This is the first major work specifically on labor issues in China's burgeoning information and communications technology (ICT) industry. As such, it is a most welcome addition to the field of Chinese political economy and the political economy of development more broadly. While Yu Hong thus enjoys first-mover advantage, her book seems, at points, not quite ready for the limelight. Such roughness around the edges aside, the research and data are impressive and the empirical contributions substantial.
The overall arc of the book moves from a discussion of why earlier studies have largely overlooked key aspects of labor politics in China's ICT sector, to an analysis of the ICT sector's place in China's broader political economy, to a thorough investigation of the micro-level dynamics of labor management and working class society in the sector, to finally a speculative conclusion on the sustainability of China's particular model of development (with a globalized ICT sector near its core). While many parts of the book are long-winded, the micro-level analysis is informative, incisive, and the strongest part of the study.
The introduction and first three chapters accomplish in one hundred-thirty pages what could usefully have been condensed into twenty-five. While they offer a comprehensive background to the general conditions of the ICT sector in China, they contain little in the way of new data and less in the way of arguments original to the book. The reader gets a distinct feeling that these sections are residual holdovers from required elements of a not very thoroughly revised dissertation.
After this very lengthy runway, chapters 4, 5, and 6 form the theoretical and substantive core of the book. Chapter 4 unpacks the structural foundations of class politics in the ICT sector. Chapter 5 examines the lived identities of migrant workers (who constitute the backbone of production in this as in many other sectors). Finally, chapter 6 attempts to discern the possibilities for workers‘ mobilization and collective action in the wake of the 2008–2009 global crisis.
Chapters 4 and 5 lay out the three Zhejiang case study firms—two in Jiaxing, the third in Hangzhou—and trace micro-level processes with an admirable attention to both descriptive details and the drawing of wider inferences. Chapter 4, in particular, stands out with wonderfully detailed descriptions of how each of the three firms recruited workers and then went on to discipline and indoctrinate them. The discussion of recruitment mechanisms is especially good and makes a new and valuable contribution to the literature. The treatment of workplace discipline and management tactics shows flashes of brilliance, but could usefully have been greatly expanded and further developed.
Chapter 5 shifts perspective from the management's to the workers’ point of view. While Hong would have done well to engage more closely with the work of Pun Ngai and others, the section on workers' deliberations over whether or not to remain in the city (“Return Home or Stay Put,” pp. 194–201) is excellent and fills an important gap in many previous studies of migrant workers. The conceptual discussion of how migrants see themselves as workers (“Rural Perspectives of Being ‘Workers,’” pp. 205–13) is very intriguing and has much potential, but ideally could have been better fleshed out.
Chapter 6 is highly speculative and not well grounded in the author's data. It clearly should have been folded into the conclusion or cut from the manuscript. This is especially true in light of the book's overall excessive length. The conclusion adds little beyond what chapter 6 offers, other than a recap of the various sections of the book.
Finally, one must question the professional commitment of the editors and copyeditors at Rowman & Littlefield, as well as of the author, to this book. Nearly every paragraph is riddled with imprecise grammar, awkward usage, and generally bad writing. Many books suffer from such flaws, but seldom are they so pronounced. Clearly this is something that could have been fixed by more careful proofreading and revision. It is a pity that readers must now struggle through such opaque prose to glean what are actually many interesting and useful nuggets of insight and original data. I fear many may not make the effort, which would be a pity.
In all, Hong's book remains a worthy effort and one that contains many hidden gems for scholars interested in Chinese labor politics or political economy—both incisive observations about concepts and theories and a great deal of extremely useful information. The field of China studies will benefit to the extent that this book receives the attention it deserves.
