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Chinese Worker Writers: The Social and Textual Practice of the Picun Literature Group book cover

1st Edition

Chinese Worker Writers The Social and Textual Practice of the Picun Literature Group

By Federico Picerni Copyright 2026
250 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

250 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This book offers a comprehensive survey of the literary output produced by rural–urban migrant workers in Picun, Beijing. Divided into two parts, the book first examines the historical traditions and enduring challenges of working-class cultural production in China, before focusing on five of the group’s most prominent authors. The book provides the first English-language monograph on the Picun... Read more

Acknowledgements
List of acronyms and abbreviations

Introduction
PART I  Context
1 Can the worker write?
2 Picun: making a community through cultural activity

PART II Text
3 A worker’s memoir in virality and commentary: Fan Yusu
4 Howl of the factory, workshop of poetry: Xiao Hai
5 Songs of labour most glorious: Xu Liangyuan
6 Rural memory in the city: Li Ruo
7 Fictive and factual in workers’ autofiction: Wan Huashan
Conclusion: Metatext
Bibliography
Index

Biography

Federico Picerni is an assistant professor of Chinese literature with the University of Bologna. He obtained his PhD at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in a double-degree programme with Heidelberg University. His research concerns the relationship of cultural production and society in China.

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