The Trilogy on Migration, Mobility and Urban China

I am currently working on this book manuscript. This book focuses on China’s rural migrant entrepreneurs, peddlers, and other informal workers who make a living on the fast-changing urban fringes of Beijing through casual labor and small investments. These migrants cannot be defined solely by their work because they constantly hop from one job or business to another to ensure an income. The term “peasant workers” is also inadequate insofar as they often reject tedious factory regimes and invest their wage income in various entrepreneurial schemes. Their life strategy of what they call chuangdang (闯荡), or “venturing,” a term that implies both risk-taking entrepreneurship and prolonged mobility, defines their urban existence.