Factory Girls

Stop where you are for a moment, look around, and you’ll likely find a product made in China. Your sneakers, appliances, computer keyboard and cell phone were all likely manufactured in Chinese factories. These colossal plants support the industrial boom that has transformed China and the international economy.

Fueling the boom is an estimated 130 million migrant workers, about 70 percent of them young women. That’s an entire generation of girls who leave rural villages and traditional families behind for the chance to make about $100 a month. These ambitious factory girls jump from one job to the next in search of better wages and better lives. They live by their wits, acute self-preservation skills, and mistrust of virtually everyone.

Leslie T. Chang was China correspondent for The Wall Street Journal for a decade. Her new book Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China follows the invisible army of women who make the economy run. She focuses on the stories of two young women: Lu Qingmin, or "Min," and Wu Chunming, who work in the giant factories of Dongguan, on the Pearl River in the south of China - "a place without memory," as she puts it.

(Photo by Chad Ingraham)