On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China

Winner, 2024 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for East Asian Studies, Modern Language Association

Charismatic artists recruit desperate migrants for site-specific performance art pieces, often without compensation. Construction workers threaten on camera to jump from the top of a high-rise building if their back wages are not paid. Users of a video and livestreaming app hustle for views by eating excrement or setting off firecrackers on their genitals. In these and many other recent cultural ...