Proletarian China: A Century of Chinese Labour

by Ivan Franceschini (Editor), Christian Sorace (Editor)

A century of complex relations between Communists and workers in China

In 2021, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated a century of existence. Since the Party’s humble beginnings in the Marxist groups of the Republican era to its current global ambitions, one thing has not changed for China’s leaders: their claim to represent the vanguard of the Chinese working class. Spanning from the night classes for workers organised by student activists in Beijing in the 1910s to the labour struggles during the 1920s and 1930s; from the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution to the social convulsions of the reform era to China’s global push today, this book reconstructs the contentious history of labour in China from the early twentieth century to this day (and beyond). This will be achieved through a series of essays penned by scholars in the field of Chinese society, politics, and culture, each one of which will revolve around a specific historical event, in a mosaic of different voices, perspectives, and interpretations of what constituted the experience of being a worker in China in the past century.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Labor

880 pages, Paperback

Published June 7, 2022

Reviews

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Verso, who can sometimes be faulted for their attention to actually-existing-socialisms or lack thereof, put out a load of good stuff for the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution, and this is one of a massive two volume series of chronological essays and extracts, a sister book to the similarly enormous Afterlives of Chinese Communism - this time on the working class experience in the last century. It is far too long - yes, the subject is vast, but even then, there's a lot of repetition - and even given the range of perspectives (which range broadly from left-liberal to anarchist to Maoist) it is striking how much less nuanced and forgiving it is on the post-78 era than it is on Maoism, though one can read between the lines to find a gradual picture of a much fairer, more regulated, less brutally anti-worker (if also much harsher to NGOs and non-state actors in general) state capitalist China emerging from the late 2000s onwards, if you're so inclined. But there's such an abundance here, with everything from science fiction to worker poetry to feminism covered, that it's very much worth having, even though it takes some patience to get through it all.

[Barry Smirnoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A history of the Chinese working class during the last 100 years.

This is a compilation of essays by various scholars which each examines a different aspect of the development. I found these essays to be very enlightening on a number of issues which were not included in my previous reading of this period. The book is in chronological order, though the issues studied often overlap the time elements. This book has led me to read other contemporary studies of the CCP and the PRC.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

[Robert M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. It gets worse as it goes along which, funnily enough, is how they see the chinese revolution and socialism (anywhere it ever actually existed).