Factory Girl by Josanne La Valley (review)

Sixteen-year-old Roshen is optimistic about her life’s course. Her family’s farm is prospering, she’s on track in her schooling to become a teacher in her Uyghur community, and Ahmat, the young man dear to her heart, meets with her family’s approval. The Chinese government, though, needs to move workers into low-paying factory jobs, and Uyghur communities are easy targets for strong-arm recruitment, vulnerable to the threat of farm confiscation if they don’t “volunteer” young adult children to sign up for a year of indentured labor. Roshen goes willingly, if not enthusiastically, carrying a jade token of Ahmat’s fidelity, but before she even completes the arduous bus and train ride across the mountains to Hubei Work Wear Company, it’s clear that the Muslim Uyghur recruits will be humiliated, financially and sexually exploited, and possibly kept beyond their contract term. Roshen becomes a support figure within her group, but the circumstances of several other girls demonstrate the paths that brought girls to the factory, and the stories of girls driven by desperation and lured by deceit are equally compelling. La Valley is at her best when focusing on the strenuous work, curtailed freedom, and group interrelationships. However, her plot lines on sexual exploitation devolve into melodrama more salacious than tragic, with general manager Mr. Lee playing the broadly drawn Snidely Whiplash to Roshen’s virginal Nell. That Roshen finally makes it home with some shred of dignity intact is surely a good thing, but whether her new life will accommodate older dreams is left to the romantic or realistic inclination of each reader. The bound book will include an author’s note.