Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China: Book by Leslie T. Chang (Book Review pages 1-72-170)
The story of those who go out from their villages to join the swarms in the large urban centers continues in this part of the book. Chang explains the challenges of tracking down cooperative volunteers to tell their stories and expresses to us their lives in an interesting and at times humorous manner. There other times when the harshness of such lives and the cluttering convulsions of change and disorder cut jagged edges through the book dispersing any semblance of fluidity to a nebulous mass.
Life in the largest shoe factory in the world is gritty, cutesy and barbed mixed with boundless fascination. In short it cajoles the reader through the migrant mindset and teenage girl silliness in the dirty and dreary world of factory life.
To the Western mind...or perhaps mine at least the book is a jumble of chaos at times, changing directions and getting lost along the way…It seems such is life for these migrants and the book seems equally upon migration. I felt at times that I should have read the car sitting in the driver’s seat of my car with my seatbelt firmly attached prepared for evasion tactics.
It is at page 120 that I encountered a 50 page nebulous entanglement…or probably more correctly a sideshow…or better yet a bait and switch…Chang describes for 50 pages the history of her family’s life in China, Taiwan and immigration to the United States along with her challenge in discovering family and events leading to the family’s migration….
Yes, I can guess that she is attempting a type of comparison for us…this is what happened during the Second World War under Japanese invasion, then the civil war and life under communist China…How and why that generation migrated from China to the opportunities of the United States. However there is nothing in the title, subtitle or back cover explaining that this diversion would be encountered…there is a slight mention in one of the quotes about the book by a newspaper but certainly the cover itself leads one to think the story is centered squarely upon the Factor Girl subject…I had purchased the book to read about Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China not 50 pages of interesting but non-factory girl story line…perhaps a few pages would have sufficed without dwelling upon her lineage for quite so long a period.
Thankfully it appears that we get back on topic with the next chapter…we will move from reading about immigration back to migration…but more about that in my next update on Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China….
Ever found yourself disappointed when an author seems to go out of their way to tell you a moral of the story or personal asides that have nothing to do with the story you actually hoped you were going to explore?
Sarah Pailin?
ReplyDeleteI am a moderate conservative politically and religiously. I would agree with some of her policies for sure.
I think many of the media dislike her so much that enough of the public has been turned against her via indirect programming.
Pailin also comes across as intelligent but seems more rural than urban in background.
I doubt Pailin would ever be elected President.
'To the Western mind...or perhaps mine at least the book is a jumble of chaos at times, changing directions and getting lost along the way…It seems such is life for these migrants and the book seems equally upon migration. I felt at times that I should have read the car sitting in the driver’s seat of my car with my seatbelt firmly attached prepared for evasion tactics.'
ReplyDeleteIndeed this topic is relevant and controversial in the Vancouver area.
In my mind immigration is needed but should be controlled and done as legally as possible.
Happy Weekend.