Book review: Beyond tears and laughter: gender, migration, and the service sector in China by Yang Shen

In Beyond Tears and Laughter: Gender, Migration, and the Service Sector in China, Yang Shen examines the life experiences of men and women who have migrated from rural China to Shanghai to make a living in the restaurant service sector, exploring how gender, class and hukou shape these experiences. Attending to the motivations, aspirations and desires of economic and social lives that are constantly being reshaped and drawing connections between work, intimate relationships, agency and subjectivity, this book is an excellent read for understanding gender and labour in contemporary China, finds Kanak Rajadhyaksha. Beyond Tears and Laughter: Gender, Migration, and the Service Sector in China. Yang Shen. Palgrave Macmillan. 2019.