UC Santa Barbara

China's economic reforms have brought remarkable achievements in terms of its modern and urban development. As a result, Chinese people's lives are undergoing a dramatic transformation, especially during the country's drastic social transitions in 21st century. Relocation in cosmopolitan megacities like Shanghai brings migrants unprecedented opportunities to experience China's regional diversity as well as to receive global influence, thus turning them into fragmented and shifting subjects. At the meantime, the state's production of nationalist discourse has cultivated a strong sense of national identity in average Chinese. My thesis attempts to catch a glimpse of the unfolding social exchange brought by the large-scale spatial mobility in contemporary Chinese society. The general objective of this research is to explore the specific history of monolithic Chinese national identity and fragmentation and shifting identity in 21st century urban China.

To address my objective, in the summer of 2017 I conducted an anthropological study that aims at investigating the identity construction of Chinese middle-class urbanites who re-territorialized from one of China's second-tier cities, Wenzhou, to its cosmopolitan megacity, Shanghai. By applying post-modern and post-structuralist theories of identity and subjectivity, I explore how Wenzhou urban middle-class migrants have undergone identity contestation within a multitude of competing discourses in a new migrant context through everyday linguistic, cultural and social practices. I used participant observation and in-depth semi-structured interviews as my main research tools. The interview participants consist of 15 adult Wenzhou middle-class urbanites of different age, gender, education level, occupation, wealth and income. The subjects of the observation also incorporate their family and friends, altogether making up approximately 30 respondents in my study.

This research shows that in a continuous negotiation between linguistic and cultural maintenance and assimilation, Wenzhou urban middle-class migrants become hybrid subjects constituted by Wenzhou regional identity and New Shanghai multi-regional/cosmopolitan identity. The Wenzhou identity retention is more profoundly discerned in the elder generation; by contrast, the younger generation shows substantial loss of Wenzhou identity and strengthening of national identity. The findings appear ironic when compared to Wenzhou people's better preservation of regional identity during the socialist China, as back then the penetration of the state was ubiquitous. This study also suggests that an inclusive Chinese nationalist discourse-unity in diversity-is able to legitimize and unite China's regional identities; moreover, the empowering nationalist discourse of "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" (Zhonghua minzu weida fuxing 中华民族伟大复兴) has enabled fragmented and hybrid subjects to restore a sense of certainty, belonging, security as well as daguo (大国 great nation) pride.