ABSTRACT
A middle-aged laid-off worker once said to me in the early hours of a summer day in the now shattered industrial ‘paradise’ of Liaoning’s provincial capital Shenyang:
Things are no longer as they used to be. There is no place for old workers like me. Now, even if you manage to get a job you have no pension, no health care, nothing. You’re in the hands of a boss and depend on the cash he hands out. Factories only hire those migrants from the outside, because they are willing to work with no guarantee.
