This week we will be reading the book The Leavers by Lisa Ko. In this book, the heroine, Polly, sneaked to the United States in order to seek a better life. However, her dream was shattered later, and she finally chose a life beyond her control. This phenomenon reminds me of those migrant workers from the countryside in the city. The development of urbanization leads to the socioeconomic class gap and creates the prejudices. In this case, I try to discuss the reason for the group prejudice and discrimination-grinding interaction between the migrant workers and city residents.
Karen C Seto (2013), the professor from Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, points out that “in 1950 13% of Chinese people lived in cities. By 2010, the urban share of the population had grown to 45%; It’s projected to reach 60% by 2030”. As a matter of fact, with the rapid development of urbanization, more and more rural residents move to the city to seek a better life. Yusuf (2009) said in his article “Off to the City”: “According to research conducted by Barry Bosworth and Susan M.Collins, China’s productivity averaged 4 percent growth annually between 1993 and 2004 and contributed roughly 40 percent of GDP growth.” Better economic development means more conditions of employment and other more social benefits than rural residents. All these advantages make the gap between urban residents and rural residents larger and larger and thus produce a lot of cultural prejudice. This is also why the heroine is so excited when she can work in Fuzhou, a city in China.
In fact, urban and rural areas have increasingly formed two opposing cultures. This prejudice caused by two different cultures is pervasive. I think that the government should take some measures to ease the conflict between the two areas. By knowing these backgrounds, I think it can be helpful for us to better understand the content of the article in a comprehensive way.
Reference
Seto, Karen. C. (2013) “What Should We Understand about Urbanization in China?” – November 1. <http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-should-we-understand-about-urbanization-china>
Yusuf, Shahid. (2009), “Off to the City” – World Bank Institute, the World Bank. May 1. <http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/off-to-the-city/>
Hey Wentao,
Really like a lot of the points you made here. I agree that the government needs to do a better job of controlling the conflict between urban and rural. I think both sides need to see where each is coming from as both have different goals in mind. They should also realize that one is helping the other. If the rural people can better understand who the people are that live in. the cities (a lot of times immigrants), they can better get along. The immigrants didn’t come to the big cities to just piss off the people who inhabit the given area, they came to get away from the everyday struggles that people from different places experience. As human we must have empathy for people who are struggling with things we could never imagine. We need to even imagine ourselves in their shoes and ask ourselves what we wold do in that situation. The fact is, we would do everything in our power to provide for ourselves and our family a better life. Thats all these people are doing. We must also see how these people moving into the city provide growth for the city as you explained in your analysis of the article.
Hi Wentao,
I think this article is very meaningful. In today’s society, the gap between migrant workers and urban residents is growing. With the development of economy, more and more people choose to live in cities and seek more opportunities. But there is often discrimination and prejudice due to differences in concepts and other aspects. This is very common in cities. For example, migrant workers cannot take the subway simply because their clothes are not clean. This novel tells about Polly’s experience. She is an illegal immigrant in the United States. She is like a migrant worker who came to the city, without any status or power. I think understanding this background can help us better understand this novel!