Chapter Ten of Factory Girls
This essay on Factory Girls will focus on the girls’ experience of living in the village. The journey to return home to the village is more difficult than it is for migrants to leave the village. The time to visit home occurs every year during the Winter Lunar new year. Min returns home to her home village. She brings more gifts for her family in her luggage than her possessions. Chinese on travel generate more trash than anywhere else in the world. Migrant workers clogged the railway system during the Winter Lunar New Year. Those who are better off use cars, and the market has not yet improved the conditions of the railroads in China. Chinese village culture is isolated, and it is not uncommon for villagers to never deal with money. Min greets her mother who she has not seen for two years. It is not Chinese custom to embrace, but Min’s mother smiles broadly, and Min touches her mother’s ear when she speaks. Strict top-down hierarchy rules village life. Fathers make decisions for the community; older siblings direct orders to younger siblings. Min’s home that was built in 1986 and it has a deep pit on the upper floor for grains, and on the ground floor the chickens lay eggs under the sink. Min buys a water dispenser and plastic cups for her family from the nearby town of Wuxue. Min has a boyfriend, but she keeps it a secret from her family. In village life, it is expected a woman marry a man from her village. Migration is so established for village to city workers that education is deemed riskier. Only one woman in Min’s village aspired to college. Min’s arrival to the village strikes a sharp disconnect between life in the factory towns and life in the countryside. The obsession with material possession in the city harshly butts up against the independent farm-to-table life of the countryside. Min’s aunt brings a crimson colored cellphone to the house and all admire it; a neighbor wants Min’s father’s down jacket. The city life affords privacy, and Min finds its hard to adjust back to a more public village life where there are no secrets. The life of the village is social and full of negotiation. City life is busier but lonelier. It makes sense that young workers who leave the villages feel lonely in the city, but after a time begin to appreciate the freedom and solitude city life offers.
Works Cited
Chang, Leslie T. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2008. Print.
