Gender In Practice: A Study Of The Division Of Labour In Lanzhou Yiwu Trade

In the 1960 s and 1970 s,the global industrial restructuring that was triggered by the formation of capitalist commercial value chains affected both developed and developing countries,and the large number of women working in the manufacturing end of the chain was perceived as being oppressed by both the capitalist market economy and the traditional patriarchal system.While China’s position as the manufacturing end of the global business chain has also been affected by this process,in terms of the form and shape of its development,the dynamics of China’s small commodity economy reveal a different dynamic from that generally recognised above,which opens up new perspectives for understanding the small commodity economy.The petty commodity economy,characterised by a gendered division of labour and household production,has continued to flourish in the south of China,with its markets spreading to different regions of the world and the country,including the Yiwu Trade City in Lanzhou in the northwest.In the context of national economic restructuring and governmental development goals,as well as the rise of local markets,many self-employed women have entered the small commodity market,but little attention has been paid to the labour processes of women self-employed people.This is why the present study is based on this topic.The research questions include three points.Firstly,the division of labour between market participation and family care work and how they respond to and perceive the traditional gender division of labour.Secondly,how does the theory of gendered spatial division of public and private spheres apply to the study of the division of labour,and how does the business and life practices of the self-employed relate to this theory of gendered spatial division of public and private spheres,and what cultural perceptions underlie the changing gendered division of labour among the self-employed in the market town.Thirdly,the small commodity economy,which in the formalist view of economics and economic anthropology is the ’embryonic state’ of the capitalist market economy,has demonstrated the surprising effectiveness and commercial value of combining the traditional household production model with the socialist market economy in the course of China’s economic development.This study examines the local connotations and economic values in the formation of the small commodity economy,taking the Yiwu Trade City in Lanzhou,a local radial sub-market representing the Yiwu model of China’s small commodity economy,and considers the links and differences between this model of development and the Western capitalist market economy theory,as well as attempting to respond to the market debate in economic anthropology.It also attempts to respond to the market debate in economic anthropology.This study adopts an ethnographic approach,using economic anthropology and gender anthropology as the main theoretical tools,based on the data from the field survey of the Yiwu Trade City in Lanzhou,and using the tools of gender division of labour analysis from the state-market-household perspective to document the entry of individual households into This is an ethnographic record of the business practices and daily lives of individual households entering,staying in and leaving the market.Firstly,the gender division of labour is used as an analytical tool to trace the long history of the small commodity economy in China,with the intention of clarifying the multiple macro contexts and the complex experiences of individual households before they entered the market and the connections between them.The second part of the discussion is based on the characteristics of the traditional marketplace and the modern shopping mall management system,and the spatial characteristics of the shopping mall and the stalls to analyse the gender division of labour of the individual households in the market,and thus to sort out the main types of business forms of the individual households.This is followed by a presentation of the business practices of the self-employed in terms of their perceptions and traditional models of the gender division of labour in the market,as well as contextualised interactions and gender manipulation,summarising their understanding of their own occupation and the characteristics of their business,and attempting to answer the multiple meanings of the self-employed as an underclass occupational group.Lastly,the analysis of how gender as a strategy is applied to the life practices of the self-employed in a risky environment and the gender differentiation that is reflected in this context is presented in the context of the new epidemic of the crown and the business of the self-employed.In summary,the study finds that the fundamental inseparability between self-employment practices and everyday life is reflected in the commercial space,thus responding to the gender dichotomy between social work in the public sphere and private domestic work that has been prevalent in gender studies,and thus enriching the qualitative case of gender studies.Secondly,the double labour pressure faced by self-employed women in their practice is an undeniable fact of existence and a real feeling of the individual.This is not the rational profit maximisation of the market economy or the neoliberal pursuit of individual values,but rather the maintenance of the family and life itself.Finally,unlike the dominant Western marketist judgement and understanding of the development of the commodity economy,the Chinese small commodity economy has remained an important part of the overall economic system from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the present day.It still occupies a certain proportion of the Chinese market economy,and has strengthened its circulation and influence in both domestic and international markets,responding to the debate between formal and substantiveism in economic anthropology over traditional markets and modern mechanisms with the example of its north-western sub-market,and validating the research proposition of the New Broad School,which is to return to the research path of combining economic anthropology positivism with formal economic mechanisms.