20 Years Working In Shenzhen:on The Edge Of Urban And Rural Areas

In the 1980s,with the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone,a large number of people stepped out of the rural areas and went to work in Shenzhen,becoming the earliest group of builders in China' s reform and opening up.The long-term working life made them far away from the rural network of relations and ceased to be farmers in the true sense of the word.The traditional relationship between the relatives and the family was thus broken down and a large group of left-behind children emerged.With time goes by,the gap between migrant workers and left-behind children is getting deeper,and new problems are constantly emerging.The splitting and merging of cities and villages has been a major issue in Chinese society,which has also led to many discussions in recent years.At the time of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up,and at the same time Shenzhen's development has also reached a special period of transformation,which makes the development of migrant workers' groups a valuable topic.The protagonist of this report is a migrant worker,Yan.She is from Yiyang,Hunan,and began working in Shenzhen in 1994.Her son Deng Long was raised by his grandparents after birth.For 24 years,due to various contradictions and misunderstandings,the relationship between mother and son has been deteriorating,even to the point where the mother-child relationship is severed.Yan no longer returns to her hometown for the Chinese New Year,and her factory is about to relocate,leaving her faced with the predicament of unemployment.The child,Deng Long,is arrogant,hates his parents but has to embark on the same path as his parents.As a younger generation,he is no longer a traditional peasant,but on the other hand he is unable to adapt to the lifestyle and rhythm of the city,causing him suffer repeated setbacks and difficulties inShenzhen.The encounter of Yan and Deng Long is the epitome of many families of migrant workers—parents have paid time,physical costs,and affection costs,but get nothing but the awkward situation of themselves and their families,and eventually the two generations have become a marginal person in a dilemma.Some people say that left-behind children are"emotional liabilities" for China's economic development.Even if the economy is further developed,migrant workers can earn more money but they cannot make up for the trauma of their families.In the future,Shenzhen will no longer be a paradise for migrant workers.The term"migrant workers" will also become history.But where should Yan and Deng Long go,as well as all the familes who are in dilemma?Through face-to-face interviews and close observations,this article tells the story of a woman and writes how she left her hometown to work in a big city,entered a completely unfamiliar network,and what kind of confusion and struggle are there for her in the new era.From the perspective of relationship,at the same time,the article also looks at how her child has grown up,how she has been separated from her network of relationships,and where family conflicts have come from.The article spans in time and space.The content displayed can be analyzed from the X-axis,Y-axis,and Z-axis.The X-axis is the timeline,how Yan went out from her hometown and went into the factories;the Y-axis is space,divided into cities and villages,telling about the process of the flow of people between urban and rural areas and the changes that have taken place in urban and rural areas for decades.Urban and rural areas are not separated from each other,but interspersed with each other;the Z-axis is the character,not only the protagonist herself,but also her son,parents,brothers and sisters,as well as coworkers,etc.,from their perspective,we can see the changes that occurred during this period,such as the relationship between the protagonist and his son.From the dual istic perspective of urban and rural areas,this article combines Yan' s working life with Shenzhen ' s urban development process.On the other hand,it focuses on the rural left-behind groups and the contradictions in rural area.Starting from the story of a woman and her family,this article tries to present the changes of urban and rural areas since the reform and opening up as well as many other topics regarding migrant labor and migrant-workers.