by Yuan Yang
There’s an unforgettable moment in Yuan Yang’s latest book that sheds light on the complexities of China’s evolving social landscape. The narrative unfolds with an idealistic university student embarking on a survey mission in Shenzhen, the bustling manufacturing hub of China.
During her survey in a modest neighborhood, the student encounters a young man residing with multiple adults and a baby in a cramped apartment. When asked to rate his job satisfaction, the man hesitates and questions if the Communist Party has sent her for the survey. Despite her denial, he cynically responds, “I’m guessing they did send you, so let’s just say we are completely, utterly satisfied with everything in our lives.”
This poignant anecdote, set in the early 2010s, underscores Yang’s exploration of the challenges faced by China’s labor force and the deep-rooted class divisions prevalent in society.
In 2016, Yang revisited China, where she had spent her early childhood, to embark on her journalism career with The Financial Times. Over the subsequent six years, she shadowed the lives of four young women navigating what she terms China’s “new social order.” These women, like Yang, were born in the late 1980s and 1990s, coming of age in a post-reform era following Deng Xiaoping’s market liberalizations in the 1980s.
