Scattered Sand: The Story of China's Rural Migrants
“Pai’s book is exceptional not only in the depth of her research, but also in giving a voice to the people she befriends. Essential to understand the human reality behind China’s so-called economic miracle.”—Wall Street Journal“Hsiao-Hung Pai brings her knowledge of China’s history to this detailed examination of the plight of the millions of peasants searching for work in China’s booming cities and, failing that, in other countries...A grim but keen view of the dark underside of China’s prosperity.”—Kirkus Reviews“The Chinese ‘miracle’ gets a reality check in this engrossing exposé ... A moving contribution to the growing literature on the new China, the book will prove relevant for anyone interested in ongoing debates around migrant labor in a globalized economy.”—Publishers Weekly“Eloquent and wide-ranging,Scattered Sandnot only does justice, eloquently and comprehensively, to [migrant workers’] increasingly marginal position in Chinese society, it also provides useful whirlwind introductions to Chinese labor policy, local government corruption, and minority discrimination, among other issues.”—Ross Perlin,The Daily Beast“The product of thorough reporting among China’s most marginalised citizens shows what can be discovered despite official obstruction.”—New Statesmen“It focuses on contemporary China, where the scale of rural migration—over 130 million men and women have left their home provinces in search of work—makes the demographic debates about modern-day Europe seem parochial and hysterical. It pays tribute to a class of people that, although exalted under Mao as a revolutionary vanguard, has constantly to face the threat of pauperisation. It amplifies sounds—plaintive chants, desperate petitions, exhausted prayers, sceptical curses—that are often drowned out by the stentorian boosterism of the state loudspeaker.”—The Observer“Hsiao-Hung Pai’s intrepid journalism is one of the most revealing guides to contemporary China.”—Pankaj Mishra, author ofFrom the Ruins of Empire“Scattered Sand captures the sadness, resilience and anger of China’s millions of internal and international migrants. This illuminating book effortlessly interweaves individual voices, rarely heard by English-speaking audiences, with the history, politics and economics that shape migrants’ stories and their choices.”—Bridget Anderson, author ofDoing the Dirty Work: The Global Politics of Domestic Labor“What Pai accomplishes is that difficult thing: to combine deftly personal testimonies with statistics. One never wonders, after some particularly ghastly first-person observation, whether this is too awful to be generally true.”—Jonathan Mirsky,Literary Review“In documenting lives and deaths of stunning deprivation and equally stunning dignity, [Pai] is helped considerably by her style, which is restrained and workmanlike. She has no axe to grind and will not stoop to pity; she is here to tell us what is happening in the fields and factories of the world we share.”—Book News