Xiaodong Lin's book examines the identity formation of male migrant workers through the process of migration, based on 28 interviews with male peasant migrant workers aged 17 to 48 in Shantou City in Guangdong Province. Adopting an interpretivist methodology and recognizing the intersectionality of gender, class and ethnicity, Lin approaches the overarching question by focusing on the lived experiences of these workers within their families and at work. He aims to demarginalize the experiences of male migrant workers in studies of rural–urban migration in China.

The opening chapters provide the social, economic and historical context within which the male migrant workers are situated. In chapter one, the author considers China's pursuit of neo-liberalism and modernization and the consequent growth in social inequality and the formation of a “cadre–capitalist class” (p. 10). Chapter two traces the changing meaning of social class and the concomitantly changing social status of workers and peasants from the Mao era to the post-Mao era. Combining the characteristics of workers and peasants, migrant workers constitute a new urban working class, according to the author. Lin examines the low status of peasants and workers, which can be reflected by the negative images of peasant migrant workers represented in media, implying that they are considered not compatible with the dominant discourse of modernization.

The following two chapters are empirical, and pertinently explore the refashioning of the workers’ masculinized subjectivity and how it is related to the modernization project in China. In chapter three, the author examines how the male migrants rework traditional gender roles and values in the realm of private lives. Lin reveals that traditional values, such as filial piety, are still salient to the migrants. Nevertheless, one primary practice has shifted: they no longer take care of parents by their side, but migrate out of the home villages and send remittances back.

Chapter four deals with the construction of these workers’ masculinized identity in the workplace and how they negotiate their identity as they engage in non-traditional male occupations in the urban areas. Lin insightfully discovers that “Confucian ‘father–son’ relations are a central resource for the male migrant workers to creatively engage with the social relations of the urban workplace…” and that interaction at work is salient for the migrant men to construct their masculinized identity (p. 15).

The originality of Lin's book hinges on its empirical and theoretical contributions to current scholarly discussions on gender, migration and contemporary China studies. He explores the relational self of these workers that is situated in a webbed network, which differs from the individuality emphasized when discussing subjectivity in the West. Moreover, he provides a critique of the overemphasis on female migrants’ experiences in qualitative studies of rural–urban migration in China. Also, by interrogating how these workers have recast their masculinized identity through migration process, this book addresses multiple masculinities of male workers in China, complementing current men and masculinity studies.

However, I find the book less convincing in places where Lin discusses gendered familial identity and practices without taking women's experiences into consideration. For example, the author considers the male workers’ responsibility as “gendered familial responsibility” without exploring gender difference (p. 67). Based on the literature, the gendered difference is small with regard to the responsibilities both male and female migrants intend to escape or the filial obligations that they have to take on. For instance, the author discusses that “for some men it was a path that enabled them to escape traditional gender obligations and responsibilities” (p. 48), which resembles the findings of Arianne Gaetano that women may delay their marriage by extending their stay in the urban areas (On the Move: Women and Rural-to-urban Migration in Contemporary China, Columbia University Press, 2004, pp. 67–68). Furthermore, the author considers masculinized practices of filial obligations including sending money home (p. 62) and family pressure on giving birth to a son (p. 68). In a similar vein, Tamara Jacka finds the filial obligation of sending remittance back among her female informants (Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change, M.E. Sharpe, 2006, p. 179). As for the obligation of giving birth to a son, arguably the pressure is a burden to men as well as to women. Above all, these identities and practices do not only pertain to migrant men and therefore it is not sufficient to claim these aspects of male migrants’ identity as gendered whilst the author's research focuses only on male experience.

Furthermore, I find an innate contradiction in terms of the motivation of the male workers’ migration in the Postscript. The author addresses the revelation from a national survey conducted in China that the primary motivation for the younger generation of male migrants is to “enrich their experience” whereas the older generation predominantly aims to improve their living standard (p. 116). However, the author finds outs that for the younger migrants, “the economic rationale remains a dominant factor for their mobility” (p. 120). The book leaves a blank as regards how to account for the difference between his observation and the national survey.

Overall, this book is critical, original, thought-provoking and timely. The potential audience of this book would be scholars and students who are interested in the areas of sociology, anthropology, contemporary China studies, gender studies and migration studies.