicentre of the virus outbreak, the article analyses the visibility of anti-virus measures as a form of government communication inscribed textually and symbolically onto the urban landscape. The state demonstrates its care and capability by implementing highly visible high-tech measures to contain the virus. Bringing care into the literature on crisis management in China sheds light on the Chinese state’s reaction to COVID-19 in eliciting nationalist sentiments and positive feelings of cooperation while stigmatizing critical voices as uncooperative and unpatriotic. It shows that care is central not only to the functioning of liberal democracies: the Chinese state also relies on narratives about care to showcase the superiority of its political system and to distinguish between d...
Film by Willy Sier
NPO2/HUMAN, 2022
De jonge Chinese Ke was voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek in Shanghai toen de rigoureuze lockdown w... more De jonge Chinese Ke was voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek in Shanghai toen de rigoureuze lockdown werd afgekondigd. Ze probeert op alle mogelijke manieren terug naar huis te komen. Dat lukt van geen kanten. De buurt waar ze verblijft wordt 28 dagen lang hermetisch afgesloten. Haar ervaringen legt ze vast in een videodagboek. Samen met haar buurtgenoten probeert ze, zo goed en kwaad als het kan, er het beste van te maken. Ze zoeken de grenzen op van wat mogelijk is. Waarbij een goede relatie met de sleutelbewaarder van de hekken rond de buurt een essentiële voorwaarde blijkt te zijn.
NPO2/HUMAN, 2020
Short film about life after lockdown in Wuhan.
The Guardian, 2017
A film about rapid urbanisation in China, the desire to buy a house in the city, and the inabilit... more A film about rapid urbanisation in China, the desire to buy a house in the city, and the inability to live there.
In contemporary China, cities are growing fast with large-scale investments in urban housing to accommodate rural-urban migration. For people from rural areas, buying a house in the city has become an important symbol of success. Yet, the houses they are able to afford are often located in city outskirts with few labour opportunities. Therefore many are unable to stay long-term in their newly acquired house, and instead furnish and store it for the future. This film is about such a house. It is empty most of the year, but the owners still consider it their home.
Direction: Sanderien Verstappen and Willy Sier
Camera: Sanderien Verstappen
Research & translation: Willy Sier
Editing: Sanderien Verstappen and Hilbert Kamphuisen
The film is based on a doctoral research project by Willy Sier in the city of Wuhan, at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR). It had its premiere at the VU Ethnographic Film Festival in 2016, and was financially supported by the University of Amsterdam (Anthropology Department and Moving Matters Research Group) and technically facilitated at DIA (Documentary Institute Amsterdam).
Book Reviews by Willy Sier
Social Anthropology, 2019
Popular/journalism by Willy Sier
COMPAS , 2020
Blog about working conditions in a Wuhan factory, including a 5-minute short film!
In IIAS Newsletter 80 (2018)
Papers by Willy Sier
Asian anthropology, Jul 3, 2022
Asian anthropology, Jul 3, 2022
Pacific Affairs, Jun 1, 2021
Between 1978 and 2018 the percentage of the Chinese workforce in the service sector rose from 12.... more Between 1978 and 2018 the percentage of the Chinese workforce in the service sector rose from 12.2 to 46.3. A large share of this workforce is in sales, selling products ranging from household goods, insurance, advertising space, and education, to various other services. The proliferation of salespeople in China is facilitated by the dramatic increase in the number of university graduates. Personnel in sales jobs, which are particularly popular among graduates from rural backgrounds with degrees from universities with indifferent reputations, experience an extraordinarily high level of mobility. They typically change jobs every few months, either because they are fired or they pursue better opportunities. Based on one year of fieldwork undertaken between 2015 and 2017, this article shows how the rapid expansion of China's higher education subjects students from rural backgrounds to new inequalities, which, in turn, reconfigure the rural-urban divide into multiple intersecting hierarchies. Building on the concept of complexed development, this article analyzes how salespeople experience contradictory mobilities in a web of intersecting hierarchies. It shows how they achieve upward status mobility by breaking away from agricultural and manual labour and becoming university graduates and white-collar workers; but also, how they sometimes experience downward mobility in terms of income in comparison to previous generations of migrants and their less-educated peers.
Visual Studies, Jun 6, 2023
The European Journal of Development Research, Sep 29, 2020
This article offers an analysis of the educational aspirations of China's education migrants. The... more This article offers an analysis of the educational aspirations of China's education migrants. These rural youth, who enrol in Chinese universities in great numbers, are often the first in their families to pursue higher education. Thereby, education migrants play an important role in China's rural-urban transition. Yet these youth continue to be confronted with rural-urban inequalities in Chinese society. This article draws on the framework proposed by Zipin et al. (Educ Philos Theory 47(3):227-246, 2015) to demonstrate how education migrants navigate the gap between the dominant belief that education is a meritocratic vehicle for social mobility and the realities with which they are confronted in the Chinese higher education system. It also suggests how this framework can be adjusted for studies of societies undergoing rapid social transformation. Finally, the article makes a case for bringing together discussions about aspiring youth and debates about the social structures in which young peoples' aspirations are grounded. Keywords Aspirations • China • Migration • Education • Youth Résumé Cet article propose une analyse des aspirations éducatives des Chinois et Chinoises qui migrent pour faire des études. Ces jeunes ruraux, qui s'inscrivent en grand nombre dans les universités chinoises, sont souvent les premiers de leur famille à poursuivre des études supérieures. Les étudiants migrants jouent ainsi un rôle important dans la transition rurale-urbaine de la Chine. Pourtant, ces jeunes restent confrontés aux inégalités rurales-urbaines dans la société chinoise. Cet article s'inspire du cadre proposé par Zipin et al. (2015) pour montrer comment les étudiants migrants gèrent l'écart qui existe entre la croyance dominante selon laquelle les études incarnent le système méritocratique permettant la mobilité sociale et la réalité à laquelle ils font face dans le système d'enseignement supérieur chinois. L'article suggère également la façon dont ce cadre peut être adapté pour les études sur les sociétés en mutation so
Gender Place and Culture, Sep 11, 2020
Modern China, 2019
China's marriage squeeze poses a profound challenge to the construction of masculinity in rural r... more China's marriage squeeze poses a profound challenge to the construction of masculinity in rural regions, where marriage continues to play an important role in the production of gender identities, marking manhood and its virtues. What are the consequences when men fail to marry and to assert respected male seniority? We show that in the context of China's imbalanced sex ratio, family members attempt to rescue or restore the dignity of their sons and brothers by "giving gender," gestures of care that are aimed to bolster gender authenticity and thereby strengthen a young man's marriage prospects. By discussing both the intergenerational and intragenerational dynamics of gender collaboration within the family, we furthermore challenge existing studies that project gender antagonism in the wake of radical demographic change, while complicating the image of China's rural bachelors as social outcasts.
Gender, Place & Culture
This article examines how, following increased participation of students from rural backgrounds i... more This article examines how, following increased participation of students from rural backgrounds in China's higher education system, the educational achievements of young women affect the gender dynamics of rural households. It shows that the contributions of university-educated daughters to rural households go far beyond what has been described in the literature on women in rural Chinese families. Decisions pertaining to the careers and marriages of highly educated daughters are shaped by the strategies of rural households aiming to establish independent households of brothers and sons. Drawing upon ethnographic research in Hubei province, this article sheds light onto the processes of intense negotiation underlying household strategies and articulates the dilemmas faced by female members of rural households after graduating from university. How can they best support their families while constructing a life they desire and without treading on dominant gender ideologies? ARTICLE HISTORY
The European Journal of Development Research, 2021
This article offers an analysis of the educational aspirations of China’s education migrants. Th... more This article offers an analysis of the educational aspirations of China’s education migrants. These rural youth, who enrol in Chinese universities in great numbers, are often the first in their families to pursue higher education. Thereby, education migrants play an important role in China’s rural–urban transition. Yet these youth continue to be confronted with rural–urban inequalities in Chinese society. This article draws on the framework proposed by Zipin et al. (Educ Philos Theory 47(3):227–246, 2015) to demonstrate how education migrants navigate the gap between the dominant belief that education is a meritocratic vehicle for social mobility and the realities with which they are confronted in the Chinese higher education system. It also suggests how this framework can be adjusted for studies of societies undergoing rapid social transformation. Finally, the article makes a case for bringing together discussions about aspiring youth and debates about the social structures in which young peoples’ aspirations are grounded.
Pacific Affairs, 2021
Between 1978 and 2018 the percentage of the Chinese workforce in the service sector rose from 12.... more Between 1978 and 2018 the percentage of the Chinese workforce in the
service sector rose from 12.2 to 46.3. A large share of this workforce is in
sales, selling products ranging from household goods, insurance, advertising
space, and education, to various other services. The proliferation of
salespeople in China is facilitated by the dramatic increase in the number of
university graduates. Personnel in sales jobs, which are particularly popular
among graduates from rural backgrounds with degrees from universities
with indifferent reputations, experience an extraordinarily high level of
mobility. They typically change jobs every few months, either because
they are fired or they pursue better opportunities. Based on one year of
fieldwork undertaken between 2015 and 2017, this article shows how the
rapid expansion of China’s higher education subjects students from rural
backgrounds to new inequalities, which, in turn, reconfigure the rural-urban
divide into multiple intersecting hierarchies. Building on the concept of
complexed development, this article analyzes how salespeople experience
contradictory mobilities in a web of intersecting hierarchies. It shows how
they achieve upward status mobility by breaking away from agricultural
and manual labour and becoming university graduates and white-collar
workers; but also, how they sometimes experience downward mobility in
terms of income in comparison to previous generations of migrants and
their less-educated peers.
China Information, 2021
This article employs the concept of care as a lens through which to examine the anti-COVID-19 mea... more This article employs the concept of care as a lens through which to examine the anti-COVID-19 measures taken in post-lockdown Wuhan. Based on photographs that depict the Chinese response to COVID-19 at the epicentre of the virus outbreak, the article analyses the visibility of anti-virus measures as a form of government communication inscribed textually and symbolically onto the urban landscape. The state demonstrates its care and capability by implementing highly visible high-tech measures to contain the virus. Bringing care into the literature on crisis management in China sheds light on the Chinese state’s reaction to COVID-19 in eliciting nationalist sentiments and positive feelings of cooperation while stigmatizing critical voices as uncooperative and unpatriotic. It shows that care is central not only to the functioning of liberal democracies: the Chinese state also relies on narratives about care to showcase the superiority of its political system and to distinguish between d...
NPO2/HUMAN, 2022
De jonge Chinese Ke was voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek in Shanghai toen de rigoureuze lockdown w... more De jonge Chinese Ke was voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek in Shanghai toen de rigoureuze lockdown werd afgekondigd. Ze probeert op alle mogelijke manieren terug naar huis te komen. Dat lukt van geen kanten. De buurt waar ze verblijft wordt 28 dagen lang hermetisch afgesloten. Haar ervaringen legt ze vast in een videodagboek. Samen met haar buurtgenoten probeert ze, zo goed en kwaad als het kan, er het beste van te maken. Ze zoeken de grenzen op van wat mogelijk is. Waarbij een goede relatie met de sleutelbewaarder van de hekken rond de buurt een essentiële voorwaarde blijkt te zijn.
NPO2/HUMAN, 2020
Short film about life after lockdown in Wuhan.
The Guardian, 2017
A film about rapid urbanisation in China, the desire to buy a house in the city, and the inabilit... more A film about rapid urbanisation in China, the desire to buy a house in the city, and the inability to live there.
In contemporary China, cities are growing fast with large-scale investments in urban housing to accommodate rural-urban migration. For people from rural areas, buying a house in the city has become an important symbol of success. Yet, the houses they are able to afford are often located in city outskirts with few labour opportunities. Therefore many are unable to stay long-term in their newly acquired house, and instead furnish and store it for the future. This film is about such a house. It is empty most of the year, but the owners still consider it their home.
Direction: Sanderien Verstappen and Willy Sier
Camera: Sanderien Verstappen
Research & translation: Willy Sier
Editing: Sanderien Verstappen and Hilbert Kamphuisen
The film is based on a doctoral research project by Willy Sier in the city of Wuhan, at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR). It had its premiere at the VU Ethnographic Film Festival in 2016, and was financially supported by the University of Amsterdam (Anthropology Department and Moving Matters Research Group) and technically facilitated at DIA (Documentary Institute Amsterdam).
COMPAS , 2020
Blog about working conditions in a Wuhan factory, including a 5-minute short film!
In IIAS Newsletter 80 (2018)
Asian anthropology, Jul 3, 2022
Asian anthropology, Jul 3, 2022
Pacific Affairs, Jun 1, 2021
Between 1978 and 2018 the percentage of the Chinese workforce in the service sector rose from 12.... more Between 1978 and 2018 the percentage of the Chinese workforce in the service sector rose from 12.2 to 46.3. A large share of this workforce is in sales, selling products ranging from household goods, insurance, advertising space, and education, to various other services. The proliferation of salespeople in China is facilitated by the dramatic increase in the number of university graduates. Personnel in sales jobs, which are particularly popular among graduates from rural backgrounds with degrees from universities with indifferent reputations, experience an extraordinarily high level of mobility. They typically change jobs every few months, either because they are fired or they pursue better opportunities. Based on one year of fieldwork undertaken between 2015 and 2017, this article shows how the rapid expansion of China's higher education subjects students from rural backgrounds to new inequalities, which, in turn, reconfigure the rural-urban divide into multiple intersecting hierarchies. Building on the concept of complexed development, this article analyzes how salespeople experience contradictory mobilities in a web of intersecting hierarchies. It shows how they achieve upward status mobility by breaking away from agricultural and manual labour and becoming university graduates and white-collar workers; but also, how they sometimes experience downward mobility in terms of income in comparison to previous generations of migrants and their less-educated peers.
Visual Studies, Jun 6, 2023
The European Journal of Development Research, Sep 29, 2020
This article offers an analysis of the educational aspirations of China's education migrants. The... more This article offers an analysis of the educational aspirations of China's education migrants. These rural youth, who enrol in Chinese universities in great numbers, are often the first in their families to pursue higher education. Thereby, education migrants play an important role in China's rural-urban transition. Yet these youth continue to be confronted with rural-urban inequalities in Chinese society. This article draws on the framework proposed by Zipin et al. (Educ Philos Theory 47(3):227-246, 2015) to demonstrate how education migrants navigate the gap between the dominant belief that education is a meritocratic vehicle for social mobility and the realities with which they are confronted in the Chinese higher education system. It also suggests how this framework can be adjusted for studies of societies undergoing rapid social transformation. Finally, the article makes a case for bringing together discussions about aspiring youth and debates about the social structures in which young peoples' aspirations are grounded. Keywords Aspirations • China • Migration • Education • Youth Résumé Cet article propose une analyse des aspirations éducatives des Chinois et Chinoises qui migrent pour faire des études. Ces jeunes ruraux, qui s'inscrivent en grand nombre dans les universités chinoises, sont souvent les premiers de leur famille à poursuivre des études supérieures. Les étudiants migrants jouent ainsi un rôle important dans la transition rurale-urbaine de la Chine. Pourtant, ces jeunes restent confrontés aux inégalités rurales-urbaines dans la société chinoise. Cet article s'inspire du cadre proposé par Zipin et al. (2015) pour montrer comment les étudiants migrants gèrent l'écart qui existe entre la croyance dominante selon laquelle les études incarnent le système méritocratique permettant la mobilité sociale et la réalité à laquelle ils font face dans le système d'enseignement supérieur chinois. L'article suggère également la façon dont ce cadre peut être adapté pour les études sur les sociétés en mutation so
Gender Place and Culture, Sep 11, 2020
Modern China, Nov 19, 2019
China’s marriage squeeze poses a profound challenge to the construction of masculinity in rural r... more China’s marriage squeeze poses a profound challenge to the construction of masculinity in rural regions, where marriage continues to play an important role in the production of gender identities, marking manhood and its virtues. What are the consequences when men fail to marry and to assert respected male seniority? We show that in the context of China’s imbalanced sex ratio, family members attempt to rescue or restore the dignity of their sons and brothers by “giving gender,” gestures of care that are aimed to bolster gender authenticity and thereby strengthen a young man’s marriage prospects. By discussing both the intergenerational and intragenerational dynamics of gender collaboration within the family, we furthermore challenge existing studies that project gender antagonism in the wake of radical demographic change, while complicating the image of China’s rural bachelors as social outcasts.
Identities-global Studies in Culture and Power, Dec 15, 2022
Following increased international migration to China, the number of relationships between foreign... more Following increased international migration to China, the number of relationships between foreign women and Chinese men has risen. This article studies how 'white women' are racialized in the Chinese context through analysing the meaning of the term yang. Based on an analysis of online content about these relationships in English and Chinese, this article demonstrates that different racial frameworks interact when the meaning of race is negotiated in romantic relationships that are not only racialized, but also international and multilingual. Finally, it shows how racial narratives are sometimes reproduced through white/yang women's accounts aimed at negating negative stereotypes about their husbands.
Blog about working conditions in a Wuhan factory, including a 5-minute short film!
Asian Anthropology
After the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan in January 2020, governments around the world evacuated thei... more After the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan in January 2020, governments around the world evacuated their citizens from China. Soon, problems arose in relation to the evacuation of families made up of white Western migrants and Chinese citizens, as their mixed citizenship status prevented them from being evacuated as a family. By analyzing news reports, policy documents, and social media discussions about these families' predicaments, this article investigates the reasons why they faced being separated in this time of crisis. Drawing on the concept of white mobility capital, it argues that the Covid-19 era brings to our attention the weak foundation of long-assumed mobility privileges among white migrants in China and sheds light on the precarious status of increasing numbers of mixed-status families in China.