Population Governance in China: An Analysis from the Household Registration System (Hukou) Perspective

My thesis discusses the reforms of China’s “hukou” system, a digital family-based registration system that “surveils” and classifies the Chinese people according to their geographic status. Hukou has been structuring life in China for about six decades. The specialized literature has always discussed hukou as an exclusionary mechanism that caused entrenched socioeconomic inequalities in society. I supplement this understanding by focusing on its capacity to produce governance, both inclusionary and exclusionary, contributing theoretically to the field of Asian Studies. I analyzed hukou’s ability to form liberal subjects, creating individual identities that have more options over their life choices. I argued that hukou’s governance promotes and rewards personal initiative, competitiveness, and risk management skills in society, enabling and advancing China’s economic growth and transformation into a global power. Innovating also methodologically, I collected my data through ethnographic fieldwork, moving beyond the traditional approach of analyzing hukou based on documentary analyses. I stayed nine months in Jinan City, eastern China, during which I interviewed 250 residents about the impact of the reformed hukou on their lives. Among the more unique aspects of my thesis are three distinctive chapters that assess the impact of the reformed household registration system on mate selection, home buying decisions, population surveillance.