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from the smallest firms and worst sectors alike, in the Upper Changjiang and North-
Central regions is a third point of view.
This third way could be called the “keep your head down and muddle through”
frame. This way of viewing recent events and changes in Chinese society holds that
reform has brought about many problems – including widespread job losses and
corruption – but also affords the dislocated a number of new opportunities. In line with
Solinger’s finding that many workers in Wuhan appeared to be too busy working at
temporary posts and odd jobs to protest,
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adherents of this frame maintain that to make
ends meet one must work exceedingly hard to find the new opportunities that exist in the
market, though there is little doubt that such opportunities do exist. These opportunities
are thought to be sufficiently fragile that political or social upheaval on any scale could
result in them being snatched away.
As one laid-off textile worker in Chongqing said, “protest is of no use for us laid-
off workers. No one ever gets anything from stirring up trouble and people like me can’t
stop working [in odd jobs] and go protest. We have to feed our children”.
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A laid-off
coal miner in Datong also observed that, “I am afraid of what would happen if I were
caught protesting. Some of my co-workers from the mine have protested violently and
have been arrested. I am able to find enough work around town to feed my family, but I
have no health insurance or pension. If I get in trouble, I don’t know what would
happen”.
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The party secretary of a large SOE in Luoyang also claimed that workers in
his factory generally remained off the streets so long as they were able to find some sort
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Interview, 43 year old, male, laid-off auto worker, Shenyang, November 2002.
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Dorothy Solinger “Labour Market Reform and the Plight of the Laid-off Proletariat” The China
Quarterly, Number 170 (June 2002) – pp.304-326.
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Interview, 44 year old, female, laid-off textile worker, Chongqing, October 2001.
Convention