Professor Anita Chan
Core Member, Centre for Social & Cultural Change in China Investment
PhD Sociology
Email: Anita.Chan@uts.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 9514 7673
Fax: +61 2 9514 3939
Room: CB10.05.433 (map)
Mailing address: PO Box 123,
Broadway NSW 2007,
Australia
Biography
Anita Chan was born and educated in Hong Kong. She received her first degree at the University of Hong Kong and Masters degrees at York University (Toronto) and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. In 1980 she was awarded a Doctorate in Sociology by the University of Sussex.
Professor Chan’s research focuses mainly on Chinese and Vietnamese labour issues, and she has also published on rural China, Chinese students, and the Cultural Revolution. She has published 4 authored books, 3 edited books, and approximately a hundred refereed journal papers and chapters in edited books. A number of her works have been translated into Chinese and published in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Some of her writings have also been translated into French, Italian, German, Danish and Japanese.
She was located at the Australian National University from 1987 to 2009. During this period, she held an ARC Fellowship from 1993 through 1997 and an ARC Professorial Fellowship from 1998 through 2002. For thirteen years, from 1993 through 2005, she served as co-editor of The China Journal. She joined the China Research Centre at University of Technology, Sydney, in May 2009.
Key Publications
• Children of Mao: Personality Development and Political Activism in the Red Guard Generation (London: The MacMillan Press; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1985), 254 pp.; two Chinese-language versions were published in China and in Taiwan.
• Anita Chan, Richard Madsen, and Jonathan Unger, Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 408 pp.
• Zhu Xiaoyang and Anita Chan, Xiangzheng yu Anliu (Symbolism and Undercurrents: The 1989 Mass Movement), (Taipei: Daohe Press, 1994), 347 pp.
• Anita Chan, China's Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2001), 244 pp.
Research
Research interests
• Chinese industrial policy and labour issues
• Chinese workers' conditions
• Chinese rural society
• Mass protest movements in China
• Chinese dissidents and human rights issues
Anita Chan began her academic career with publications examining the political socialization of the Red Guard generation, Chinese rural society, mass protest movements, Chinese dissidents and human rights issues.
Her current research focuses on Chinese labor issues. She has published widely on Chinese workers' conditions, the Chinese trade union and labor rights issues. She is committed to campaigning for labor rights to be recognized as human rights.
Current research projects include:
* The study of the global production chain using Wal-Mart as a case study. This project involves a consortium of five institutions around the world and is partially funded by the International Centre of Excellence in Asian-Pacific Studies at ANU.
* The study of "Taiwanese Businesses, the Global Production Chain and Corporate Social Responsibility: China and Vietnam compared". This three-year project is funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and the research is in collaboration with Dr. Wang Hongzen of National Zhong Shan University, Taiwan.
* The study of workplace trade union democratic elections in Asian-funded factories in China.
Research supervision: Yes
Projects
Selected Peer-Assessed Projects
Publications
Research books
Chan, A., Madsen, R. & Unger, J. 2009, Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization, 3rd, University of California Press, Berkeley, USA.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. 2001, China's Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk.
Chan, A. & Zhu, X. 1994, Xiangzheng yu Anliu (Symbolism and Undercurrents: The 1989 Mass Movement), 1, Daohe Press, Taipei.
Chan, A., Madsen, R. & Unger, J. 1985, Chen Village: The Recent History of a Peasant Community in Mao's China, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Chan, A. 1985, Children of Mao: Personality Development and Political Activism in the Red Guard Generation, MacMillan Press, London.
Book editorship
Chan, A. 2011, Labour in Vietnam, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore.
Chan, A. 2011, Walmart in China, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Chan, A., Unger, J. & Kerkvliet, B.T. 1999, Transforming Socialism: China and Vietnam Compared, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Chan, A. 1987, A Brief Analysis of the Cultural Revolution, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk.
Chan, A., Unger, J. & Rosen, S. 1985, On Socialist Democracy and the Chinese Legal System: The Li Yizhe Debates, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk.
Books (other)
Chan, A., Madsen, R. & Unger, J. 1992, Chen Village Under Mao and Deng, 2nd, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Research book chapters
Chan, A. & Siu, K. 2012, 'Chinese migrant workers: factors constraining the emergence of class consciousness' in Beatriz Carrillo, David S.G. Goodman (eds), China's Peasants and Workers: Changing Class Identities, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 79-101.
Chan, A., Unger, J. & Beaumont, D. 2011, 'Did Unionization Make a Difference? Work Conditions and Trade Union Activity at Chinese Walmart Stores' in Anita Chan (ed), Walmart in China, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, pp. 217-238.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. 2011, 'Introduction' in Anita Chan (ed), Labour in Vietnam, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore, pp. 1-12.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. 2011, 'Strikes in Vietnam and China in Taiwanese-owned Factories: Diverging Industrial Relations Patterns' in Anita Chan (ed), Labour in Vietnam, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore, pp. 211-251.
Chan, A. 2011, 'Unionizing Chinese Walmart Stores' in Anita Chan (ed), Walmart in China, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, pp. 199-216.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. 2011, 'When the World's Largest Company Encounters the World's Biggest Country' in Anita Chan (ed), Walmart in China, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, pp. 1-12.
Myers, S.E. & Chan, A. 2011, 'Practicing Cheer: The Diary of a Low-level Supervisor at a Walmart China Store' in Anita Chan (ed), Walmart in China, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, pp. 151-172.
Chan, A. 2010, 'Corporate Accountability and the Potential for Workers' Representation in China' in Macdonald, Kate; Marshall, Shelley (eds), Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in 'Global Justice', Ashgate, Australia, pp. 211-222.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. 2009, 'Zhongguo laogong jiufen biange de jixiang - Chinese Manual Workers? Labour Disputes - Transformed Signals' in Jean Hung and Kuan Hsin-chi (eds), Zhong-wai ming xuezhe lun ershiyi shiji chu de Zhongguo (Illustrious Chinese and Foreign Scholars Perspectives on China in the Early Twenty-first Century), Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, pp. 471-484.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. & Unger, J. 2008, 'Associations in a Bind: The Emergence of Political Corporatism' in Jonathan Unger (ed), Associations and the Chinese State: Contested Spaces`, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, pp. 48-68.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. 2008, 'China's Trade Unions in Corporatist Transition' in Jonathan Unger (ed), Associations and the Chinese State: Contested Spaces`, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, pp. 69-85.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Unger, J. & Chan, A. 2007, 'Memories and the Moral Economy of a State Owned Enterprise' in China Kwan Lee; Guobin Yang (eds), Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution: The Politics and Poetics of Collective Memories in Reform Chi, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 119-140.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Unger, J. & Chan, A. 2007, 'Memories and the Moral Economy of a State-Owned Enterprise' in Ching Kwan Lee and Guobin Yang (eds), Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution: The Politics and Poetics of Collective Memories in Reform Chi, Woodrow Wilson Centre Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 119-139.
Chan, A. 2006, 'Realities and Possibilities for Chinese Trade Unionism' in Phelan, C. (eds), The Future of Organised Labour: Global Perspectives, Peter Lang, Oxford, UK, pp. 275-304.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chan, A. 2002, 'The Culture of Survival: Lives of Migrant Workers through the Prism of Private Letters' in Link, P.; Madsen, R.; Pickowicz, P. (eds), Popular China: Unofficial Culture in a Globalizing Society, Rowman & Littlefield, Boulder, pp. 163-188.
Chan, A. 2000, 'Chinese Trade Unions and Workplace Relations in the State-owned and Joint-venture Enterprises' in Warner, M. (eds), Changing Workplace Relations in the Chinese Economy, MacMillan, London, pp. 34-56.
Chan, A., Kerkvliet, B.J. & Unger, J. 1999, 'Comparing China and Vietnam' in Anita Chan, Benedict Kerkvliet, and Jonathan Unger (eds), Transforming Asian Socialism: China and Vietnam Compared, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, pp. 1-14.
Chan, A. & Lambert, R. 1999, 'Global Dance: Factory REgimes, Asian Labour Standards and Corproate Restructuring' in Waddington, J. (eds), Globalisation and Labour Resistance, Mansell, London, pp. 72-104.
Chan, A. 1999, 'Trade Unions, Conditions of Labor, and the State' in Hebel, J.; Schucher, G. (eds), Der Chinesische Arbeitsmarkt, Mitteilungen des Instituts fur Asienkunde, Hamburg, pp. 237-256.
Chan, A. 1998, 'Labor Relations in Foreign-funded Ventures' in O'Leary, G. (eds), Adjusting to Capitalism: Chinese Workers and the State, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, pp. 122-149.
Chan, A. 1997, 'Chinese Danwei Reforms: Convergence with the Japanese Model' in Perry, E.;Xiaobo, L. (eds), Danwei: The Changing Chinese Workplace in Historical and Comparative Perspective, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, pp. 91-113.
Chan, A. & Unger, J. 1996, 'Chinese Corporatism: A Developmental State in an East Asian Context' in McCormick, B.; Unger, J. (eds), China After Socialism: In the Footsteps of Eastern Europe or East Asia?, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, pp. 95-129.
Chan, A. 1996, 'The Changing Ruling Elite and Political Oppostion in China' in Rodan, G. (eds), Political Oppositions in Industrialising Asia, Routledge, London, pp. 163-187.
Chan, A. 1991, 'Protest in a Hunan County Town: The Profile of a Democracy Movement Activist in China's Backwaters' in Unger, J. (eds), The Pro-Democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, pp. 137-149.
Chan, A. 1991, 'The Social Origins and Consequences of the Tiananmen Crisis' in Goodman, D.S; Segal, G. (eds), China in the Nineties: Crisis Management and Beyond, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 105-130.
Chan, A. 1989, 'The Challenge to China's Social Fabric' in Goodman, D.S. and Segal, G. (eds), China at Forty: Mid-Life Crisis?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 66-85.
Book chapters (other)
Chan, A. & Siu, K. 2011, 'Made in China: Work and Wages in Walmart Supplier Factories' in Anita Chan (ed), Walmart in China, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, pp. 71-94.
Chan, A. 2009, 'Zhongguo laogong jiufen ---biange de jixiang (Chinese Manual Workers' Labour Disputes -- Transformed Signals)' in Jean Hung and Kuan Hsin-chi (eds), Zhong-wai ming xuezhe lunershiyi shiji chu de Zhongguo /(Illustrious Chinese and Foreign Scholars', Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, pp. 471-484.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Refereed journal articles
Lund-Thomsen, P., Nadvi, K., Chan, A., Khara, N. & Xue, H. 2012, 'Labour in Global Value Chains: Work Conditions in Football Manufacturing in China, India and Pakistan', Development and Change, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 1211-1237.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
Chan, A. 2011, 'Strikes in China's Export Industries in Comparative Perspective', The China Journal, vol. 63, no. January, pp. 24-51.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. 2010, 'American Chicken Feet, Chinese Tires, and the Struggle for Labor Rights', New Labor Forum, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 57-63.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chan, A. & Siu, K. 2010, 'Analyzing Exploitation: The Mechanisms Underpinning Low Wages and Excessive Overtime in Chinese Export Factories', Critical Asian Studies, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 167-190.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chen, M. & Chan, A. 2010, 'Occupational Health and Safety in China: The Case of State Managed Enterprises', International Journal of Health Services, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 43-60.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. & Unger, J. 2009, 'A Chinese State Enterprise under the Reforms: What Model of Capitalism?', The China Journal, vol. 2009, no. 62.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chan, A. 2009, 'Challenges and Possibilities for Democratic Grassroots Union Elections in China: A Case Study of Two Factory-Level Elections and Their Aftermath', The Labor Studies Journal, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 293-317.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chan, A. 2007, 'Organizing Wal-Mart in China: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back for China's Unions', New Labor Forum, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 87-96.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chan, A. 2006, 'Arbeitsbeziehunger in China: Zwischen Organisiertem und Neoliberlism Kapitalismus (Industrial Relations in China: Between Organised and Neo-liberal Capitalism)', Das Argument, vol. 48, no. 5/6, pp. 92-97.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Prieto-Carron, M., Lund-Thomsen, P., Chan, A., Muro, A. & Bhushan, C. 2006, 'Critical Perspectives on CSR and Development: What We Know, What We Don't Know, and What We Need to Know', International Affairs, vol. 82, no. 5, pp. 977-987.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Zhu, X. & Chan, A. 2005, 'Staff and Workers' Representative Congress: An Institutionalized Channel for Expressioni of Employees' Interests?', Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 6-33.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Alexander, P. & Chan, A. 2004, 'Does China have an Apartheid Pass System?', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 609-629.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chan, A. 2004, 'A New China? Some Hope for Optimism for Chinese Labor', New Labor Forum, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 66-75.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chan, A. 2004, 'Chinese Labour Issues - Signs of Change', China Perspectives, vol. 20004, no. 86, pp. 25-34.
Chan, A. 2004, 'Some Hope for Optimism for Chinese Labor', New Labor Forum, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 67-75.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chan, A. & Wang, H. 2004, 'The Impact of the State on Workers' Conditions: Comparing Taiwanese Factories in China and Vietnam', Pacific Affairs, vol. 77, no. 4, pp. 629-646.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Chen, M. & Chan, A. 2004, 'Employee and Union Inputs into Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Chinese Factories', social science and medicine, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 1231-1245.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Unger, J. & Chan, A. 2004, 'The Internal Politics of an Urban Chinese Work Community: A Case Study of Employee Influence on Decision-Making at a State Owned Factory', The China Journal, vol. 52, no. Jul, pp. 1-24.
Chan, A. 2003, 'A 'Race to the Bottom': Globalisation and China's Labour Standards', China Perspectives, vol. 46, no. Mar-April, pp. 41-49.
Chan, A. & Ross, R. 2003, 'Racing to the Bottom: Industrial Trade Without a Social Clause', Third World Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 1011-1028.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
Wang, H. & Chan, A. 2003, 'Taishang, guojia jiqi yu chuanqiu fanxuehan gongchang yundong: Zhongguo yu Yuenan de bijiao (Taiwanese-owned Factories, the Anti-sweatshop Movement, and the State: Case Studies from Vietnam and China)', Xianggang Shehui Kexue Xuebao (Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences), vol. 2003, no. 26, pp. 103-126.
Chan, A. & Zhu, X. 2002, 'Disciplinary Labour Regimes in Chinese Factories', Critical Asian Studies, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 559-584.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
Chan, A. 2002, 'Labour in Waiting: the International Trade Union Movement and China', New Labor Forum, vol. 2002, no. Fall/Winte, pp. 55-60.
Ross, R. & Chan, A. 2002, 'From North-South to South-South: The True Face of Global Competition', Foreign Affairs, vol. 81, no. 5, pp. 8-13.
Chan, A. & Zhu, X. 2001, 'Symbolism and Undercurrents: The 1989 Mass Movement, Part I', Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, vol. 33, no. 1.
Chan, A. & Zhu, X. 2001, 'Symbolism and Undercurrents: The 1989 Mass Movement, Part II', Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, vol. 33, no. 2.
Chan, A. 2000, 'Globalization, China's Free (Read Bonded) Labour Market, and the Chinese Trade Union', Asia Pacific Business Review, vol. 6, no. 3&4, pp. 260-281.
Chan, A. & Unger, J. 1999, 'Inheritors of the Boom: Private Enterprise and the Role of Local Government in a Rural South China Township', The China Journal, vol. 1999, no. 42, pp. 45-74.
Chen, M. & Chan, A. 1999, 'Workers' Health and Environmental Pollution in China: The Export-led Economy in Command', International Journal of Health Services, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 793-811.
Chan, A. 1998, 'Labor Standards and Human Rights: The Case of Chinese Workers Under Market Socialism', Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 886-904.
Chan, A. & Norlund, I. 1998, 'Vietnamese and Chinese Labour Regimes: On the Road to Deivergence', The China Journal, vol. 1998, no. 40, pp. 173-197.
Chan, A. & Senser, R. 1997, 'China's Troubled Workers', Foreign Affairs, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 104-117.
Chan, A. 1997, 'Regimented Workers in China's Free Labour Market', China Perspectives, vol. 1997, no. 9, pp. 12-17.
Chan, A. & Unger, J. 1995, 'China Corporatism, and the East Asian Model', The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, vol. 33, no. January, pp. 29-53.
Chan, A. 1995, 'Chinese Enterprise Reforms: Convergence with the Japanese Model?', Industrial and Corporate Change, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 449-470.
Chan, A. 1995, 'The Cultural Revolution as a Mass Movement', Xianggang Shehui Kexue Xuebao (Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences), vol. 1995, no. 6, pp. 206-218.
Chan, A. 1995, 'The Emerging Patters on Industrial Relations in China and the Rise of Two New Labour Movements', China Information, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 36-59.
Chan, A. 1993, 'Revolution or Corporatism? Workers and Trade Unions in Post-Mao China', The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, vol. January, no. 29, pp. 31-61.
Chan, A. 1992, 'Dispelling Misconceptions About the Red Guard Movement - The Necessity to Re-examine Cultural Revolution Factionalism and Periodization', Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 61-85.
Chan, A. 1991, 'Workers Under 'Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics': Labour Relations in the Special Economic Zones', China Information, vol. V, no. 4, pp. 75-82.
Chan, A. & Unger, J. 1990, 'Voices from the Protest Movement in Chongqing, Sichuan: Class Accents and Class Tensions', The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, vol. July, no. 24, pp. 259-279.
Chan, A. 1989, 'The Challenge to China's Social Fabric', The Pacific Review, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 121-131.
Chan, A. 1988, 'Looking Back on the Chinese Cultural Revolution', Problems of Communism, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 68-75.
Chan, A. 1988, 'Self-deception as a Survival Technique - The Case of Yui Daiyun', The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, vol. January, no. 19/20, pp. 345-358.
Chan, A. & Unger, J. 1982, 'Grey and Black: Rural China's Hidden Economy', Pacific Affairs, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 452-471.
Chan, A. 1982, 'Images of China's Social Structure: The Changing Perspectives of Canton Students', World Politics, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 295-323.
Chan, A., Rosen, S. & Unger, J. 1980, 'Students and Class Warfare: The Social Origins of the Red Guard Conflict in Canton', China Quarterly, vol. 83, no. Autumn, pp. 397-446.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
Chan, A. 1974, 'Rural Chinese Women and the Socialist Revolution: An Inquiry into the Economics of Sexism', Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 197-208.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
Journal articles
Chan, A. 2007, 'Blood, Tears, Toys and NGOs', Yale Global, vol. December.
Chan, A., Prieto-Carron, M., Lund-Thomsen, P., Muro, A. & Bhushan, C. 2006, 'Critical Perspectives on CSR and Development: What We Know, What We Don't Know, and What We Need to Know', International Affairs, vol. 82, no. 5, pp. 977-987.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
Chan, A. 2006, 'Organizing Wal-Mart: The Chinese Trade Union at a Crossroads', Japan Focus: an Asia Pacific Journal, vol. September.
Chan, A. 2005, 'China Says No to Developed Countries' Corporate Social Responsibility', International Union Rights, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 18-19.
Chan, A. 2005, 'Recent Trends in Chinese Labour Issues: Signs of Change', China Perspectives, vol. 57, no. Jan - Feb.
Chan, A. 2003, 'Zhili shidai zhigong liyi jizhong biaoda de zhiduhua qudao" (The Institutionalization of WorkersÔ++ Articulated Interests', Kaifang Shidai (Open Times), vol. 2, pp. 120-132.
Chan, A. 2001, 'China and the International Labour Movement', China Review, vol. 2001, no. Summer, pp. 9-13.
Chan, A. 1997, 'Workers' Rights are Human Rights', China Rights Forum, vol. 1997, no. Summer, pp. 4-7.
Broadcasts
Chan, A. 2010, 'Labor unrest and role of unions', China Daily, pp. 9-9.
