Posted By: Bryan Hanrahan
Posted On: January 2, 2015
Review by Bryan Hanrahan, Spanish teacher, Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School
Leslie Chang’s Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China provides the reader with first-hand experiences of the industrial, economical, and cultural changes that China currently faces from the viewpoint of young adult Chinese women. Chang is an American journalist interviewing and visiting the women that have decided to leave their poor, unchanging rural lifestyles to try their hand at working in factories in the big cities. The women work long hours for little pay and are provided with cramped dorm rooms for living conditions.
The book is set up almost as a documentary, where each chapter focuses on a specific aspect of these young women’s lives including: living conditions, learning English, dating, returning home to celebrate holidays, and the author’s own personal and familial history. Understanding the format of the book is important to avoid confusion that the story is not in a typical chronological narrative. If used in the classroom, I would advise selecting chapters that fit into the current curriculum instead of focusing on the book in its entirety. Despite its confusing format, the writing is easily understood and not difficult for students to read.
One of the most intriguing themes of the book is the Chinese societal change. Chinese culture has historically been considered to shape people with group mentality; that is people act in a way to better the society instead of their person. However, Factory Girls demonstrates the girls’ struggles in their decisions to better themselves and act on their wants or to act in a way to help their family, bosses, or friends. This is shown when the girls are saving the little money they earn from each salary and how they eventually use it. Some of the girls choose to send money home to better their family, while others improve their social lives by going out often. Some look for comfort by saving to rent an apartment. Others try to continue their education by taking clerical and/or English classes in hopes of changing jobs for better conditions and money. On the contrary, some avoid taking risks in getting ahead to either avoid confrontations with their boss or leave the friends with whom they cohabitate. Despite all of the reasons to spend money, many of the girls realize the importance of survival in modern society and usually purchase a cell phone as soon as possible for either social use, dating, improving their jobs, and/or maintain contact with home. Unfortunately due to the lack of finances and time, the girls cannot focus on all areas at once working many hours and receiving little pay.
Overall the story paints a holistic picture of the changing times by focusing on this new and popular trend of the young female factory worker. By reading the first-hand experiences, the reader can really empathize with the difficulties this new generation faces. With the women’s struggles, the reader also gets a glimpse into the transitional Chinese society. Despite the unpredictable and somewhat confusing format, the book ultimately results into a wonderful resource to understand the contemporary Chinese society.