Technology and Culture

This book presents fifty years in the life of Nanfang Steel (NS), an industrial complex in China's inland province of Sichuan. It was built during the Third Front Construction (TFC), when, following the rupture with the Soviet Union in 1960, Mao mobilized people in an extreme effort to achieve self-reliance despite huge technological backwardness and scarce crucial resources. In its peak years, NS employed around 30,000 workers, had apartment blocks, high-quality schools, shops, restaurants, and a glorious "ten mile steel-city avenue."

It is a passionate book, which professes a clear aim: giving workers a voice in order to challenge the existing scholarship that depicts them as victims either of "Communist neo-traditionalism" (Walder, Communist Neo-traditionalism, 1988) under Mao's authoritarian regime, or of "disorganized despotism" (Lee, From Organized Dependence, 1999) in post-Mao market reforms. Another thread is integrated in the narrative: the declining state-organized work units (in Chinese: danwei).

In 1972, using the slogan "Best people and best horses go to the Third Front Construction," NS recruited many workers. While few were specialized, everyone was happy and proud to work hard to build the steel city (Chapter 2). Their choice was also influenced by pragmatic calculations. Not only did state factory work guarantee a steady income and a higher position in society, it was also the only way to escape the impoverished countryside. Great changes occurred when NS passed from the Ministry of Metallurgy to the much less wealthy provincial Sichuan government as part of liberalization in the 1980s "golden era" (Chapter 3). As a revolutionary background increasingly lost ground compared to technical and management education, workers started to question their identity. The only success they could ever achieve with their protests was thanks to still being held in high regard by factory administrators. For example, older workers secured new homes in flats initially intended for managers.

Then the focus shifts to the neoliberal reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) during the 1990s, which brought the restructuring of many locally administered danwei from blue collars to top management. In the wake of the huge changes, NS was forced to put 10,000 workers in redundancy due to lack of investment and incapacity to innovate (Chapter 4). The book does not reveal whether the revamping of NS was caused by the steel factory's market mismatch or by any technology gap. The focus is more on the downsides of the "neutral" market—these became apparent when workers inevitably became losers, desperately clinging to a job now despised by society [End Page 1203] and feeling guilty because they were incapable of offering their children a way to become successful in neoliberal China. Also, the now "zombie" NS premises lost all their former allure after "all civilized people moved out" to nearby towns, and only blue-collar workers remained. The flats that looked so appealing in the 1980s are now run down, but at least they are cheap; the once high-quality schools are only a burden for the local government; all good restaurants and recreational facilities have closed down.

The picture looked even more desperate in the late 2000s (Chapter 5) when older workers carried out unsuccessful actions against the unjust application of pension reforms by NS, while the younger generation was too disillusioned and apathetic to protest. Eventually, NS was closed due to the restructuring of China's steel sector in 2016 as a result of global deindustrialization and an agreement to save American jobs in the sector. The book ends on a more positive note with a description of the final lay-off wave. This time workers received a much better package, enabling them to begin new careers or enjoy their retirement. Has the Chinese government learned a lesson?

Thanks to crisp testimonies and the author's personal engagement with scholarly...