Michelle Chen

Academic Year: 
2003-04
Direction: 
From Yale
Exchange Partners: 
Fudan University
Research Interest: 
Crossing Boundaries: Politics, Culture, And Community Among Rural-Urban Migrant Workers In Contemporary China

Ms. Chen s research focuses on the impact of community and outside identities on rural-migrant youth in urban China, with an emphasis on intersections between migrant self-identity and the alienation of migrants in the public imagination. Focusing on young people aged 18 to 30 years she will undertake a study of the social, political and cultural dynamics of population migration, analyzing the formation of new identities and communities in negotiating the rural-urban divide. Her research will be conducted through personal interviews with migrants, ethnographic fieldwork with community and public service organizations, and analysis of media portrayals and demographic data in tandem with scholars in the field. She hopes her project will help foster cross-cultural understanding and, through theoretical and grassroots approaches, help devise solutions to problems in China.