Please complete all required material prior to answering questions. Use complete sentences to answer the following questions. See Grading Rubric in your Introduction Module for grading guidelines.

What is time poverty?

Why do Maquiladoras exist? What worker rights (and human rights) are violated within the factories?

What are Free Trade Zones (FTZs) or Export Processing Zones (EPZs)? What affect do these have on workers?

What environmental issues happened as a result of the Maquiladoras?

What are the benefits of having women who have worked/are working in the Maquiladora advocate for labor rights? What are the disadvantages?

How can the example of globalization shown in Maquilapolis relate to colonization?

In our world, why do you think out-sourcing occurs? (Think critically… give more of an answer than just “it’s cheaper.”)

What are the similarities between Maquilapolis and Factory Girls?

What would your identity be like if you were born and raised in Dongguan?

What struggles do the factory girls have with the concept of home? “Dongguan was a place without memory” (Chang, 28)

Leslie Chang’s description of life in Dongguan is clearly one based on the notion of “supply-and-demand.” What factors do you think attracted the factory workers to a place like Dongguan? (One should press beyond the idea of simply a job, salary or work — these are available elsewhere as well). Conversely, what skills, attributes or characteristics are the factories looking for in their workers?

Relationships are a key thread that is present throughout Factory Girls: friendship, relatives, romantic. How are such relationship central to Min and Chunming in particular? How does their life in Dongguan alter what one might suggest are “normal” relationships (perhaps you should begin by describing what “normal” is outside of Dongguan).

One of the hardest elements to equate when comparing employment in the United States with that in China is the question of salary. All too often it is simply converted into US dollars with no explanation (and the implicit meaning being that the workers are underpaid). According to Min and Chunming what is a “low,” “medium” and “desirable” salary? What else was included in their salaries (or considered important factors in whether to “jump” to another factory?).

What is the non-work life like for the typical workers we encounter in Factory Girls? How do friendships, romances, and relationships evolve (and devolve)? (A related issue is how you might describe the “dating scene” in Dongguan).