In the global imagination, “Made in China” is often linked to cheap, fast, and sometimes counterfeit goods; and to the nameless workers who make them. But what about the people in between? The small-scale entrepreneurs who are neither wage workers nor secure capitalists, who run household workshops out of urban villages, and who dream of freedom admist precarious circumstances?
Nellie Chu, Assistant Professor and cluster lead for the Cluster for Gender and Global China at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, spent years embedded in Guangzhou’s fast fashion industry — one of the world’s most dynamic hubs of transnational commodity production. Her recently published book, Precarious Accumulation: Fast Fashion Bosses in Transnational Guangzhou, tells the story of rural Chinese migrants, West African and South Korean traders who navigate the high-speed, low-margin world of just-in-time garment production. Read More
Mingjiang Gao is a student from the Class of 2026 majoring in Arts and Media (Digital Culture and Communication) and a researcher in the CSCC Faculty–Student Collaborative Project “Queer Transnational Media Flow: Exploring Queer (In)Visibilities on Chinese Digital Platforms.” Guided by Prof. Fan Liang, the project examines how foreign queer media circulates on Chinese digital platforms under conditions of censorship, with particular attention on the role of individual users who transmit, adapt, and mediate such content across borders. Situated at the intersection of queer studies, digital media studies, and transnational communication, Mingjiang’s work contributes to ongoing scholarly conversations about visibility, platform governance, and the cultural politics of media flow. In the interview below, Mingjiang introduces the project, reflects on his research process so far, and discusses the broader significance of studying queer media visibility in contemporary China. Read More
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