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As part of a series of Social Sciences Academic Press publication on Chinese Labour Studies, this book is a study of Chinese workers in the state industrial sector in Henan's state cotton mills in the 1990s. It explores workers'experience during the enterprise reform period with a focus on changes in their work and employment and the impact of such a transition of factory life on labour.

The research was carried out by unstructured in-depth interviews and observation on the shop floor, mainly in three state cotton mills located in Henan, the central part of China. Workers were the prime focus of interest, although management and other employees were also interviewed. The analysis concentrates on the qualitative aspects of the material. The issues covered include: the reorganisation of the enterprise production goal and operational mechanisms, including the introduction of profit-making consciousness in management; the transformation of workers’ employment status, the change in labour discipline and labour reward system; the reconstruction of trade unions at the enterprise level, the reinforcement of the sexual division of labour in production; the increased migration of rural labour in urban textile industries. All these reforms have had a major impact on labour and have fundamentally changed workers'experience in the state cotton factories in China.