This compelling book examines the mobility of domestic workers, at both material and symbolic levels, and of the formation and social mobility of the urban middle-class through its consumption of domestic service.

1. Intimate stranger: An Introduction Part 1: Media production 2. Theater of Suzhi: Dramas of New Sociality on Post-Mao Television 3. Spectacles of Love: The Moral Economy of Compassionate Journalism Part 2: Consumption Practices 4. Morality or Money: The Gendered Ethics of Good Living 5. Latent Geography of the City: The Poetics of Inconspicuous Consumption Part 3: Everyday Politics 6. Continuum of Transgression: The Practicalities of Everyday Politics 7. The Art of "Making Do": The Cultural Practices of the Subaltern Spectator

Wanning Sun is Professor of Chinese media at University of Technology Sydney, Australia.