Condolences China: Sagacious Sam 1 - People's Republic 0; another book reviewed and S.S. remains unimpressed

BOOK REVIEW

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

Leslie T. Chang

As a study rooted in both the lessons of history and the narration of cultural subjectivity in China, Leslie Chang’s text seems to be purposed as an open-ended performative narrative meant to bring about conclusions which will be objectively different depending on the cumulative knowledge that the reader personally has about the subject at hand: the lives of Factory Girls in China.  From my bent-at-the-waist perspective, the fact that Chang was only able to gather enough information on only two of the over 130 million migrant Factory Girls in China, is disappointing. 

Chang points out the mindboggling magnitude of her attempt at cultural narrative quickly, as if to get it off her to-do list without noticeably missing a drumbeat; “In their frilly tops and jeans and ponytails, they looked just like the millions of other young women who had come to Dongguan from somewhere else,” and after drawing in a long, purposed breath she continues; “The sight of so many girls I would never know was paralyzing—it seemed inconceivable that any single story mattered at all.”[1]  Ahem, but as a credible^(?), tenured^(?), journalist, didn’t you essentially, and some [I] would venture to say, purposefully smash the Ethos of your remaining 390 pages; leaving an admittedly naïve, but detail-oriented undergrad, grasping for even a tiny metaphysical twig while being hurdled—without warning—over the Cliffs of Insanity!  I read your book, but I was drawn back to your confession page[2] time and again—due to my disbelief—which made the only remaining handholds of Pathos and Logos far too difficult to hold onto.  I was literally mentally and scholastically disenchanted by your apparent resignation from the industry.  “I DON’T BELIEVE IT.”[3]

If you don’t mind my saying Narrator Chang, you seem awfully too willing to admit defeat—the arch-nemesis of your character cast consisting of two strong-willed females dueling against traditional Chinese dualists, men and management—before even firing a shot from the big guns of your three year cultural study. 

If I’m to understand that you weren’t intentioned on at least attempting to coerce the reader into pits of conclusion, what was you business plan when you decided to become a pen-wielding globe-trotter?  Making people feel sympathy for Chinese women, empathy even?  No matter what country you look at Chang, women have had a tough go of it until pretty recently... "E" for effort on that one.  
Pop-quiz hot shot: Ever since humans realized that the seasonal ebbs and flows of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers deposited mineral rich silt, which was paramount for sustained agriculture—the most recent infanticide of modern Chinese society, another motionless piece of evidence against China’s “grand plan;” why do you think there are—and will continue to be—so many young, bright-eyed women packing their bags and hoping on a one way trip into the warming glow of floodlights perched high atop factories in cities?    

Is China – the country currently viewed as the soon-to-be torch-bearer of geopolitical influence – being propelled to the forefront of industrial production due to the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to motivate the hearts and minds of its national population, which consists of more than 1 billion citizens, with popular slogans and a communal heartbeat powered by the government’s single-minded desire to deservedly take the pole-position of global influence from the vice-grip currently dominated by America and the U.N.?  

Or is there, rather, a more devious purpose underlying China’s six-decade long quest for power; something along the lines of the subjugation of the world’s lower- and middle-class citizens, very much akin to the “lives” of the “packs of girls and boys swallowed up” behind the walls and “the long avenue of factories” in “Dongguan;”[4] the birthplace of the cultural understanding that Chinese “modern history began with the handbag factory,”[5] due partly to the fact that “Chinese history museums” do not “make a single mention of Mao Zedong.”[6]

-- The factory city of "Dongguan," I wonder if that translates roughly as "The Glorious People's Attempt to Forge Walt Disney's Glorious Donkey Island," hmmmmmm 


Chang, as a dedicated journalist—she did stick with it, have to give credit where credit is due—does her part by chasing the story for a total of three years and compiling an overwhelming narrative.  For that, I will join the masses of journalistic almsgivers alluded to in the book’s four opening pages subtitled “Praise for Factory Girls” and praise her also; more power to you Mrs.^? Chang[7]  Not only is Chang’s scholarship applicable to debate in the highest of academia’s spheres, she also endeavored to publish a study which allows an under-educated layman the ability to draw personal conclusions about the oftentimes overlooked subjects of the ethical and humanitarian treatment of migrant workers in the most populous country on Earth, The People’s Republic of China. 

In summation, I am impressed by the tenacity that Leslie Change has, but I feel that she was often-time reinforcing the stereotypes of China’s migrant work force as a Blue Jean Army.  If history serves me correctly, Communism has been attempted all over the globe, and each time it has made great-leaps forward, only to quickly cast the seemingly weighted die, which propels it further still, entrenching the elite in positions of infallibility, with a tendency to purge, causing the voice of the people, to once again overthrow it and set up some form or another of Western style government.  It’s happened like clockwork in nearly all of the recently established Communist countries… so shine on China, forge Tao… but I feel that you’re growth is malignant rather than benign and you will consume yourself before your appetite for world domination is whetted.  Do not pass go Mrs.^(?) Chang, do not collect 200 Yuan.  Madison Fifth Ave. will continue to be just out of reach, no matter what heights China’s human pyramid reaches.  
Too Infinity [roughly 2020] and Beyond [mass migration out of your backwater society]!  Silly Mao, ruling countries is for people, not pseudo-Stalins...  
"Build Roads, Bridges, and Power Plants to Generate Funds for More Roads, Bridges, and Power Plants!"  Mediocrity leads to stagnation...

---

[1] Leslie T. Chang, Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009) 24.

[2] Chang, 24.

[3] Chang, 50.

[4] Chang, 21.

[5] Chang, 31.

[6] Chang, 43.

[7] More probably Miss Chang, due to the high praise Chang scholastically strained to squeeze out of plethora of publication firms, the majority of whom are coincidentally ideologically entrenched with The New York Times, for two Chinese women on a quest to challenge cultural norms and ideals.  Could there not have been higher praise for the entire constituent body of Factory Girls in China.  Short-sighted when it comes to the “big picture” in my humble, undergraduate opinion.


Talons - once again - Out

UNDER RECONSTRUCTION

I apologize for the apparent neglect, but I assure you that there is good reason.  I've been entirely too busy to allow myself time to drop everything and write, but that will change hopefully sooner rather than later.

This blog is going to be re-imagined as more of a "Hannity & Colmes" oriented blog - a dueling-blogs if you will. Where opposing opinions will be presented, which will allow for greater debate and more cohesion in the long-term.

Please have patience, as this process will undoubtedly take a month or more to initiate.  I will not allow for an idea with great potential to be launched prematurely.  When the ball does start rolling with "Sagacious Sam v. ____________," it will roll fast and hard; I hope that after reading this, you are as excited as I am about the future of this Blogspot.

Thanks,

S. Sam

"Progressticide"

There are innumerable lessons to be mastered from the dissection of history; there have been tremendous accomplishments and horrendous misfortunes from which we can learn.  It is relatively easy to predict the outcome of present and future action by consulting the records of what has been or what failed to be.  My personal viewpoint on the efficacy of understanding history – in opposition of the excessively regurgitated phrase “history repeats itself” – is that human nature only goes so far: history doesn’t repeat itself per se, but rather, modern times dictate similar reactions to undefined dilemmas—things happen that mirror historic events, but for reasons inaccessible to even the most gifted of modernity’s time-travelers. 

It would be easy to assert that what I have said is nothing more than a highbrow reiteration of “history repeats itself.”  In a way, it is; permit me to redefine my terms, avoiding hyper-scholastic phrasing: hindsight is not foresight; looking back will not enable one to see forward; however, reflection upon humanities past undertakings – the pros and cons – does benefit the forecasting of a sagacious, cognitively vital individual. 

That being said, it seems appropriate to quote one of America’s most purely sagacious minds, so that my purpose may be framed.  Benjamin Franklin once said; “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom,” when he spoke of the Constitution’s strength in guarding Virtue and Freedom—constitutive parts of the Republican Ideology—which helped establish the United States of America as a sovereign Nation.  Sagacious Ben’s predication following the previous quote was an ‘ah ha!’ moment for me; “As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” 

Our nation’s helmsman of late, seems to have neither the power of hind- nor foresight.  His politicking feels void of lessons learned from history, doubly affecting his ability to lead America into the pole position of the future.   I have a difficult time envisioning a world championed by the Chinese Communist Party or the Russian Federation.  Critiquing the president is not my intention – although the continuous finger-pointing is really starting to make me raise a finger – I feel that the bitching is being done by more critics than necessary—similar to saying f**k in every sentence, the potential power of slander is being so diluted that it may become entirely ineffective if we don’t start focusing our efforts elsewhere. 

It is not the conductor I am worried about though, his ability to conduct even a community orchestra is at this point questionable.  I’m concerned with how he got to where he is, and how we can avoid seating another demigod borne of American Democracy.  I see Obama as the result of irrationality; the first – and hopefully last – president voted into office by a nation of citizens unwilling or unable to think rationally for themselves.  If the current education system in America continues on its path of below average result, we will not only be outsourcing American jobs, but American thinkers as well.  I desperately hope that there are student who appreciate the opportunity to be in college – like myself – using the brief period to develop rational and pragmatic skills paramount the “real” world.  I know they are out there; why must they insist on remaining thoughtless, voiceless, and nameless.  Obama’s victory was so one-sided on University campuses nationwide, in part, because there was no opposition to oppose; no voices to silence—for me, the silence was deafening.  People voted for him because other people were voting for him, they did not know why he was to be voted for; they did not give or ask for a reason.    Fortunately, I see a light at the end of the ignorance tunnel: the mind. 

Without thinkers in America – the “integrated man: a thinker who is a man of action” – society inevitably spirals downwards; the economy collapses and the irrational demigods seize power.  The mind, fueled by rational thought, is the motive power that fuels man’s existence; the only evil is the refusal to think for ones self.  What we’re currently facing is the destructive power of the state potentially overtaking the creative power of the individual. 

President Obama is an example of one of the great paradoxes of socialism: a great mind (give credit where credit is due) becoming employed in hindering the progress of the state—that my friend is “Progressticide.”  

Socialism destroys innovation: when the government influences the economy, corruption and mediocrity inevitably follow, ultimately creating an irrational system in which need matters more than production.  Our current – and previous – government’s interference in the economy and private sectors has had – and will continue to have – unanticipated effects that will require further intervention to fix. 

The more the government tries to fix the American system, the more repairs it seems to need.  America’s political structure was designed to make legislation at the federal level difficult, not easy.  

With the security of retaining full knowledge of our course – not the blind sense of being pulled into the unknown by an unknown power – do not trust, but know, that We [the American people] can take the power back; not for a political party, but for the America of the future.  The historic need for leaders who think has been great before, but the consequences of inaction have almost never before been as dire as they are today.  Raise your hand and be counted no more!  Raise your head, and count on yourself as someone who will not permit mediocrity!  Know that we will fight against great odds, and win!

“We who are not about the die…”

Talon’s Out.