{"product_id":"brutal-ephemerality-yang-zhan-9780472058471","title":"Brutal Ephemerality: Migrant Temporalities on China's Urban Fringe","description":"\u003cp\u003eHow do you build a hopeful future when your present is designed to be temporary? \u003ci\u003eBrutal Ephemerality\u003c\/i\u003e reveals that the sprawling urban villages on the edge of megacities such as Beijing aren't slums that grew by accident. Instead, urban villages are intentionally kept in a state of uncertainty, allowing the city to have a ready supply of cheap land and flexible labor to fuel its rapid growth. Yang Zhan proposes the concept of \"migrant venturers\" (\u003ci\u003echuǎngdàngzhě\u003c\/i\u003e) and argues that \"venturing\" (\u003ci\u003echuǎngdàng\u003c\/i\u003e) represents a distinct survival strategy of mobility, risk-taking, and opportunity seeking, rather than rooting oneself in a specific place or profession. This strategy is an active practice of \"future-making\"--an effort to project a meaningful future from an uncertain present. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrutal Ephemerality\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how time is not a neutral backdrop, but the central arena for political struggle, ethical practice, and imaginative creation among marginalized groups. Zhan shows how hope and suffering are paradoxically intertwined, and how the very struggle for a better life can, itself, become a source of harm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Yang Zhan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0472058479\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780472058471\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Michigan Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/20\/2027\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Yang Zhan","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48997505532159,"sku":"9780472058471","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/brutal-ephemerality-yang-zhan-9780472058471","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}