Factory Girls
Voices from the Heart of Modern China
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- CHF 7.50
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- CHF 7.50
Beschreibung des Verlags
‘Head and shoulders above almost all other new books about China, this unflinching and yearningly compassionate portrait of the lives and loves of ordinary Chinese workers is quite unforgettable’ Simon Winchester
Every year in China millions of migrant workers leave their rural towns to find jobs in the cities. These people are the driving forces behind China’s economic boom: they work very hard and for little money to make the trainers, ornaments, designer handbags and toys which we buy.
Through the lives of two young women, Chang vividly portrays a world where you can lose your boyfriend and your friends with the loss of a cell phone; where lying about your age, your education, and your work experience is often a requisite for getting ahead; where a few computer or English lessons can catapult you into a completely different social class. This is a powerful and humane portrait of the forces which are shaping China.
‘Astonishing . . . Heartbreaking . . . As one tool in trying to understand today’s China, this is a most valuable, if troubling read’ Irish Times
‘Engrossing . . . An exceptionally vivid and compassionate depiction of the day-to-day dramas, and the fears and aspirations, of the real people who are powering China’s economic boom’ Scotsman
‘Chang’s elegant book is evidence that the best trips home often require a circuitous approach’
Nell Freudenberger, Financial Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chang, a former Beijing correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, explores the urban realities and rural roots of a community, until now, as unacknowledged as it is massive China's 130 million workers whose exodus from villages to factory and city life is the largest migration in history. Chang spent three years following the successes, hardships and heartbreaks of two teenage girls, Min and Chunming, migrants working the assembly lines in Dongguan, one of the new factory cities that have sprung up all over China. The author's incorporation of their diaries, e-mails and text messages into the narrative allows the girls with their incredible ambition and youth to emerge powerfully upon the page. Dongguan city is itself a character, with talent markets where migrants talk their way into their next big break, a lively if not always romantic online dating community and a computerized English language school where students shave their heads like monks to show commitment to their studies. A first generation Chinese-American, Chang uses details of her own family's immigration to provide a vivid personal framework for her contemporary observations. A gifted storyteller, Chang plumbs these private narratives to craft a work of universal relevance.
