Pearl's Daughters
The Factory Lie of Migrant Women
Chenyue Yuan
INTRODUCTION The Pearl River Delta, located in Southern China, was turned into an economic powerhouse after the Opening of China*. With its geographical advantages, the zone attracted foreign investment to build labour-intensive factories, which brought an influx of domestic labourers from other regions in China. The region has gained the reputation of being the ‘Factory of the World, ’** bringing both opportunities and challenges to the new arrivals, most of whom were young women from other regions in China. Based on the context, this book uses the true narratives of a large number of female labourers to recreate their work and life in the factories in this region during the 1980s and 1990s. Most of these stories come from retrieved interview records, local journalism, and personal diaries. A few of the excerpts come from my mother’s recollections of experience as a female factory worker. They are re-edited into one in the form of a literary collage. The first person in the written text, 'I', represents a collective of migrant women (between the ages of 16-22) who have had this experience. They are the so-called ‘Pearl’s daughters’.
[1] The Opening of China refers to the national movement [relating to the] ‘Reform and Opening-up’ of China beginning in 1978. [2] ‘The Factory of the World’ is a phrase widely used in local government and journalism, and a term recognized by the domestic public since the late 1980s.
I have relatives living in Hong Kong, and they all said that their education level was higher. The sentence of ‘equivalent to Hong Kong junior high school education’ triggered my curiosity, and I wanted to apply.
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More than 20 girls quit on the third day. I remember that it was night when we arrived at the dorm where the factory provided us with. However. when we woke the next day, wow! We realised that we were on a mountain, without roads and weeds everywhere. We could see what looked like the factory in the distance at the bottom of the mountain. Many girls, feeling desolate, began crying. There were girls crying every day, some of whom left, and one third had gone in less than three months.
But I didn’t. I convinced myself to stay.
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Our prescribed mealtime was only 20 mins, everyone had to rush to hand over their bowls to the canteen lady who was responsible for distributing the food.
The work was physically exhausting. We need to have enough food to be able to work. I was always hungry and developed a big appetite.
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In order to have the goods ready for Children's Day (June 1st Annually), we were forced to work overtime, sometimes a day shift could not finish until 3 or 4 am. The situation lasted over a month, which caused one of my fellows to faint on the ground, and the prevalence of labourers getting ill rose sharply during this period.
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hot, humid, we had to bathe every day.
Eight girls, only one bathroom, and hot water was only supplied for 2 hours a day.
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Uniforms lined up densely above our heads, With some mottled mold on the back.
I used to live in Room 209, with red clothes hanging on the door, And I don’t know how many girls have lived in that room up to now.
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People in the post office looked at us with unkind eyes, perhaps because my companion and I could not speak their language, or perhaps we were too noisy.
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My companion knew only a limited number of characters, and she had never worked as a clerical worker. When we sent the letter, she was so scared to see that she had to write. Her hand with the pen kept shaking uncontrollably, and she was so nervous that she couldn't even write any words. Seeing that my companion was wasting time, the counter lady became irritable. In the end, I did it for her.
POSTSCRIPT The term ‘daughters’ refers to young women in a relatively inferior position. I use the word to imply their lack of voice and passive state. They are strictly managed. Not only are they subject to strict requirements at work but even dormitory curfews, the limited supply of hot water and other regulations dominate their off-duty hours. They are still connected to the family into which they were born, yet they are separated in being so far away from home. As migrant workers, most of their personal income is used to address the family's financial problems and improve the original family life. It is precisely because of this situation that the workmates have nurtured sister-like feelings in getting along day and night. Workmates are beyond workmates — they are also roommates, friends, and companions, which brought to them inseparable dependence and reliance and makes them act in unison in a supportive way. Though all the stories above contain the memories of real experiences, this book only presents these intermittent fragments, rather than trying to present a single truth about the past. In the process of stories collection, I realized that the memories of different people sometimes conflict with each other—some can accept and enjoy such a life, while others are the opposite.The words should be valued only as stories, not history.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The completion of this book is inseparable from the information on the Internet left by people who have worked as migrant female laborers. In particular, thanks to the following: An Zi, Chen Xiaoxia, Dai Bin, Deng Guicai, Guo Haihong, Guo Jinniu, Guo Nianqun, Hong Wei, Hu Xiaoyan, Huang Xiaoli, Huang Ying, Jiang Huiqun, Li Lianhui, Li Qingxia, Li Yan, Liu Cuiwei, Liu Guiliang, Liu Meili, Liu Yonggao, Ning Yi, Shu Xiaoyun, Weng Chunxian, Xiao Ju, Yuan Lijuan, Zang Lan, Zhang Meimei, Zhang Weiming, Zeng Hong, Zheng Xiaoqiong, Zheng Yanping, and Zhong Mengyao. My thanks to them for their vivid diaries, poems, self-spoken stories, personal photo albums, etc. Additional thanks go to photographers and journalists who shared their materials and insights on the internet through their practice. Thanks to the following photographers: Cai Guosheng, He Huangyou, Huang Jianqiu, Huang Ying, Li Zhensheng, Lv Xiang, Michael Wolf, William Joseph, and Zhan Youbing; and the following journalists: Jiang Rongyao, Lin Zhiwen, Xie Lin and Zheng Jianyang. There are many materials behind this project where either the creator cannot be identified, or their work has disappeared from the Internet during the research process. I am grateful to these individuals for giving me a key understanding of their lives. individuals for giving me a key understanding of their lives.
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