Description
During China’s urbanization, a distinctive and frequently neglected group is emerging on the edge of the city, where children from rural migrant families coexist with waste as their parents engage in waste collection and recycling for sustenance.Because waste collection must remain close to urban areas yet avoid the high cost of central areas, waste recycling sites are always located at the boundary between urban and rural areas. As urban expand, these families have to shift too, remain the limited space, near the city, but never truly a part of it. The stigma of “dirtiness” to their work extends to their bodies, identities, reinforcing both spatial and class-based exclusion. For the children, waste is not only a tangible resource for sustenance for parents to make a living, but also permeates children’s existence, serving as a medium for play, imagination, and daily interactions.
Therefore, this paper will analyse selected stories from Er Tong Wen Xue, a Chinese children’s literature magazine, to investigate how it portrays rural migrant families engaged in waste collection and the role that waste plays in their childhood. Drawing on spatial theory and the concept of class capital, the study explores how children’s literature influences spatial segregation in urbanization, thereby shaping representations of social class and cultural otherness.
| Period | 23 Oct 2025 → 24 Oct 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Waste and Children's Culture |
| Event type | Workshop |
| Degree of Recognition | International |