Affiliated postdoctoral researcher Dr. Monika ARNOŠTOVÁ of the Research Training Group GRK 2833 “East Asian Futures” held a presentation on her research topic with the title “Role of Gender in Overtime Behaviour of Beijing White-collar Workers and its Implications for Work-life Balance” at the “AAS-in-Asia Conference 2024 – Global Asias: Latent Histories, Manifest Impacts”. The event was organised by the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and took place on July 9–11, 2024 at Universitas Gadja Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

AAS-in-Asia is a conference format organised by the Association for Asian Studies in collaboration with local partners in Asia and is held annually since 2014. This year’s conference saw more than 1,500 academics, students, artists, and practitioners from 43 countries attending. Dr. Monika ARNOŠTOVÁ gave her presentation as part of the panel “Gender and Sexuality in China and the Sinophone World: Theoretical, Historical, and Social Scientific Approaches”, held on July 10, 2024. The panel was organised by Prof. Laurie Marhoefer, PhD (University of Washington, Seattle) and chaired by Prof. James Welker, PhD (Kanagawa University), with comments from Matthew Galway, PhD (Australian National University).

Abstract
Since the transformation of the Chinese economy at the end of the 1970s and following fierce competition between companies and workers, overtime work has become an inseparable part of life for many white-collar workers. The universality of overtime often results in employees no longer pondering the necessity or function of overtime and accepting sometimes extreme working conditions, such as the infamous 996 working culture. Increasing prices, living pressure, and fierce competition in first-tier cities shaped an atmosphere where overtime work is thriving. Given the particular makeup of Chinese families, and reliance on family members for the care of both the children and the elderly, especially women face an increased amount of pressure from both the sphere of work and family. At the workplace, women are expected to be “tough ladies” (女汉子 nǚ hànzi) who can manage the same amount of work or even overwork as men. But at home, their role of caring mother or daughter requires them to take up an extra shift which determines their ability to stay working overtime. Men on the other hand face the burden of being the main breadwinners and their family obligations frequently translate into a push toward working long hours. Based on semi-structured interviews with white-collar workers in Beijing, this study explores the role gender plays in the attempts at work-life and work-family balance. Special emphasis is then put on the quality of leisure time and cultural life of both male and female white-collar workers.

Further information on the conference including the conference schedule may be found on the AAS-in-Asia conference website.