Factory Girls

There is a new book recently published in the States called "Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China." I've not read the book yet, but it's about the increasing popularity to leave home and move to a city where you can get a better job in a factory. By better, this means a job in which you sometimes work from 6am until 9pm, seven days a week to make a little bit of money to send home to your family in the villages.

On Saturday, I had lunch with a girl who is a freshman English major. She comes from a small village in one of the poorest provinces in China. When she was a child, her parents had a farm where they grew corn and wheat, but six years ago her father died in a car accident. After a couple of years trying to make it, they realized they did not have enough money with the father gone. So, the two younger siblings (the parents had disobeyed the one-child law in China because the two older children were girls and sons are favored) went to work in factories, which meant leaving home at the young ages of 13 and 14. My student is the oldest child and since she was closest to getting to college, she continued to work towards that goal. When she graduates, she will hold the greatest responsibility of supporting her family.

It is a sad story, but not an entirely uncommon one. Please keep families like these in your thoughts as they try to make ends meet in an increasingly wealthy China.