The past two weeks were exciting for the Mobility and Livelihood Group. After interviewing more urban villagers and exploring Kunming, we decided that the most feasible way to narrow our research topic is to focus on the impact of migration for migrant workers in the food industry. In particular, we thought it would be interesting to focus on migrants working in restaurants or as street food vendors for five reasons. First, many migrant workers in China are concentrated in these two occupations. Second, these occupations are not gender-specific, unlike construction or domestic work, and would allow us to examine the realities of migrant men and women. Third, studying the formal sector of the restaurant industry and the informal sector of the street food industry will give us a good sense of the issues associated with both sectors. Fourth, to our knowledge not much research has been done on the challenges facing food industry migrant workers so we would be adding something new to the existing literature. Fifth, since many of the migrant workers we had already interviewed were employed in these two industries it seems to be a useful way to build on the research we have already conducted.
Despite the preliminary stage of our analysis, we have already come across some interesting findings that we’d like to share. In our interviews and interactions with the respondents/informants engaged in this industry, ‘prior skill’ perse was not a required qualification. Secondly, the level of education among them was mostly skewed as majority of them were primary or high school graduates and drop-outs. Majority of them are migrants living in urban villages, and the dominant literature on migration studies in China has ignored them or not adequately studied them.
At the same time, fieldtrip to Shangri-la (Gyalthang), Lijiang and DaLi was a much needed break from our active work. However, we did not miss to interview some respondents. It was educative and adventurous. The visit to the Songzanlin Si (Sungtseling Monastery) is the most important Tibetan monastery in southwest China was enchanting. The paintings on the walls and its architecture show the fusion of rich Tibetan iconography and Han Chinese. Walking tour with Prof. Eric Mortenson through the monastery and the stoned-bylanes of Gyalthang gave us glimpses of old Tibetan culture, religious and social lives of the people.
Our orientation in Thangka Centre with Dakpa Kelden (Shangri-la Association of Cultural Preservation) and elaborate presentation by Ms. Uttara Sarkar (Gyalthang Ecotravel) on preservation of old traditional crafts such as thangka paintings, safe and sustainable ecotourism gave us new insights to the tourism industry in Shangri-la .
Homestay in Trinyi village and hiking up the mountains above 3300 metres was adventurous. With all the three members of the group ( Lu Qian, Danielle K. Smith and Bhim Subba) making to the top was special. The drizzle and the slippery terrain made it more challenging both while ascending and climbing down. The majestic view of the Gyalthang town and the village surrounded by beautiful hills on all sides could be seen from the mountain top. The next day visit to Tiger Leaping Gorge, and overnight stay in Lijiang and DaLi were exploratory in nature and recreational. We had an adventurous and pleasurable biking tour of the Erhai Lake with a beautiful landscape at the foreground.
INDEED…THE TRIP WAS A MUCH NEEDED “BREAK”