Years of Poems and Spirits

A really wonderful book. As enlightening as E.P. Thompson’s classic.

I remember Kent G asked us during class – what is “class consciousness”? It was then I suddenly realized, oh, it is not something that is always there!

Perry’s book really helped me to complete the intellectual journey started with this question. In my mind at least, there is no longer such a structural being called “class consciousness”. It is more organic, something grows out of a complex makeup of social soil.

Note, this is a second try. It failed last time when I tried to write a comprehensive review. It just didn’t work out. This book took me several month to finish on the 3rd try (ever since recommended by DS a year ago), it is not like while I was in school when I had to finish a couple of books a week. The memory faded by the time I started writing review but thoughts and inductions abound. It is really hard to write something concise that way.

I also thought about book reviews like those in the New Yorker. But they are more like literature reviews, each comes with broad references and, more importantly, a clear narrative of how a certain subject evolved. I am nowhere near being able to discuss Labor Study (or even Labor History in China) in that way. So I gave up writing last time.

I am grateful for this book because it helped me to recalibrate my view on Marxism. Its Historical Materialism still wield a heavy influence on my world view but at the same time I know it is just another theory among many. The difficulty is to escape my own myopia and put what brought me here in a proper lineup. I have been trying to do so for years. Finally, with help from this book, I found some kind of closure.

In the book, Perry developed two themes: First, different workers protest differently. Second, they become different as a result of their social relationship with each other. In general, Perry argues, the more skilled workers are more likely to engage in class struggle. The less skilled are more likely to be thugs (aka Lumpenproletariat in Marxist lexicon). In Shanghai’s example, it is the printing press mechanics, the managers in Postal service and so on, are the CCP-affiliated activists. The tobacco rollers and textile workers, on the other hand, are easy recruits of the GMD-controlled Green Gang members.

However, her second point is more subtle. Paraphrasing Charles Tilly’s words, “A worker’s skill is a type of social relationship”, Perry used the first half of the book to develop a narrative on how a worker’s native place can determine his political awareness. It makes total sense in the Chinese context where I grew up – people from Jiangnan are generally considered smarter, are quicker learners. They tend to get better jobs, which heightened their self-consciousness and political demand. All of this development was further nurtured by a strong native-place bondage, apprenticeship training and the existence of Habermas-ian public space.

There it is: class consciousness is not a uniformed, structural being. It is not the same in every culture, at different times, or even within the same “working class”. It is very much a product of socio-cultural environment–as much as that of the material-production relationship that Karl Marx thought was the defining character. In other words, class consciousness, like religion, it is not something everyone is born with, but rather a gift one may or may not receive somewhere in one’s life. No wonder Perry uses terms like “rise above” to describe the formation of class-consciousness. Here you go, Migdal, this is you exegesis.

Just saw two pieces of news – “浙商发布投资黑名单惹争议 山西因煤改位居榜首”, “发改委、能源局通报山西省煤矿企业兼并重组成果”

The essence of the news is that in Shanxi, the tide has shifted. The government has undertaken policy changes to force industry consolidation. So much so that private capital starts to lose interest in this strategic industry.

According to Xinhua-

整合重组后，山西省矿井数由２６００座减少到１０５３座，７０％的矿井规模达到年产９０万吨以上，年产３０万吨以下的 小煤矿全部淘汰，平均单井规模由年产３０万吨提高到年产１００万吨以上，保留矿井将全部实现机械化开采。产业集中度明显提高，企业主体由２２００多家减少 到１３０家，形成４个年生产能力亿吨级的特大型煤炭集团、３个年生产能力５０００万吨级以上的大型煤炭集团。

Since this is the field where I ended my study on, it was really exciting to hear the good news. And I am kind surprised the change comes much earlier than I anticipated. It is really uplifting.

Of course, I don’t think the book is totally close shut. I still have questions about how the consolidation was financed, or was it by fiat? If it was financed by State money (national banks), this is a good case to show why, sometimes, “crowding out” private capital may not be a bad thing at all.

So much has changed after I wrote the paper. I wonder how I would write it now if I were given the chance.

It is a cold, damp Seattle evening. Red Square is dark and foggy. People in hooded jackets walking in and out of the vast fuzziness around me like figures in paintings.

Still, I was pretty emotional being back on campus after so long. When I first went to the Enchantments, looking at the golden larch trees pitched against intensely blue autumn sky, I was pretty overwhelmed and thought, somehow, I don’t deserve such a moment.

This is not the same environ by any means but the feeling is the same. It is a luxury to be in school. Not that everyone in academia is any different from people I see on the street. But in a classroom, when it comes to learning, everyone has to put on a different face, hide one’s psyche, talks in a certain tongue and thinks in a certain way. In other words, there is certain role-play while in a classroom. And that, is exactly what a Platonic “form” to me.

Tonight’s topic is Xin Jiang. Maybe the emotion carried through but I was in tearful despair when a couple of kids from China spoke passionately in defense of their government. I thought of Yang Lei, the one I know that is closest to being a martyr. But mostly I thought of myself. Of how lonely being is. Maybe Camus is right, Sisyphus must be happy.

At the end of the day, still had to work into late night. It has been very stressful recently. I think I am a little bit on edge now. What is not helpful is an email from Harrison Street. As confusing as it was upsetting. What a shame something this good could turn ugly this quickly. But life is too short to dwell on that.

On more thing -

First time to listen to Prof. Kasaba lecture. He is one that is not very good at giving small talk but very passionate about big arguments. His topic was Turkish reaction during the Urumqi unrest. It is quite fascinating. He was pretty critical as I would, but also saw the irony of Turkish Nationalism: the duality of ethnocentricity and desire for material glory (e.g. the Turkish President just visited China a month before). Turkey was one of the few countries that really fascinated me (as a case study) in Jackson School (students from Turkey are not unlike those from China nowadays but a little bit self-critical). I had so many questions.