How can Chinese migrant workers build and sustain a counter-hegemonic culture that values their contributions to their country’s development? In her new book Contesting Inequalities: Mediated Labor Activism and Rural Migrant Workers in China, Siyuan Yin studies civil society groups in Beijing and Xi’an that engage in what she terms “mediated labor activism,” or the “integration of a variety of… practices, such as theater performance, music, cultural production, and uses of digital media, into daily activism for migrant workers’ labor rights, equality, and justice” (p. 3). This type of engagement, according to Yin, creates a “domain where prevailing ideologies can be challenged and transformative social ideas can be formed and articulated… where social ideas connect with social forces” (p. 169).

The heart of Contesting Inequalities consists of a series of NGO case studies. These studies deftly capture the distinctive characters of each of the groups Yin examines. Readers are alerted to the blind spot of one organization and then shown how another organization attends to what the first one misses. Thus, the relatively narrow parameters of the programming of the Migrant Women’s Club are, in Yin’s telling, remedied by the radical challenge to capitalism and neo-liberalism issued by the Migrant Workers’ Home, and the latter’s weakness on gender and sexuality is addressed by the Jiu Ye Female Folk Band and the online platform Jianjiao Buluo. The relationships between these groups are also discussed in an interesting way, as are their complicated relationships with the state at different levels.

Importantly, each case study draws heavily on the voices of migrant participants in initiatives, not just interviews with NGO leaders. Domestic workers who have taken part in theatrical performances organized by the Migrant Women’s Club describe feeling “more confident,” “refreshed” and “accomplished” (p. 66). An individual who attended an education programme hosted by the Migrant Workers’ Home says he “could relate so much” to what he learned about labour movements in other countries and exclaims, “Aren’t we being exploited every day?” (p. 111). Stories about lesbian workers isolated on assembly lines and in factory dorms who find an outlet via Jianjiao Bulou are especially compelling. Yin captures, too, though, how there is a generational divide in the appeal of these institutions, with younger people being harder to reach.

All the organizations profiled in Contesting Inequalities have, as explained above, focused their energies in the cultural sphere or on the “emotional and intellectual dimensions of social issues” (p. 170). However, it should be noted that in the early 2000s and 2010s, other organizations, especially but not exclusively in southeast China, took a different approach, backing workers’ claims against individual employers. Feng Chen and Xuehui Yang have dubbed the more adventurous of these groups, namely those that went beyond service provision and litigation to engage in (informal) collective bargaining and take on some other traditional functions of trade unions, “movement-oriented labor NGOs.” These activists were suppressed by authorities, most notably during crackdowns in 2012, 2015 and 2019.

Although the groups examined in the book likely also view themselves as “movement-oriented” in the broadest sense – and they are, in some ways, more politically transgressive in their rhetoric – they have largely steered clear of this sort of street and shop-floor conflict. Their ambivalence about direct action is captured well by the book’s description of a workshop on strikes that Migrant Workers’ Home hosted. Yin says that workshop participants “all recognized that strikes remain a pivotal tool for collective resistance,” but they “also described the difficulties of collective bargaining and organizing strikes,” given “the material conditions and political environment in China,” and ultimately “emphasize[d] that effective resistance depends upon cultivating class consciousness” (p. 105).

Yin is refreshingly forthright in her democratic socialist vision (her last chapter is entitled “Another world is indeed possible”). In line with this commitment, it is worth debating the merits of the different approaches taken by different labour organizers in China. Is consciousness raising or confrontation with capital more impactful for those involved? Does one precede the other? Yin notes that Jianjiao Buluo’s “content only circulates among a relatively small audience” (p. 136). But this small audience presumably shares what they have read with others in various ways. The question then is of ripple effects. Are the ripple effects of people visiting a worker media platform or participating in a strike more significant?

Similarly, Contesting Inequalities would perhaps benefit from greater engagement with the practices of labour movements in other countries. Early in the book, Yin suggests that an essentially positive transition is underway globally from militant but hierarchical and exclusionary trade unions to “new and more flexible forms of labor organizing, such as workers centers, NGOs, and advocacy groups,” which have made a special effort to reach out to immigrants and people employed in the service economy (p. 18). Yet, there are well-documented trade-offs in terms of democratic accountability when it comes to these emergent institutions, as there are for the sorts of organizations in China she discusses (despite their many strengths). And the longstanding debates within unions themselves could be informative for a study like this.

During the period in which the research for the book was conducted, Chinese civil society faced increasing constraints. Yin notes how authorities forced groups to move their offices and how groups themselves changed their names and did other things to lower their perceived political sensitivity. Now, the slowdown of the Chinese economy is generating new uncertainty for workers. Gig employment is replacing the construction site and care jobs of the book’s protagonists. In some ways, Contesting Inequalities serves as a record of a vibrant era of grassroots worker mobilization that is rapidly receding into the past.

However, a record of this sort is essential if organizers are to effectively weigh their options going forward. For China scholars, meanwhile, the book rounds out our understanding of how citizens marginalized from the country’s official narratives have nonetheless found their voice at critical moments – and how they might do so again. Contesting Inequalities should be of interest to a range of readers interested in Chinese labour, civil society, alternative media and the possibility of social and political change.