Migration and Social Aspirations: Chinese Cosmopolitanism in Wenzhou Region (China)
Institute of Social and Political Science (ISCSP), Orient Institute, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Almerindo Lessa, 1300-663 Lisboa, Portugal
Urban Sci. 2018, 2(2), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci2020032
Received: 20 February 2018 / Revised: 2 April 2018 / Accepted: 6 April 2018 / Published: 10 April 2018
This article explores what motivates the movements of Chinese migrants from China to Portugal. It presents an ethnographic account of social aspirations in Wenzhou, a port city located in South Zhejiang (Southeast China), where post-Mao economic prosperity, allied to the existence of networks of trade and migration, resulted in social and economic inequalities and great social pressure to become rich and successful. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Wenzhou and in Lisbon (Portugal) between 2008 and 2010, this paper argues that Wenzhou migratory projects are a result of modernity aspirations and desires for material modernization articulated with core Chinese values such as filial piety.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Rodrigues, I. Migration and Social Aspirations: Chinese Cosmopolitanism in Wenzhou Region (China). Urban Sci. 2018, 2, 32.
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