Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China: Book by Leslie T. Chang (Book Review pages 1-71)
When you met a girl from another factory, you quickly took her measure. Thus begins the story of young female migrant workers in China. From village life to city life…and what a life it is…Dongguan is not Kansas kids…While we may cast our thoughts to generations past of migration from Europe to the United States or the more romanticized “Go West Young Man” the migration in China is equally a story to be told.
Chang’s style took me a bit of reading to get used to…it seemed rather disjointed and erratic, its pulse was hard for me to take…but then it occurred to me that this is the story…the lives of the mainly teenage girls leaving the only lives they have known in tiny rural villages and going to massive cities of untold millions is full of stop and go traffic, polluted agendas, employment atrocities, bizarre living situations, cute friendships and peculiar presuppositions.
The story is irrepressible, bold yet blundering…teenage girls making life changing decisions on the scantiest bits of information and risking all for a shot at more in life, not just money but adventure, a life’s dream. This story could be a reality TV show on steroids…who will get voted out of the factory next, and who will win the million dollars?
Vulnerable teenage girls far from home, not knowing the rules of the game…mainly because there are none…and we are not talking a handful of girls we are talking MILLIONS…untold numbers of lives migrating often with little if any real planning…yet as the book moves along it seems there are some rules…and the girls are making them up as they go along…
What is the story behind your cell phone, your child’s toys or the mouse you click away on? Factory Girls puts a human face on China and those products we take for granted…What do you think when you read MADE IN CHINA?
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