TY - JOUR
T1 - Suspension 2.0
T2 - Segregated Development, Financial Speculation, and Waiting among Resettled Peasants in Urban China
AU - Zhan, Yang
N1 - Funding Information:
I would like to thank Zhiyuan Cui from Tsinghua University, Do Dom Kim from the University of Chicago and Ralph Litzinger from Duke University for their valuable feedback. This research is supported by the China and Inner Asia Small Grant from the Association for Asian Studies, the start-up fund for new recruits (1-BE1W) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a General.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Zhiyuan Cui from Tsinghua University, Do Dom Kim from the University of Chicago and Ralph Litzinger from Duke University for their valuable feedback. This research is supported by the China and Inner Asia Small Grant from the Association for Asian Studies, the start-up fund for new recruits (1-BE1W) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a General
Funding Information:
Research Grant (Early Career Scheme) from the Hong Kong Research Council (25607320). An earlier version of this article was presented at the “Migration and Global China” conference organized by Shanghai University in August 2020, and the Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting in March 2021. My gratitude goes to Tania Li and Xiaorong Gu for their valuable comments as discussants.
Publisher Copyright:
© Pacific Affairs:.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Since the late 2000s, many rural-to-urban migrants in China have lost their rural land to development plans, resettled in designated areas, and acquired formal urban residency. They stopped migrating, and have apparently ended their life of “suspension,” namely protracted mobility. While most existing research literature on this population foregrounds the issue of land dispossession, this article argues that, following resettlement, these former migrants’ lives can be more accurately characterized as a state of suspension instead of dispossession. Many resettled young adults, while having secured livelihood thanks to state compensation, are excluded from the technology- and capital-intensive developments to which they have lost their land. Some of these young people instead became petty speculators and rentier capitalists by liquidating their compensated assets through mortgages, private lending, rent, and other financial means. They are constantly waiting for the next investment opportunity and windfall gain. Although physically settled down and economically secure, they remain anxious and unsettled. They continue to orient their lives towards an elusive future rather than striving to transform the here and now, thus living in a state that I call “suspension 2.0.”
AB - Since the late 2000s, many rural-to-urban migrants in China have lost their rural land to development plans, resettled in designated areas, and acquired formal urban residency. They stopped migrating, and have apparently ended their life of “suspension,” namely protracted mobility. While most existing research literature on this population foregrounds the issue of land dispossession, this article argues that, following resettlement, these former migrants’ lives can be more accurately characterized as a state of suspension instead of dispossession. Many resettled young adults, while having secured livelihood thanks to state compensation, are excluded from the technology- and capital-intensive developments to which they have lost their land. Some of these young people instead became petty speculators and rentier capitalists by liquidating their compensated assets through mortgages, private lending, rent, and other financial means. They are constantly waiting for the next investment opportunity and windfall gain. Although physically settled down and economically secure, they remain anxious and unsettled. They continue to orient their lives towards an elusive future rather than striving to transform the here and now, thus living in a state that I call “suspension 2.0.”
KW - Assetization
KW - Development induced resettlement
KW - Escape suspension
KW - Financial speculation
KW - Imagined continuation of growth
KW - Migrants
KW - New urban residents
KW - Rent derived from state provided assets
KW - Resettled peasants
KW - Resettlement
KW - Resettlement housing compensation
KW - Rural to urban migration
KW - Segregated development
KW - Suspension
KW - Waiting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107847498&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5509/2021942347
DO - 10.5509/2021942347
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0030-851X
VL - 94
SP - 347
EP - 369
JO - Pacific Affairs
JF - Pacific Affairs
IS - 2
ER -