[PDF] The Lot Of Chinese Workers eBook

Author : Guoqi Xu
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 367 pages
File Size : 39,99 MB
Release : 2011-02-28
Category : History
ISBN : 0674060555

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During World War I, Britain and France imported workers from their colonies to labor behind the front lines. The single largest group of support labor came not from imperial colonies, however, but from China. Xu Guoqi tells the remarkable story of the 140,000 Chinese men recruited for the Allied war effort. These laborers, mostly illiterate peasants from north China, came voluntarily and worked in Europe longer than any other group. Xu explores China’s reasons for sending its citizens to help the British and French (and, later, the Americans), the backgrounds of the workers, their difficult transit to Europe—across the Pacific, through Canada, and over the Atlantic—and their experiences with the Allied armies. It was the first encounter with Westerners for most of these Chinese peasants, and Xu also considers the story from their perspective: how they understood this distant war, the racism and suspicion they faced, and their attempts to hold on to their culture so far from home. In recovering this fascinating lost story, Xu highlights the Chinese contribution to World War I and illuminates the essential role these unsung laborers played in modern China’s search for a new national identity on the global stage.

Author : Gordon H. Chang
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin
Page : 325 pages
File Size : 34,58 MB
Release : 2019
Category : China
ISBN : 1328618579

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A groundbreaking, breathtaking history of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history until now.

Author : Ed Shew
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 24,64 MB
Release : 2022-02-07
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9789888552689

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Tens of thousands of men from southern China changed the course of American history with their tireless work in the California gold fields in the 1850s and their crucial contribution in the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad in the following decade. Chinese Brothers, American Sons tells the little-known story of these brave adventurers through the eyes of two brothers, Li Chang and Li Yu, who arrive in San Francisco in 1854 in search of the Gold Mountain. Their hope is to make some money to take back to China, but they also encounter violence and discrimination and, yes, American food. This apocryphal tale celebrates and illuminates the struggles and achievements of a largely-ignored group in the rich history of the United States of America--the Cantonese men who conquered the toughest part of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad: the tunnels through the granite of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Despite their efforts, Asian-Americans were the target of racism for a century beyond the opening of the railroad in 1869, and the poison has yet to fully disappear. The author's own story of trying to "fit in" to his hometown birthplace of St Louis is one of the many rich strands to this broad narrative. In the end, the story is one of hope and triumph--the Chinese brothers are no longer invisible. They are now American sons. Praise for Chinese Brothers, American Sons: "In telling the story of what the Chinese brothers endure, Shew has essentially combined two books. One is the novel, as Li Chang and Li Yu gradually make their way through American culture and prejudices. The other is history, first of the search for gold, then of how railroad crews -- Chinese and otherwise -- laid track in impossible conditions to unite America in the wake of the Civil War." St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Author : United States Congress Senate
Publisher : Scholar's Choice
Page : 30 pages
File Size : 10,50 MB
Release : 2015-02-14
Category :
ISBN : 9781298012463

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author : Pun Ngai
Publisher : Duke University Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 48,32 MB
Release : 2005-04-05
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0822386755

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As China has evolved into an industrial powerhouse over the past two decades, a new class of workers has developed: 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.

Author : Zhongjin Li
Publisher : Haymarket Books
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 22,97 MB
Release : 2016-05-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1608465802

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China has been the fastest growing major economy in the world for three decades. It is also home to some of the largest, most incendiary, and most underreported labor struggles of our time. China on Strike, the first English-language book of its kind, provides an intimate and revealing window into the lives of workers organizing in some of China’s most profitable factories, which supply Apple, Nike, Hewlett Packard, and other multinational companies. Drawing on dozens of interviews with Chinese workers, this book documents the processes of migration, changing employment relations, worker culture, and other issues related to China’s explosive growth.

Author : Joe Studwell
Publisher : Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Page : 434 pages
File Size : 44,41 MB
Release : 2013-07-02
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0802193471

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“A good read for anyone who wants to understand what actually determines whether a developing economy will succeed.” —Bill Gates, “Top 5 Books of the Year” An Economist Best Book of the Year from a reporter who has spent two decades in the region, and who the Financial Times said “should be named chief myth-buster for Asian business.” In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell distills his extensive research into the economies of nine countries—Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China—into an accessible, readable narrative that debunks Western misconceptions, shows what really happened in Asia and why, and for once makes clear why some countries have boomed while others have languished. Studwell’s in-depth analysis focuses on three main areas: land policy, manufacturing, and finance. Land reform has been essential to the success of Asian economies, giving a kick-start to development by utilizing a large workforce and providing capital for growth. With manufacturing, industrial development alone is not sufficient, Studwell argues. Instead, countries need “export discipline,” a government that forces companies to compete on the global scale. And in finance, effective regulation is essential for fostering, and sustaining growth. To explore all of these subjects, Studwell journeys far and wide, drawing on fascinating examples from a Philippine sugar baron’s stifling of reform to the explosive growth at a Korean steel mill. “Provocative . . . How Asia Works is a striking and enlightening book . . . A lively mix of scholarship, reporting and polemic.” —The Economist