Why We (Don't) Want to Zhao Gongzuo A Chinese Undergraduate’s Perspective on Work in Everyday Speech

Abstract

This work is about the lived lexical ambiguity of gongzuo (work/job) for specific groups of Chinese undergraduates. Through my discussion with my Chinese undergraduate friends, I identify how the ambiguous wording to describe gongzuo in our daily talk is closely related to our deeper anxiety about how we wish to live our lives. By examining the tension between the contradicting meanings of those ambiguous concepts, I reveal why we see gongzuo as providing a solution to our anxiety but an unsatisfying one, which in turn explains our paradoxical feeling of necessity and reluctance to find jobs. In my ethnography, I argue that the anthropological approach to 'work/job' needs not only be a structural one, but also a micro and practical one to understand the lived nuances and anxiety about 'work/job' and to provide insights for real actors to resolve such anxiety.