Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

Useful to get a picture of life in China's industrial heartland.

I am a 3rd generation Chinese from Singapore living in US painting my own 'migrant' story. Last year, I lived in Beijing for 6 months and had a chance to visit southern China. The question that always struck me was how different my life could have been if my grandparents had not taken a junk boat and sailed off for the unknown.

If you read one book about China and the group of young women helping to forge its industrial success, then this is it! Very insightful and enlightening especially for me as I live in China. A great read and well written.

Fascinating look at a subculture that has grown tremendously throughout China. Tells the stories of young women who have left their rural villages to work in enormous factories. They send home money to their families, while also treating income as disposable. They quit & move on to new jobs without a look backwards. Wild, well-written, well-researched. Strongly recommend to...more

Fascinating look at a subculture that has grown tremendously throughout China. Tells the stories of young women who have left their rural villages to work in enormous factories. They send home money to their families, while also treating income as disposable. They quit & move on to new jobs without a look backwards. Wild, well-written, well-researched. Strongly recommend to anyone who likes learning about other cultures.   hide

I read the first 100 pages of this book and wasn't able to finish. I was very interested due to my daughter being born in the area and wondering who her birth parents might have been or possible situations that may have led to her being abandoned. Though the book had a lot of interviews with the migrant workers in the area and gave interesting insight, I found it hard to stay interested...more

I read the first 100 pages of this book and wasn't able to finish. I was very interested due to my daughter being born in the area and wondering who her birth parents might have been or possible situations that may have led to her being abandoned. Though the book had a lot of interviews with the migrant workers in the area and gave interesting insight, I found it hard to stay interested with the people's stories jumping from one to the next. It's written by a reporter who lived in the area several years to research for the book. I think if this had been made into a documentary series, it would have been much better. I felt it read as a 300+ page news report.   hide

A fascinating study of rapidly growing industrialized China, through the eyes of several young, female "migrant" workers. There are no ethics or controls in place at all. Fascinating view of today's industrial China through the eyes of some of its young female migrant workers. It's kind of scary...there are no ethics or controls in place at all.

I especially liked the details about the lives of the factory girls, but it's stunning the speed in which the social lives of the Chinese working class and farmers are changing.