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Leslie T. Chang
Leslie T. Chang lived in China for a decade as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, specializing in stories that explored how socioeconomic change is transforming institutions and individuals. Her first book, Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, traces the lives of two... show more

Leslie T. Chang lived in China for a decade as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, specializing in stories that explored how socioeconomic change is transforming institutions and individuals. Her first book, Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, traces the lives of two young women from the countryside who work in a factory city in South China, interwoven with her own family history of migrations within China and to the West. The book was published in 2008 by Spiegel & Grau, a Random House imprint. Factory Girls was named a New York Times Notable Book and one of the best books of the year by many publications. Chang is a recipient of a PEN USA Literary Award and an Asian American Literary Award.A graduate of Harvard University with a degree in American History and Literature, Chang has also worked as a journalist in the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She was raised outside New York City by immigrant parents who forced her to attend Saturday-morning Chinese school, for which she is now grateful.She and her husband, writer Peter Hessler, moved back to the United States in 2007. They live in a small town in southwestern Colorado that has one Chinese restaurant.
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Community Reviews
Merle
Merle rated it 12 years ago
You might expect a book about the lives of migrant workers in China to be incredibly depressing, full of tales of abuse. This book isn't like that at all; it's informative, and doesn't gloss over ugly things, but nor does it beat you down.Factory Girls focuses on the lives of young women living in D...
Books I have read and loved
Books I have read and loved rated it 13 years ago
I am going to write this review before reading others' reviews, because I loved this book and want to actually write out one of my little thingies about it before my mind is changed or my positive opinion changed. That always happens. There's something about social type commentaries written by journ...
The Library of Babel
The Library of Babel rated it 13 years ago
There are two terms that come up to my mind while starting this review: mess and potential.For "Factory Girls" has potential but is a mess. Don't take me wrong, I do believe that it's better reading this book than ignoring its existence, but I suppose that whereas most readers can be satisfied with ...
debnance
debnance rated it 16 years ago
Chang spends three years in China, following the lives of several young women who have moved from rural China to find jobs and money and success and love in urban China. This is not the story I’d been expecting; city life turns out to be a big plus for most of the women in this book. Those for whom ...
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