Sounds of a migrant city: radio representation and cultural citizenship in the case of Shenzhen, China

Abstract

ABSTRACT The cultural dimension has been considered as an important site in exploring Chinese citizenship. This article examines cultural citizenship-making practices with a focus on rural-urban migrants and local radio. Since the opening-up reforms of 1979, Shenzhen, located in southeast China, has attracted many migrant workers and has grown into a prosperous migrant city. As such, Shenzhen provides a compelling case study in examining the relationship between media, radio in particular, and cultural citizenship-making in the Chinese context. Using content analysis and case studies, this article explores the ways in which Shenzhen was represented on radio during the 1990s and 2000s – key decades in the city’s development – through a study of two specific radio genres: news radio and late-night talk-back radio. By exploring listener involvement in late-night talk-back radio, the article analyses the practices that were employed by migrants to satisfy their desire for inclusion and recognition. This article suggests that migrant listeners’ affinity for radio was a vital component of the cultural citizenship-negotiating trajectory in the history of the urbanisation of Shenzhen. The discussion of radio, representation and inclusion has implications for contemporary debates surrounding citizenship in the digital age.