Wu Xia, a worker-poet in China, navigates the challenges of the hukou system as she dreams of obtaining residency in an affluent city. As part of the 300 million migrant workers who left rural areas for urban jobs, she experiences life as a second-class citizen without local residency. Despite past recognition as a promising writer, her current focus is on securing proper documentation to access better public services, job opportunities, and improve her family's prospects. The hukou system greatly impacts the lives of millions of migrant workers, limiting their access to essential resources.
These days Wu is instead using her pen to pursue a different dream that would dramatically improve her family's prospects: to swap her "hukou," or household registration, in her rural hometown in western China for prized residency in one of the biggest cities on the affluent east coast.
The hukou system acts like an internal passport: Everyone in China has a maroon booklet that legally binds them to a particular locality. With hukou documentation for the city they live, residents can access a wider array of public services, including schools, health care and housing.
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