Marx in Chinese Online Space: Some Thoughts on the Labour Problem in Chinese Internet Industries

Abstract

In recent years, cultural production and labour have been the subject of considerable research (see, among others, Terranova 2004; Banks 2010; Hesmondhalgh and Baker 2010; Kennedy 2010). Internet workers, like workers in the cultural industries, carry out meaningful activities such as programming and coding, designing and promoting, and also some unskilled administrative work. Internet workers form an increasingly significant proportion of workers in China. The number of Chinese internet workers had increased to 12.3 million by the end of 2009 (Liaoning Research Institute of Industry and Information Sciences 2013). In the field of creative labour or cultural production, considerable attention has been paid to internet workers (Gill 2002; Kennedy 2012). However, relatively little research has addressed the working life of these workers, and little research adopts a Marxist approach towards this group of workers, such as their social class location and their working processes.