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What Members Thought
Chang's research with young women in factories in 2003-2005 shows that the function of factory work and the situation of rural workers in urban factories has changed significantly from the early studies of the 90s. The "girls" today are developing independence from their rural families. Many are using their earnings to affect family decisions, sometimes over-ruling their parents. At the same time, their traditional cultural beliefs are becoming irrelevant to their current lives, and many struggl
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Chang spends three years in China, following the lives of several young women who have moved from rural China to find jobs and money and success and love in urban China. This is not the story I’d been expecting; city life turns out to be a big plus for most of the women in this book. Those for whom city life is not so well suited quickly return home, usually to try again on another day. For the most part, the women have a place to stay and are earning money. There are sad stories, too; companies
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This book was so interesting as it gives insight into how China is dealing with its own industrial revolution and how that is affecting an entire generation of young Chinese women. This book was written about 10 years ago and I'd even be very interested in reading an update now. Especially as there have been a lot of "scandals" over the years of contaminated goods from China's factories. It was an interesting look into the lives of some of these women and how they had changed so much in just the
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Brown University First Readings web site
Interesting easy read if somewhat superficial. For those who have not been to China, it may add a different perspective on the difficulties of life.
Dec 31, 2008
Ching-In
marked it as to-read
Sep 27, 2011
alana
is currently reading it
Nov 19, 2012
Peg
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
asia,
economics,
gender,
china,
international-affairs-development,
read-in-2012,
nonfiction,
women-authors
May 06, 2013
Enthu_Kidlets
marked it as to-read
Apr 04, 2014
Terri FL
marked it as to-read
Feb 21, 2015
Jessica
marked it as to-read
Jul 31, 2017
Terri
marked it as own
Dec 14, 2018
Megan
marked it as to-read
Sep 17, 2020
Kirsten Barber
marked it as to-read-soon
