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Factory Girls

By Leslie T. Chang

(21)

| Others | 9780385520171

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Book Description

<p>An eye-opening and previously untold story, Factory Girls is the first look into the everyday lives of the migrant factory population in China.<br><br><br>China has 130 million migrant workers—the largest migration in human history. In Factory Girls, Leslie TContinue

Critics

'Factory Girls' by Leslie T. Chang

Since the 1990s China has undergone rapid economic development. It's no exaggeration to say that practically every useful item that we buy in the West -- for example, shoes, t-shirts, laptops and mobile phones -- was made in a factory somewhere in Ch ... (read full critics)

readingmatters published on Wed, 22 Dec 2010

FACTORY GIRLS by Leslie T. Chang

Review by Lynn Harnett (MAR 4, 2010) American journalist Chang, who kept her Chinese heritage at arm’s length for many years, explores her family’s past and the country’s history as she follows the lives of migrant workers in the industrial city of D ... (read full critics)

mostlyfiction published on Thu, 30 Sep 2010

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1 Review

Couldn't put this one down. An inside look at migrant workers in China. The exodus of Chinese from the countryside to the city for factory and other jobs over the past couple of decades is actually the largest human migration in all of history!
What drives the migrants to move away from home? What ... (continue)

Couldn't put this one down. An inside look at migrant workers in China. The exodus of Chinese from the countryside to the city for factory and other jobs over the past couple of decades is actually the largest human migration in all of history!
What drives the migrants to move away from home? What are the conditions of their life like in the city? Chang befriends and shares the stories of several migrant women. It's interesting to see the value system they live by; a new individualist society where you have to lie your way to a better life, where everyone only trusts themselves, and yet people cannot always shake off their traditional Chinese values and the result is a mish-mash in their personal philosophies.
Chang also investigates and relates her own family history, which is also quite interesting.
Anyway, I'm not doing a good job of telling you what the book is about at all; just read it, it's great. Also see: "Wild Swans", which is also on my shelf.
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"I felt as if I were witnessing over and over where China went wrong. The concerns of family and nation were overwhelming, and they trapped a great many people - millions upon millions - in lives they never would have chosen." P.382

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audioreader said on Nov 7, 2010 | Add your feedback