ABSTRACT
The exponential growth of urbanisation and migration in China has created massive economic opportunities. This exponential growth, however, has seen increasing numbers of children “floating” in Chinese cities and “left behind” in rural communities. The total population of these children is approaching 100 million. Issues associated with the schooling and social welfare of these children are phenomenal. This chapter found that floating children and left-behind children, not surprisingly, were statistically placed at risk of low well-being. Interestingly, some of these children were found to survive and thrive in the face of adversities. Drawing insight from Bourdieu, the chapter argues that resilience of floating children and left-behind children functions not only as embodied cultural capital to counteract life constraints and social limits, but also as a powerful tool to question socially imposed stereotype, doxa, and mainstream epistemology.
