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Migrant worker representative Hu Xiaoyan

If a migrant worker goes into government, is she still a migrant worker?

That's the question posed by the story of Hu Xiaoyan. Hu became an instant celebrity this year when she attended the National People's Congress sessions as one of three new "migrant worker representatives." She represents Guangdong, having moved to the city of Foshan from her home in Sichuan in search of work. Here's how Danwei summarized Chinese news reports back in March:

Although it is not clear what improvement there is going to be for migrant workers, the social status of Ms Hu was greatly improved: Back home in Foshan, Guangdong Province after the NPC, she was warmly welcomed by her factory bosses , and now has her own office. She is going to have her own website to communicate with people too. Inspired by Premiere Wen's question to her "Do you want to go into politics?" she told the media that she would like to commit herself to the interests of migrant workers. This is not going to be easy as she has already been criticized for being timid about expressing the grievances of her underprivileged constituency.

Being "timid" was the gentlest criticism leveled at her. In the weeks after the NPC sessions, she was accused of being opportunistic, self-promoting, and worst of all, out of touch with the migrant workers she was supposed to represent. Her phone number was published in the media, but it was unreachable: callers were greeted only with an advertisement for her company.

Why did she turn off her phone? And how has she managed her NPC duties over the past few months? The current affairs magazine Window of the South* recently caught up with Hu in two separate interviews at the factory where she works. She reveals that she stopped answering her phone once it became clear that people with genuine problems were in the minority; most of the phone calls and SMSs were from people who simply wanted to hurl abuse at her.

Hu also describes how she is trying to juggle her work, home, and NPC responsibilities, while staying close to the migrant workers she's supposed to represent. The reporter closes with a nod to the ongoing debate over whether the NPC should be professionalized. If representatives worked full time in the service of the legislature, they'd be able to visit all segments of their constituency, but they'd no longer be working along side them. That's possibly a fair trade-off, but Hu Xiaoyan's angry callers might not be so easy to convince.

On 21 January of this year, Hu Xiaoyan was elected to be the first "migrant worker NPC representative." Her mobile phone number and QQ account were published in the media after the legislative sessions, and from then on the public's suspicions about her began to rise.

In the many reports and opinion pieces published over the course of three or four months, Hu Xiaoyan, an assistant foreman in the finishing workshop at Foshan Sanshui NewPearl Ceramics Industrial Co. Ltd., was described as someone good at "showing off": after she became an NPC representative, she left the factory floor and moved into a private office; her salary shot up; she had set her sights on working in politics in the future....and at the same time she was enjoying these material benefits, her mobile phone was unreachable on the very day its number was publicized, its connection tone changed to a commercial for her company, and no one was able to reach her by QQ either....