This article examines video narratives from two North China migrant NGOs in relation to the topic of national development. It argues that state-based discourses of "harmonious society", or héxié shèhuì, are reconfigured visually in a migrant context through metaphors of balance and home, both of which challenge dominant paradigms of "differential" migrant citizenship as established by the changing yet resilient hukou permanent residency laws. The rhetoric of development in China is ambiguous in relation to humanitarian operations there, given the unusual and complex relationship between civil society and the state. The videos analyzed in this article appropriate development values experientially, in the process revealing the importance of alternative autonomies within Chinese society.
Keywords: ONG, migrazione interna, Cina, società civile, retorica visiva, società armoniosa.