Author: Pun Ngai
If you’ve ever stared at the “Made in China” stamp on your gadgets and wondered who actually makes them, Pun Ngai has the answer. Ngai, now an assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, spent eight months in a Shenzhen electronics factory, living and working with dagongmei, the young female workers who are manning the conveyor belts of China’s industrial boom. Ngai provides a thorough history of how economic policy shaped Shenzhen’s rise from tiny fishing village to economic powerhouse, enlivened with stories of the daily, sometimes petty struggles in the factory (Who ever thought Cantonese would be a status symbol?). The girls and women who star in her story are uneducated and come from the hinterlands. They flock to Shenzhen for the money, and increasingly, for independence. The writing is clear and thankfully light on the anthrobabble, but it occasionally loses objectivity as Ngai gets emotionally involved. Nonetheless, it provides an essential backstory for the contemporary world.

Sandra Chen