Balancing Acts
Date
2017
Authors
Australian National University. Australian Centre on China in the World
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Canberra, ACT : Australian Centre on China in the World, The Australian National University
Abstract
On 18 November, a fire broke out in a
popular housing block inhabited mostly by
migrant workers in Beijing's Daxing district,
killing nineteen. Citing the need to ensure
safety, in a matter of days the local authorities
forced tens of thousands of 'low-end people'
(diduan renkou) to abandon their dwellings in
the suburbs of the Chinese capital, showing
absolutely no regard for their livelihoods.
Families who had moved from all over China
and had, in some cases, lived in Beijing for
years were effectively thrown out on the
street and left to their own fate in the freezing
northern winter. In just a few days they lost
everything, a cruel reminder of the precarity
inherent to the life of the Chinese migr ant.
This issue of Made in China includes a series
of essays that examine different declinations
of precarity.
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Access Statement
Open Access via publisher website