Bruce Humes

Two Shanghai-based writers out there want to tell us the story of China’s 21st century min’gong (民工), but neither has yet been published in English: One a Henan native who writes movingly about her life as a dagong mei (打工妹) in Shenzhen, and another a sharp-tongued Frenchman capturing a Shanghai the locals ignore. Light years apart in terms of culture, when seen from the perspective of a migrant worker living from hand-to-mouth—admittedly via works of fiction—the two cities seem depressingly similar. Exploitation is the name of the game…