I left my village in Shaanxi because I wanted to see the world. All through my youth I heard my friends talking about ‘over there’, those mysterious places where you tried your luck, from where you return richer than when you left. ‘Over there’, those great imaginary cities where you can go out and meet people or go shopping. I didn’t know what to expect but I wanted to go beyond the mountains, and find my own way. I was sure of one thing : I was not going to become a farmer like my parents, selling chestnuts, walnuts or persimmons. Not because it’s degrading, but because that world always seemed so narrow, lacking a future. I was an average student, and I didn’t want to waste time learning ideas. What interested me was a direct contact with reality. So in 2005, aged eighteen, I said goodbye to my parents, my two brothers and my friends. I had no idea that the real world is nothing like I’d made it in my mind.

First of all I went to Guangzhou. I found a job in sales in a company selling alcohol. More significantly, I met a young man from Yunnan who was to become my partner. Wang Liangxue worked in a tile factory. We talked for hours. He wasn’t like the other boys, who lived from day to day, never asking questions. Like me, he was searching for some kind of answer. We would meet up after work and talk, reinventing the world for hours on end. We planned our little commercial enterprise, our relaxed schedule, our movements, how happy we would be doing it together. We went online and found the contact details of a maker of Jiaxiang, home fragrance products. The boss told us he would sell us the secrets of making his products for 10,000 yuan. So we started saving up. 

Liangxue didn’t really like his job, he needed a change. Eventually he found a job in Dongguan, in a business that made loudspeakers for export. I missed him. A few months later I got a job in the same place. I had to do a period of training. The first days I was watched by my line manager. I think he was impressed by my agility. He told me that girls from Shaanxi are better than those from elsewhere. I was flattered. By the end of the week I could put together 115 pieces in an hour, a lot more than the others on the production line.

I make the main part of the loudspeaker, the most delicate bit. I have to concentrate really hard. It’s repetitive and sometimes I can’t stand it any more so I go to the toilets and splash my face with water. I’m supposed to work an eight hour day. In reality I do three extra hours to earn a bit more money. I make about 1,300 yuan a month. Less than Langxue, who earns about 1,900 yuan, but it’s not bad.

I never imagined myself on a production line, like a robot. The main problem is that there’s no chance of promotion, no future in the factory. I get congratulations and smiles, but that’s all. Langxue and I count our pennies so that one day we’ll be able to leave, to set up our perfume company. To go ‘over there’, to the country of our dreams.