Annie Cheng L&S Arts & Humanities
Gender, Migration, and Nature in Zheng Xiaoqiong’s Labor Poetry
Labor poetry in China emerged from the growing exploitation of migrant workers in the
post-reform era. Zheng Xiaoqiong 郑小琼, a worker-turned-poet has gained attention through her writing of female migrant workers’ gendered experience of the highly mechanized, desexualizing process of industrial production. While her work has received critical attention from feminist and eco-critical angles, it has often been read within a narrow factory setting.
This project aims at filling the gap through close-reading Zheng’s work via an ecofeminist synthesis, which relates the oppression of women to that of nature. I hope to take her poems into the intersection between class, gender, and nature in 21st century China. The depiction of nature in Zheng’s work invites us to rethink the following questions: In what way does the poetic evocation of a native land counter the gendered violence in industrial production? And how does it allow for the reclaiming of female identity lost in real-life experience?
Message To Sponsor
As a daughter of migrant workers, understanding my origin and those stories like my family's has always been very important to me. This summer research opportunity means so, so much to me as I was able to delve deep into the river of history and retrace the things that led to the world we live in today. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my SURF donor, Anselm A&H, for making this experience happen. I know the things I learned this summer will stay with me and support my personal, academic, and professional pursuit well into the future.