The Life On Shoulder-An Anthropological Study About Stick Men Of Mountain City

Since the 1980s, a large number of studies on China’s social stratification have emerged in domestic social anthropology. Many scholars did a great deal of field research on wealth gap, social exclusion and other social issues. What is more,’lower people’as well as marginal and vulnerable groups have been taken seriously. Mr. Qiaojian put forward the concept of ’lower class’ and ’bottom society’. He insisted that we should see the world in the view of lower class and pay attention to the social underclass who engaged in’cheap business’, such as acrobats, barbers, cooks, etc, who were thought to be in weak position in terms of economic or social status.The stick men can be described as a major feature of the mountain city Chongqing. They were seen as the bottom of society, because they are at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy in terms of wages or social prestige. After the reform and opening up, large number of rural surplus labor from Chongqing and Sichuan swarmed into the mountain city Chongqing. As the main force of migrant workers to cities, they take on the dirty and tired job that city people are unwilling to do. They take the bamboo sticks, ropes, and small carts as their working tool, and offer floating and sporadic labor service for people’s daily life and business activities in the hillside or ridge of Chongqing. In summary, they make money with their physical work. This research is based on the field investigation of stick men in Chaotianmen large-scale wholesale market of Chongqing, in the Three Gorges Square and in the Shiqiaopu in April, July and August,2014. In the process of the fieldwork, I deeply felt that there is invisible social relation and organizational network in the stick men group. For example,they sustain the development of the whole population according to their agreed ’norm’ or’rules’. Choosing stick men as their job, they are helpless but self-confident and of high self-esteem,tricky but dependable and cohesive.they share a common emotion—’we are all in it’,meaning that they work together to solve problems and troubles. As manual workers, stick men work or fight with their body. for instance, when they carry heavy loads, they are paid by the weight of loads. But in essence, the price is measured by body, so is their workplace. The body means everything for them. More specifically,their bodies are not only physical object but also profitable commodity. They stage different physical performance everyday.This research focuses on how the stick men formed, how they worked and how they solve problems through observation, interviews and other field work methods. In order to study the independent social organization and the regional network organization built by individuals and groups during their adaptation to cities,I pay attention to the daily life of stick men group including their awareness and physical condition, describe their behavior deeply, and explore how they build their’sense of belonging’and consciousness in a strange city in the background of Chinese urban and rural restructuring and dignity despite not given by the society. Therefore, the purpose of current attempt is not draw a generalized conclusion about the life of the so-called lower people from a specific time or place, but viewing this small group, understanding the meaning of what we have seen and heard,and explaining their behaviors.