nakedsushi's review
3.0
Factory Girls is a non-fiction book written by an Chinese-American journalist. It focuses on the stories of girls who immigrate from rural Chinese villages to factories in more urban areas of China. The girls work in shoe factories, purse factories, factories that make one specific plastic piece for a larger item, and a lot of other factories, but their stories are all the same — they left the village for better opportunities.
I’m glad that someone finally wrote a book like this. People in America like to focus on poor working conditions of factories in China, but what they don’t realize is that a lot of the people working in those factories would rather work 14 hour days sitting in an assembly line and earning 10x the amount they make doing back-breaking work on a farm. The author does a great job showing the lives of these girls who leave their village without imparting any judgement on them or their bosses.
I enjoyed reading the stories of the handful of girls who worked at one factory, jumped to the next, jumped to another job, and so on, but I thought the author’s own story of her family felt a bit tacked on. It made the book feel like it was trying to be two separate books. The author’s story could have gone in a separate book about families affected by the Communist Revolution.
The book is easy to read. Even though the factory girls’ stories started sounding similar toward the middle of the book (that was the point), it never felt like a chore to read. I’d recommend the book to anyone interested in the side of the story that doesn’t usually get covered in western newspapers.
I’m glad that someone finally wrote a book like this. People in America like to focus on poor working conditions of factories in China, but what they don’t realize is that a lot of the people working in those factories would rather work 14 hour days sitting in an assembly line and earning 10x the amount they make doing back-breaking work on a farm. The author does a great job showing the lives of these girls who leave their village without imparting any judgement on them or their bosses.
I enjoyed reading the stories of the handful of girls who worked at one factory, jumped to the next, jumped to another job, and so on, but I thought the author’s own story of her family felt a bit tacked on. It made the book feel like it was trying to be two separate books. The author’s story could have gone in a separate book about families affected by the Communist Revolution.
The book is easy to read. Even though the factory girls’ stories started sounding similar toward the middle of the book (that was the point), it never felt like a chore to read. I’d recommend the book to anyone interested in the side of the story that doesn’t usually get covered in western newspapers.
abrswf's review against another edition
5.0
This book, published in 2006, is a fascinating nonfiction account of China in the modern era. Chang tells the story in very personal terms, interweaving her own family’s very painful experiences from the Manchurian dynasty through the Cultural Revolution with the stories of two modern female factory migrants. Chang actually spent two years imbedded in one of China’s factory cities for this book. She is a gifted writer and if anything I was disappointed to lose the thread of these stories when the book ended. I was on a long visit to China in 2011 but I think I learned nearly as much from this book.
yohn_dezmon's review against another edition
5.0
I was looking for a book to get a better idea of modern Chinese culture, and this book was just what I was looking for. Thank you Leslie!
estav's review
3.0
I thought I was going to love this book, but it ended up taking me nearly 1.5 months to finish because it was just a bit… boring. I had really high hopes, but the way it was written was just a bit dry and there didn’t seem to be really any storyline or underlying idea at all. It felt like a poorly written version of something Barbara Demick would write.
Some chapters I really loved and breezed through, others I skipped entirely. Reading about the authors family history bored me to tears so I skipped those chapters because they just weren’t relevant or interesting to me.
I’m giving this book a 3/5 because while it was good, it was nothing to write home about and I probably wouldn’t recommend it to someone.
Some chapters I really loved and breezed through, others I skipped entirely. Reading about the authors family history bored me to tears so I skipped those chapters because they just weren’t relevant or interesting to me.
I’m giving this book a 3/5 because while it was good, it was nothing to write home about and I probably wouldn’t recommend it to someone.
irishtraveller's review against another edition
4.0
It took me a while to muddle through this. This is the sort of nonfiction that you appreciate but may not necessarily speed through it. If you're interested in Chinese culture or simply how many of the products we use and buy every day in the United States come to be, this is a book you must read. And while I was well aware of how low pay is in China, this book reveals the true depths of the low wages and problems in the city factories. It also offers a glimpse into rural Chinese culture, which is shocking to my American sensibilities but quite normal in China.
Mostly, I felt a great deal of sorrow for the young women in this book. They wander from place to place, looking for something...more money, a mate, a better working environment--something. Many times, they don't even know what they're searching for. It was definitely one of the more enlightening reads I've found in a while.
Mostly, I felt a great deal of sorrow for the young women in this book. They wander from place to place, looking for something...more money, a mate, a better working environment--something. Many times, they don't even know what they're searching for. It was definitely one of the more enlightening reads I've found in a while.