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kamila79's review against another edition
5.0
Hsiao-Hung Pai’s first book, “Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain’s Army of Labour”, which I read about ten years ago, shook me deeply and impacted the way I saw the world around me. After the event with the author I went to in London and our chat on the way to the station I received from her second book, “Scattered Sand. The Story if China’s Rural Migrants” from her publisher. However, for no apparent reason I only read it now. To be perfectly honest, “Scattered Sand”, moved me slightly less but that’s not because it isn’t a powerful book, but because I was better prepared, more or less knew what to expect and because my knowledge about China’s rural migrant workers has expanded with time.
Pai traveled to Chinese cities and villages - from Fujian and Beijing to Shanxi, to Guangdong and Xinjiang (and many others; I wished the book included a map of China with the author’s journey marked). She spoke to random migrant workers and to the relatives of those she knew from the UK. She discovered injustice, gruesome working conditions in all sorts of industries, exploitation and abuse of basic human rights. The first two chapters seemed to me to be a bit dry, with too much data and figures, as if Pai was looking for her style, but she quickly found it, and I got hooked; I devoured the last 150 pages (half of the book) in one sitting. I was captivated by people’s resilience, strength - physical and mental - and I admired deeply their philosophy of life, which surely helped them survive all that hardship Pai described. I am full of utmost respect for those millions of workers who sacrifice so much for so little, often for mere survival.
I found the distinction between ‘citizens’ and the Chinese term ‘laobaixing’ fascinating and wonder to what extent it influences how people see themselves, as our language determines our outlook:
“The concept of laobaixing has a centuries-old history and it continued to be used, with political implications, by republicans and revolutionaries alike, in the twentieth century and beyond, as it could mean either the law-abiding populace or the leader-worshipping masses. Lu Xun - also a socialist - challenged the idea of laobaixing implicitly in his works in the 1910s and 1920s, when he created caricatures of the passive masses who habitually take life as it us, concerned about their immediate circumstances but uninterested in doing something to change them. His comic character Ah Q dreads bad luck and moans about being mistreated but sneers at the concept of equality. The notions of ‘citizen’ and ‘citizenship’ imply entitlements and responsibility; laobaixing are expected (by those who use the term) to be the passive recipients of rights granted as an act of benevolence by the rulers. That is the fundamental difference: ‘citizens’ are active, while laobaixing are not”.
Pai is a fantastic reporter and a remarkable storyteller and her empathy and non-judgmental attitude are palpable on every page. I was deeply moved by the story of her own family and her and her mother’s journey to visit their relatives (most of whom they had never met before), whose lives are sadly all too similar to the ones of other workers Pai has met. It is so easy to dismiss the reality of millions of people, whose voices are still often unheard, trying to make ends meet against the odds. The media bombard us usually with stories about Chinese wealth and the growing middle class. We see - and often sneer at - Chinese tourists being able to afford to flock to all parts of the world like never before. And yet this is only one of the truths about China. The recent arrest of the terrific Chinese photojournalist Lu Guang, who documented the dark side of China: poverty, industrial pollution, drug addiction and people living with AIDS, is one good example showing that the Chinese authorities want to present only the positive image of China to the world - I bet a lot of Chinese people do not even know about his arrest and do not know his work. “Scattered Sand” probably won’t be widely distributed in China but Pai’s book and her dedication are extremely important in raising awareness of all those who can read it and realise that behind a pretty façade of shiny skyscrapers of Beijing and stores selling designer goods there is a less glossy picture.
Pai traveled to Chinese cities and villages - from Fujian and Beijing to Shanxi, to Guangdong and Xinjiang (and many others; I wished the book included a map of China with the author’s journey marked). She spoke to random migrant workers and to the relatives of those she knew from the UK. She discovered injustice, gruesome working conditions in all sorts of industries, exploitation and abuse of basic human rights. The first two chapters seemed to me to be a bit dry, with too much data and figures, as if Pai was looking for her style, but she quickly found it, and I got hooked; I devoured the last 150 pages (half of the book) in one sitting. I was captivated by people’s resilience, strength - physical and mental - and I admired deeply their philosophy of life, which surely helped them survive all that hardship Pai described. I am full of utmost respect for those millions of workers who sacrifice so much for so little, often for mere survival.
I found the distinction between ‘citizens’ and the Chinese term ‘laobaixing’ fascinating and wonder to what extent it influences how people see themselves, as our language determines our outlook:
“The concept of laobaixing has a centuries-old history and it continued to be used, with political implications, by republicans and revolutionaries alike, in the twentieth century and beyond, as it could mean either the law-abiding populace or the leader-worshipping masses. Lu Xun - also a socialist - challenged the idea of laobaixing implicitly in his works in the 1910s and 1920s, when he created caricatures of the passive masses who habitually take life as it us, concerned about their immediate circumstances but uninterested in doing something to change them. His comic character Ah Q dreads bad luck and moans about being mistreated but sneers at the concept of equality. The notions of ‘citizen’ and ‘citizenship’ imply entitlements and responsibility; laobaixing are expected (by those who use the term) to be the passive recipients of rights granted as an act of benevolence by the rulers. That is the fundamental difference: ‘citizens’ are active, while laobaixing are not”.
Pai is a fantastic reporter and a remarkable storyteller and her empathy and non-judgmental attitude are palpable on every page. I was deeply moved by the story of her own family and her and her mother’s journey to visit their relatives (most of whom they had never met before), whose lives are sadly all too similar to the ones of other workers Pai has met. It is so easy to dismiss the reality of millions of people, whose voices are still often unheard, trying to make ends meet against the odds. The media bombard us usually with stories about Chinese wealth and the growing middle class. We see - and often sneer at - Chinese tourists being able to afford to flock to all parts of the world like never before. And yet this is only one of the truths about China. The recent arrest of the terrific Chinese photojournalist Lu Guang, who documented the dark side of China: poverty, industrial pollution, drug addiction and people living with AIDS, is one good example showing that the Chinese authorities want to present only the positive image of China to the world - I bet a lot of Chinese people do not even know about his arrest and do not know his work. “Scattered Sand” probably won’t be widely distributed in China but Pai’s book and her dedication are extremely important in raising awareness of all those who can read it and realise that behind a pretty façade of shiny skyscrapers of Beijing and stores selling designer goods there is a less glossy picture.