Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

Factory Girls offers a groundbreaking glimpse into the lives of China's massive migrant workforce, a group totaling 130 million and marking the largest migration in history. Written by Leslie T. Chang, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent in Beijing, the book follows the stories of two young women over three years. These women are striving to escape the assembly lines of Dongguan, a bustling industrial hub in the Pearl River Delta. Chang's narrative unveils a unique world predominantly populated by individuals under thirty, where losing a mobile phone might mean losing connections, and where a few educational classes in computer skills or English can elevate someone into a different social sphere.Through vivid storytelling, Chang takes readers inside an enormous sneaker factory complete with a hospital, cinema, and fire department. She explores luxurious karaoke bars doubling as fronts for prostitution and visits makeshift English classes where students exhibit extreme dedication. Chang also shares glimpses of rural villages, illustrating the stark poverty that compels young women to seek better lives in the cities. Interwoven with these stories is an account of Chang's own family's migrations, which provides a rich historical backdrop. Factory Girls not only sheds light on the transformation of individual lives due to internal migration but also reflects the broader impact on Chinese society, akin to the historical waves of immigration that reshaped America.