Factory Girls
As Chang (2012) points out, "factory work is an informed choice, not a desperate response to poverty. Other studies by Chinese and Western scholars show that migration fuels economic growth, social mobility and the spread of progressive ideas." In her 2009 book Factory Girls, Leslie Chang visits the land of her ancestors to explore the real stories of Chinese factory workers. Chang's ancestors migrated thousands of miles within China, through Taiwan, and eventually ending up in the United States. As the author reflects on the primary subject of contemporary Chinese factory workers, she places their experiences in the context of historical and global population migrations. People migrate for a number of different reasons. Finance is, of course, a primary driver of population migration. Where there is no work and opportunity, residents are often forced to move elsewhere. Yet there are also other reasons for population migration such as personal ambition to extricate oneself from village life and the social, economic, and political oppression that it often entails. Many of the factory workers that Chang (2009) meets and introduces in Factory Girls sought new horizons, opportunities, and worldviews when they left their respective villages for Dongguan. Americans generally view Chinese factory workers with pity, notes Chang (2009), but those factory workers should instead be viewed with the same respect and admiration offered to the forebears of modern-day Americans who also dealt with incredible hardship.
Factory Girls highlights the structural issues associated with population migration and migrant labor, and intermittently discusses the implications of migrant labor pools on the global market economy. Viewed also with an eye for the big picture of history, Factory Girls shows how China's current economic, political, and social affairs are not necessarily stagnant. In fact, the very women profiled in Factory Girls are the ones that are changing the future of the nation and possibly the world. The women profiled in Factory Girls are not victims. Quite the opposite, these women have taken their lives in their own hands in a bold display of self-determination and verve. The women are ambitious, and future-focused.
Chang divides the book into two main sections, "The City," and "The Village." The comparison allows the reader to draw conclusions about the reasons for population migration within China. City life in places like Dongguan is not easy. The life of a factory laborer can be especially trying, with cramped living quarters, unsafe working conditions at the factories, and long, grueling hours for little pay. However, the life the factory workers left behind in the villages is no less tiring, unsafe, or uncomfortable. Comparing the village with the city allows Chang (2009) to drive home the central idea that it is critical to keep an open mind and when exploring issues related to factory labor in China.
What Chang (2009) suggests is not that China's model works well, or that the system should not be changed to accommodate for workers' rights. Chang (2009) does suggest that the system will change, and is changing, as the workforce achieves upward social mobility. As more Chinese people achieve upward social mobility, tremendous changes are bound to take place within the society. Currently, the factories are the best opportunity many rural people have for personal, social, and economic advancement. The stories told in Factory Girls are strongly reminiscent of those told about the early American pioneers who took their covered wagons across thousands of miles of dirt track, venturing into the unknown and often dying as a result.
Chang was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, and as such understands fully the business concepts and implications of Chinese factories. Chinese factories occupy a peculiar place in the global market and supply chains. The success of China's economy is linked to the effectiveness of its factories, which, as Chang (2009) points out, is also linked to the business and organizational culture. The worker slogans are designed to create the...
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