Drawing on caretaker manuals from local governments and crèches in Shenyang, Xi’an, and Zhengzhou, toy-making manuals, union gazetteers, memoirs of childhood education researchers, and caretakers’ diaries, this study investigates how the movement was underpinned by the standardization of caregivers’ time, their handicraft skills, affective capacity, and (often idealized) ecological knowledge. It reveals that toy-making demanded a combination of professionalization and commitment to the emotional well-being of children, extending beyond the hitherto primary care responsibilities like health and hygiene.
From the perspectives of labor and material culture, this research situates the toy-making movement within the Chinese Communist Party’s broader efforts to valorize gendered public care labor in its productivist labor regime. The state’s aim to boost women’s labor participation by relieving them of childcare paradoxically strengthened gendered labor division due to the rapidly growing demand for professional women caregivers: many regarded caregiving as an inferior vocation, especially when compared to industrial, agricultural, and political work. By translating care into a tangible, material output, the toy-making movement sought to align caregiving with the PRC’s productivist vision, blurring the lines between productive and reproductive labor while, ironically, increasing the caregivers’ workload.
See more of: AHA Sessions