Factory Girls

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Factory Girls
The book factory girly by Leslie T. Chang is an account of the lives of many young migrants working in southern china. The book provides a first hand argument of what it experienced to be a Chinese immigrant migrating from field to the factory or from village to city. The book tells a heart aching and inspiring story. It captures the individual and social changes with insight and comparison rather than focusing on mind-numbing toil and factory shifts. Unlike the anti-globalization campaigners who believe that modernity is reprehensible, she illuminates the qualities of humanism that are brought about through dynamic division of labor. This paper answers some questions on the book factory girls by Leslie T. Chang.
One of the largest migrations in the history of mankind is taking place in china; more than one hundred and thirty million citizens have left the comfort of their villages to seek jobs in the urban areas. So here the journey of the immigrants begins as they seek to work in southern china dubbed ‘instant cities’. Many of the immigrants are young girls, school dropouts, who head south in ones or twos. The immigrants often have no more than their determination a factory name, or a relative’s phone number (Chang 45).
In the book, Chang cites a phrase that is often used by the Chinese immigrants, they use it to describe their decision to leave the village and enter the city. ‘chuqu’ meaning to go out, they say this to tell that they had nothing to do at home. To leave home and work in the city factories is the hardest that some of the immigrants have ever done. To some, it‘s an adventure, pride is what keeps them in the city, not fear. Chinese believe that returning home early is an admission of defeat. Leaving the village and staying in the city is changing ones fate, they believe.
In the book, Chang focuses on two women, min and chummi...