Love love love this book! Why it isn't the best for learning tones and pronunciation (the audio and links help best with that) it contains some prettyLove love love this book! Why it isn't the best for learning tones and pronunciation (the audio and links help best with that) it contains some pretty good starting info for getting your feet wet. I am looking more for something that will get into the writing/reading Chinese as well as speaking it though. So far I have yet to find an all in one guide for Chinese as a whole, but not having time to take a Chinese class with my other classes... this does a good job! ÔÙ¼û£¡...more
LOL this is my longest review ever, but it is because I was so engrossed in it! I loved every page, every story, and I loved being able to glimpse intLOL this is my longest review ever, but it is because I was so engrossed in it! I loved every page, every story, and I loved being able to glimpse into the rare world told from a compassionate view and not an economical study of China feeding the world with materialism. In fact, that is briefly mentioned -- instead it is a message of promise and hope.
I did NOT want this to end. This book is beautiful, and it is written through the eyes of someone who stands on the border of being American, and confronting their own Chinese past. It covers the controversial themes of Chinese factory workers, but while it gave the facts and the figures of what really does happen in factories, the workers and their lives are the main heart of the story.
It gently explains the political friction from the cultural revolution vs. traditionalist farmers who have been literally practicing the same habits for centuries and now are at odds in bettering their lives. In this day in age, the only way for many to better their circumstances is "to go out" and migrate to the south east industrial areas of China.
Many times the parents stay home on the farms, some may go out, but mostly the children who do not make it into college (which is the majority due to lack of opportunities), leave for the factory cities. It is here these "migrants" consisting of women and men (mostly 18+, but some are underage with the purchase of black market documents) who were once so protected in their isolated villages now face an unforgiving, competitive territory alone.
Many will spend their lives on the factory assembly lines working most days with few days off, sleeping in the factory dorms, and sending all their money back to their families. The factories thrive on the youngest, so many spend their youth working.
Others are tricked (schemes are rampant) or simply fall into the easier lifestyle of prostitution. Some try to get in on ponzi or get rick quick schemes, and others just retire home and settle back into their villages and get married, no better than they started.
A select few take the assembly lines as a stepping stone to use their wages to better themselves via skill and language classes, and even blatantly learning to lie in order to sell themselves into higher positions. Some of these girls are determined to better their lives through their job and income, which in China also means raising marriage prospects, and status through rising over the majority. Some make it, some just go home, others never give up trying.
The book is written literally as the author lives through the events, and she follows two of these girls (whom you grow to cheer for) through their working lives who become her friends. She also treats us to a view in one girl's village when she accompanies a girl home for the new year.
Parents who once kept women isolated, now send them out. With this is also the constant nagging of the girls to come home soon and marry, yet also they demand they send home more money. It is a frustrating situation for the girls who have now learned what the great outside is really like, and it is inevitable that in only a few years a huge culture gap appears.
Girls jump from place to place to get experience in order to rise higher, parents discourage this in girls, calling them too "flighty". Girls who often work hard most of the time, might treat themselves to something fashionable, lip gloss, a mobile phone, or even time with friends, while have their parents chide them for sending home too little money.
All it takes if one is unhappy is to leave, which is a constant in these girl's lives. Many will be invested somewhere and leave to become a different person the next day. This means constantly changing friends, daring to date men from different provinces (a Chinese family's worst nightmare).
Many times the girls are working to send money home in order for the family to raise the other children, or extend their family home for the boys in the family to marry in wives. It is no surprise the girls end up lying in order to balance their families needs and the destiny they are daring to dream of for the first time. Many girls even manage the ultimate dare: to open up a bank account of their own. Others are not so lucky, and their fathers have the factories pay it into the family account.
The other part of the book goes into the beautiful but tragic history of the author, who describes herself reluctant to "China's pull", but eventually gives in. While working as an American correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, not only does she follow these girls, but she finds her own past that began with migration itself.
This is a one of a kind book, there is no slow beginning, their is no abrupt end, and as you close the book you realize this journey is still going on. It was then that I realized for the first time I enjoyed the whole journey, and wanted more. Usually in books there are parts that slow down, parts that are exciting -- this really is about the journey and not the destination that makes it so beautiful.
A truly compassionate book that gives life to the people we only hear about as exaggerated statistics, and a small clue to the power of what China really holds. If China is really a sleeping giant, in the future this book will become a historical marker as to when the giant began to wake up....more
I loved it, very quirky and all over the place. Definitely not young adult.. very vulgar, crude, funny... my type of book. Love the 80s lyric and pop I loved it, very quirky and all over the place. Definitely not young adult.. very vulgar, crude, funny... my type of book. Love the 80s lyric and pop culture references though, and part of the book just takes a complete twist that you wonder if you are reading the same thing....more
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