This talk forms part of a larger project investigating the mechanisms of socialist learning and knowledge accumulation in foreign trade during the Maoist era, through a historical and comparative study of the export lacemaking industries in Fujian and Chaoshan (Guangdong). Drawing on archival sources, it examines how state-led export initiatives prompted both regions to formalize female handicraft labor through contrasting organizational strategies: one place adopted a flexible hybrid model that integrated rural sideline production with state enterprise oversight, while the other rapidly recruited women into factory settings.

The research demonstrates that local adaptations and cross-regional collaborations enabled socialist China to respond to global market demands, while highlighting the unstable and often underrecognized role of women’s sideline labor. By foregrounding these adaptive structures, the study revisits the hybrid nature of “enterprise” in socialist business history.