China Peasant | Speaking of China

Chapter 71: Migrant Workers in Our Staircase

Posted in Memoirs of a Yangxifu in China on Jun 2nd, 2010

When a noisy Shanghai city works project brings migrant workers into our home — literally — I begin to wonder: just whose life is being disturbed?

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Chapter 48: The Pressures of an Unmarried Chinese man in the Countryside

Posted in Memoirs of a Yangxifu in China on Mar 31st, 2010

I wondered why Er Ge — the second oldest brother of John, my Chinese boyfriend — was so painfully quiet. Learning his story was like a window into the pressures of young unmarried Chinese in the countryside.

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Of China’s Countryside Bachelors, and One Chinese Man’s Divorce

Posted in China articles on Oct 18th, 2009

Er Ge, my second-oldest brother-in-law, wanted to marry for life. His bride in 2005 was a lovely, lithe girl of 18 from Guizhou who worked in a local sewing factory, often evenings. I never forgot her almost ubiquitous smile in my presence. It was inscrutable, a smile that remained far too long to be just [...]

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For Many of China’s Rural Residents, Health Insurance is Not Enough

Posted in China articles on Sep 20th, 2009

This is the first in a four-part series of articles providing a snapshot of modern life in China ahead of October 1, 2009, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It was published September 20, 2009 in the Insight section of the Idaho State Journal. ———— Zhongshan, Tonglu County, Zhejiang, [...]