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Factory Girls: Voices from the Heart of Modern China

Factory Girls: Voices from the Heart of Modern China

by Leslie T. Chang (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2010

    $3.25

  • Used

    Paperback 2009

    $4.19

  • New

    Paperback 2010

    $13.99
Synopsis

'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; and, 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".

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 448
 Edition: Main Market
 Publisher: Picador
Published: 01 Jan 2010
ISBN 10: 033044736X
ISBN 13: 9780330447362

Media Reviews
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.
- The New York Times Book Review

Chang delves deeply into the world of migrant workers to find out who these people are and what their collective dislocation means for China. Chang skillfully sketches migrants as individuals with their own small victories and bitter tragedies, and she captures the surprising dynamics of this enormous but ill-understood subculture.
- The Washington Post
Chang's deeply affecting book tells the story of the invisible foot soldiers who made China's stirring rise possible.
- The New York Times

This is an irresistible book. - People
Excellent.
- Chicago Tribune

Fascinating. . . Chang powerfully conveys the individual reality behind China's 130 million migrant workers, the largest migration in human history.
- The Boston Globe
Chang reveals a world staggering in its dimensions, unprecedented in its topsy-turvy effects on China's conservative culture, and frenetic in its pace. . . Chang deftly weaves her own family's story of migrations within China, and finally to the West, into her fascinating portrait. . . Factory Girls is a keen-eyed look at contemporary Chinese life composed of equal parts of new global realties, timeless stories of human striving, and intelligent storytelling at its best.
- San Francisco Chronicle
Both entertaining and poignant. . . Chang's fine prose and her keen sense of detail more than compensate for the occasional digression, and her book is an intimate portrait of a strangeand hidden landscape.
- The New Yorker
A compelling, atmospheric look at seldom-seen China.
- BusinessWeek

Chang, a journalist at the Wall Street Journal, spent two years reporting in the gritty southern boomtown of Dongguan trying to put human faces on these workers, and the ones she finds are extraordinary. They are, more than anything else, the face of modern China: a country increasingly turning away from its rural roots and turbulent past and embracing a promising but uncertain future. . . The painstaking work Chang put into befriending these girls and drawing out their stories is evident, as is the genuine affection she has for them and their spirit.
- Time
In her impressive new book, Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, former Wall Street Journal reporter Leslie T. Chang explores this boom that's simultaneously emptying China's villages of young people and fueling its economic growth. . . To be sure, this mass migration is a big and well-told story. But Chang brings to it a personal touch: her own forebears were migrants, and she skillfully weaves through the narrative tales of their border crossings. She also succeeds in grounding the trend in wider social context, suggesting that the aspirations of these factory girls signal a growing individualism in China's socialist culture.
- Newsweek
Elegant. . . Chang is less interested in expose than in getting to know the young women of Dongguan's assembly lines. Factory Girls reveals the workplace through the workers' eyes.
- Financial Times
A real coup. . . Chang, a former Beijing correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, does more than describeharsh factory conditions. She writes about the way the workers themselves see migration, bringing us views that are rarely heard. Factory Girls is highly readable and even amusing in many places, despite the seriousness of the subject. In the pages of this book, these factory girls come to life.
- Christian Science Monitor
Amazing. . . a fascinating ethnography of the young women who labor in the factories of Guangdong, China's richest province, a land of boomtowns where wealth and scams and exploitation and warmth and courage all abound. . . I must have read fifty books about China this year, but this stands out as one of the best.
-Boingboing.net
A gifted storyteller, Chang crafts a work of universal relevance.
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
In-depth reporting [that] contributes significantly to our knowledge about China's development.
- Kirkus Reviews
Rising 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: it presents the first long, hard look we have ever taken at the people who are due to become, before very much longer, the new masters of the world.
-Simon Winchester, author of The Man Who Loved China

Often people ask me, 'What's it like for women in China today?' From now on I'll recommend Leslie Chang's Factory Girls, which is brilliant, thoughtful, and insightful. This book is also for anyone who's ever wondered how their sneakers, Christmas ornaments, toys, designer clothes, or computers are made. The stories of these factory girls are not only mesmerizing, tragic, andinspiring -- true examples of persistence, endurance, and loneliness -- but Chang has also woven in her own family's history, shuttling north and south through China to examine this complicated country's past, present, and future.
-Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

From the Hardcover edition.

Author Bio
Leslie T. Chang is a graduate of Harvard University and was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal in Beijing. She is married to Peter Hessler, who also writes about China. She lives in Colorado.