Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace

by Pun Ngai

As China has evolved into an industrial powerhouse over the past two decades, a new class of workers has the dagongmei , or working girls. The dagongmei are women in their late teens and early twenties who move from rural areas to urban centers to work in factories. Because of state laws dictating that those born in the countryside cannot permanently leave their villages, and familial pressure for young women to marry by their late twenties, the dagongmei are transient labor. They undertake physically exhausting work in urban factories for an average of four or five years before returning home. The young women are not coerced to work in the factories; they know about the twelve-hour shifts and the hardships of industrial labor. Yet they are still eager to leave home. Made in China is a compelling look at the lives of these women, workers caught between the competing demands of global capitalism, the socialist state, and the patriarchal family. Pun Ngai conducted ethnographic work at an electronics factory in southern China’s Guangdong province, in the Shenzhen special economic zone where foreign-owned factories are proliferating. For eight months she slept in the employee dormitories and worked on the shop floor alongside the women whose lives she chronicles. Pun illuminates the workers’ perspectives and experiences, describing the lure of consumer desire and especially the minutiae of factory life. She looks at acts of resistance and transgression in the workplace, positing that the chronic pains—such as backaches and headaches—that many of the women experience are as indicative of resistance to oppressive working conditions as they are of defeat. Pun suggests that a silent social revolution is underway in China and that these young migrant workers are its agents.

Genres: China, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Ethnography, Feminism, Labor, Asia

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

Reviews

[Martyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

bardzo dobrze napisany i zrobiony reportaż. autorka patrzy na opisywane sytuacje z wielu różnych perspektyw, stara się dociec powodów różnych zjawisk i analizuje je dokładnie. książka bardzo dobrze przedstawia systemowo problem z kapitalizmem i wywołaną nim "indywidualizacją" (a w zasadzie alienacją i narzucaniem ciągłej konkurencji) osób z klasy robotniczej.

[Emma]

balanced theory with ethnography in a very sensitive way, despite what could have been a fairly exploitative research project if mishandled--particularly moved by the marxist-feminist take on bodily pain, menstruation, and Yan's dreams as forms of resistance in the face of the overwhelming nexus of industrial alienation and patriarchy. also really interesting reading this while thinking about the advent (and contradictions?) of market leninism in china and all that it entails for regional and global economies. more credit is due to ngai and her research!

[Yon]

excellent balance between theory and ethnography, and between the analysis of injustice and passion for justice. a must read for those who want to know who make your i phone.

[Daphne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting to work my way through the gendered labor debate of the 90s and was pleasantly surprised to find that this book was one of the best ethnographies I've read maybe ever. Ngai skillfully utilizes continental philosophy (D&G, Foucault, Irigaray, Kristeva), Marx (Capital, German Ideology, Manuscripts of 1844), and the life experiences of the Dagongmei (rural female migratory labor) at an electronics factory in Shenzen owned by Hong-Kong Capitalists after Deng's reforms and the designation of Shenzen as a special economic zone.

Ngai's study of China adds an interesting voice to the gendered labor debate by focusing on the triple oppression of the migratory peasant class (global capitalism, state socialism, familial patriarchy) because the Chinese party-state exists in contrast to the the other Global factories that exploit specifically young women's labor power, in that there is more deliberate planning by a central authority -- its not simply transnational commodity chains driven by major corporations like in the Ready Made Garment factories in Bangladesh or the Maquiladoras in places like Mexico and Nicaragua. I do wish somebody would write another ethnography in this vein (marxist-feminist and actually useful) now that we are 30 years on and a quarter of a way through the so-called "Chinese century"

"If Karl Marx has already pointed out that the division between town and country is the basis of the accumulation of capital, I add that sexual difference is another requirement, especially in the age of global manufacturing" (pp. 15)

[Siqi Qin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pun Ngai is an awesome scholar at this topic.

[amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

read for an anthropology course; loved it. adding it here because it left an impact on me and i've recommended it to many people. a very important read.

[Amina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read for uni and it was a decent read

[Tyler Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ethnology of the Dangomei. The author deplores how she arrived at the factory, what the conditions are for most Dangomei, where the workers originate from, and what can be expected of them long term. Despite the gap in time since published, the narrative she depicts is still relevant to most ODM facilities present in China , particularly southern China near Guangzho. If you really want to understand why people, not only in China,but other countries decide to work for less than $1 a day, read this book to figure it out. Big business = big $$ for the government so these conditions will remain for the foreseeable future.

[Sebila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book, but not an easy read!

[Sakib · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep ethnographic analysis of one manufacturing plant in China, and how the workers there are exploited - subtly and explicitly, on a macro and micro scale, in a variety of ways.