Factory Girls – Voices from the heart of modern China is a reportage written by Chinese-American journalist and writer Leslie T. Chang (張彤禾). The book was originally published in 2008, but it was updated in 2010 after the great financial crisis.
In her book, Chang explores the issues that affect the lives of Chinese migrant women. These women are the engine behind China’s economic rise, which relies on a wide and low-income workforce. Young poor girls often move from rural villages to big cities, to gain a better economic and social status. Their lives are far from being easy and are deeply affected by globalization.
In her book, Chang explores a multitude of issues, ranging from the importance of learning English to the hidden processes behind western fashion bags, from prostitution to the difference between men and women in big factories, from Chinese historical conflicts between CCP and KMT to her family’s history. All these aspects are linked by a focus on individual transformation beneath the surface of global issues, rather than on those issues themselves.
While traditional Western narratives usually portray extremely negative work conditions, without any kind of focus on human and individual issues, Chang decides to explore the lives of two young migrant women from their subjective point of view. This is how Chang motivates the book’s peculiarity: “The foreign press […] tended to portray migration as a desperate act without much of a payoff for people. I had a suspicion that there must be more to this, that perhaps things were not so black and white.”[1] As a result, the book cannot be regarded as a denounce against China and its development, but rather as a proof of how capitalism affects the lives of unknown women. In a world where the power is still steadily held in the hands of powerful men, Chang shows that the real surgeon of economic and social developments are poor women who often struggle to make a living, and who are deeply influenced by the mechanisms of patriarchy and capitalism.
SOURCES:
[1] Chang, Leslie T., 2010. Factory Girls. Voices from the heart of modern China. London, Picador.
ABOUT ME:
Federica Ceccarelli: my first great experience in China in 2017 made me fall in love with Chinese culture and literature. I got my MA in Languages and Civilization of Asia at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and now I work for an export agency that trades amazing wines. When I’m not working, I’m either reading or running.