Made in China Quotes

“I am beginning to realize that we are all raised by children. Children that are shaped by their own traumas, some of them unable to forget or overcome what happened to them before they passed it along (pg. 191)”
― Anna Qu, Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor

“My Wenzhounese came out tongue-tied, the order of words wrong and hesitant. I had trouble understanding him, too. He grew annoyed after I asked him to repeat himself for the third time. I couldn't remember the last time I spoke to anyone besides my mother in Wenzhounese and it was difficult to hear the sharp changes in his words. He asked if English was easier and I nodded. His accent was so thick I had to lean in and pause before responding. I felt slightly embarrassed for the both of us. We were family, but we'd lost our common language–or I'd lost it–and there were no familiar tongue to go back to.”
― Anna Qu, Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor

“The expectation of justice is not a privilege with which I had been raised, and staring at the piece of paper, it occurs to me how black and white I have made my entire life out to be. I was going to get my justice; it was rightfully mine. How American of me.”
― Anna Qu, Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor

“The narrative of success is a lie, and yet it's us, the workers, who are weighed down by the company's actions. We are the ones who define ourselves by where we work, our job title, how much we make, and what we do forty-plus hours a week. And now we are the ones that must pay the price for this attachment.”
― Anna Qu, Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor

“In the midst of hand-washing my mother's bloody underwear, ironing my stepfather's shirts, and yelling a tHenry to go take his bath for the third time, I didn't care if I was the luckiest of kids without a father. I only wanted to get away from my mother, to not be designated the substitute maid. I resented everything she had given me, wished I could give it all back, and at the same time felt the weight of all that I owed her.”
― Anna Qu, Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor

“I stay and listen to KK Wong, the writer and director, take questions…I want to cry for the characters, for my mother, for all of us in the audience that bear witness and mourn the generations of trauma handed down. I am beginning to realize that we are all raised by children. Children that are shaped by their own traumas, some of them unable to forget or overcome what happened to them before they passed it along.”
― Anna Qu, Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor