Gendering home-sweat-home narratives: rural migrant women labouring in the service economies in Shanghai, China

Shedding critical light on rural-to-urban migration in China, this empirical study examines the affective experiences of home with a focus on 88 rural migrant women labouring in the service industry in Shanghai. To probe the nexus of tensions within these women’s affective experiences of home, the article incorporates qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and the photo-elicitation interview (PEI). Interviews with the rural migrant women indicate that they understand the affective experiences of home in relation to their parents, hometown, and emotions. Focusing on these three senses of home, the analysis links them to the affective moments when these women workers experience a sense of home while providing their service labour in Shanghai. In line with previous studies on gender and migration, the article discerns that both the state and corporate entities mobilise the conception of home to boost productivity. Nevertheless, the study argues that rural migrant women have developed the emotional labour of ‘deep acting’ through performing obedience and loyalty to their employers while simultaneously finding ways to seek better job opportunities to pursue a brighter future while working around the clock.