tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post9080742780084917264..comments2024-03-28T11:30:46.101-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: The Thing About GirlsOvidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-88564881845926033342010-12-12T16:37:19.615-05:002010-12-12T16:37:19.615-05:00Yes, the book "Factory Girls," has been ...Yes, the book "Factory Girls," has been mentioned to me by friends. I did not know about "Country Driving," but will try to find both of them.<br /><br />What's covered here in the news are often the scandals when Westerners are involved in the trafficking in Asia, especially Thailand.<br /><br />I have heard/read only good things about your series, and want to read them. I was a bit worried that "The Queen of Patapong," would upset me, as this is fiction based on reality, real horrors, but I'll venture forth and start with an earlier book.<br /><br />And on books, I read "Finding Nouf," and Ferraris' second book, "City of Veils." The latter was truly disturbing, both on the conditions of women, but also on Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system which affects men as well...horrifying.kathy d.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-75220954026230991822010-12-12T15:10:50.133-05:002010-12-12T15:10:50.133-05:00The value of women has been constant throughout hi...The value of women has been constant throughout history. They don't have any.<br /><br />From the beginning of recorded history, women are of no value to their families because when she marries, as she will have to do, she and the children she bears will belong to her husband's family. Female children were bargaining chips. No matter what her class, she had to have a dowry because even though her children will enrich the tribe, she has little value in any other meaningful way.<br /><br />In August, Time magazine, on its cover, had the picture of a 19-year old who had her nose and ears cut off by a leader of the Taliban for defying her in-laws when she tried to escape their cruel treatment. It is barbaric and outside the understanding of people in the west. women in the modern, civilized world may not be mutillated in the same way, there are programs in which medical personnel donate their services to women who have been so badly beaten that they are disfigured. There are victims of spousal abuse in numbers impossible to define. For every woman who escapes to a crisis center, there are hundreds who don't. The single most dangerous place for women is their home.<br /><br />There are teenagers, born in the United States, who will for religious or cultural reasons have an arranged marriage.<br /><br />Women are exploited everywhere. We just don't see it. No one knows what happens to the woman at the next desk or the female physician, or the kindergarten teacher when she goes home.<br /><br />At the risk of being accused of blatant self- promotion, I invite you to read a review of an extraordinary book on the Murder By Type blog. I reviewed FINDING NOUF by Zoe Ferraris. Nouf is the daughter of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Saudi Arabia. Nouf and the story are fiction; the circumstances and barriers in the lives of Saudi women are not.<br /><br />Better yet, read the book. It is a stunning reminder that there are cultural differences we don't know we don't know.<br /><br />BethAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-71103364407795354052010-12-12T13:53:19.877-05:002010-12-12T13:53:19.877-05:00That strikes a chord in what I'm reading right...That strikes a chord in what I'm reading right now, Jassy Mackenzie's book Stolen Lives set Jo'burg and the UK about human trafficking in the sex trade. These women are primarily Eastern European but also poor African woman and the customers and procurers are whites - male and female. Just makes one realize how pervasive this is all over the world.<br />CaraAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-83319920767041481932010-12-12T13:20:46.652-05:002010-12-12T13:20:46.652-05:00One more word to Kathy. The trafficking of young A...One more word to Kathy. The trafficking of young Asian women for the sex trade is overwhelmingly for Asian customers, at a rate of probably twenty to one. When you visit a city like Bangkok, you see the garish "entertainment areas" for Western customers, but the enormous sex trade aimed at Thais is pretty much invisible. And one of the biggest and brightest of the four main "entertainment areas," Thaniya, is exclusively for Japanese -- Westerners aren't even allowed in the bars.<br /><br />Similarly, there's a huge prostitution industry in China and it, too, is aimed almost entirely at Chinese and other Asians. <br /><br />Western media just doesn't think there's much news value to Asian women and girls being exploited for the benefit of Asian men. It's only news when the customers are Western.Timothy Hallinanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00551263887774445511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-70847616358922760862010-12-12T11:48:44.161-05:002010-12-12T11:48:44.161-05:00Hi, Kathy --
The best book about China that I'...Hi, Kathy --<br /><br />The best book about China that I've read in years is Leslie T. Chang's "Factory Girls." Chang was for years the Beijing correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, and she spent almost five years (I think) befriending female factory workers in Shenzhen and other southern Chinese cities and following them through their careers. It's heartbreaking, inspiring, funny, sad -- and it makes the point that the real face of China's economic miracle is young and female. Chang's husband, Peter Hessler, was the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker for a decade or so, and his newest book, "Country Driving" ia an amazing companion to "Factory Girls." (Not surprising, since they wrote their books in adjoining rooms.) He starts off by wanting to drive the length of the Great Wall but ends up by writing about the very villages that Chang's factory girls left behind, and the last section of the book, in which he's on hand as a new factory is built, staffed, and either succeeds or fails (I'm not telling), with the whole enterprise powered by dreams, is unforgettable. GREAT books.<br /><br />The book of mine that deals most closely with the sex trade is the fourth and most recent of the Bangkong books, THE QUEEN OF PATPONG, in which we go back in time to see how one of the series' main characters, the wife of the male protagonist, was transformed from an unworldly village girl into the "queen" of the biggest bar on the notorious Patpong Road. By the way, in the books, this character, whose name is Rose, runs an apartment-cleaning service to give bar workers a way out of the life.Timothy Hallinanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00551263887774445511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-48247284434830732272010-12-12T11:17:29.100-05:002010-12-12T11:17:29.100-05:00Very interesting post you write here.
I have unde...Very interesting post you write here.<br /><br />I have understood and think that China's one-child policy was needed to keep the population growth down to a level in which the people could be fed and other needs met.<br /><br />While I totally support reproductive choice for all women, coercion in either direction isn't a good thing.<br /><br />I have heard the slogan that "Women make up half the sky," since my student days decades ago. I like that slogan. It's true worldwide, but in some countries, women hold up more than half, as they do an enormous amount of work, then take care of their families, too.<br /><br />I understood from articles a few years ago that the Chinese government had undertaken measures to build up women's rights in many respects, including in rural, agricultural areas.<br /><br />I did not realize that funds younger women and men send back to their families in rural areas allow them to buy larger houses; that's a point not heard often.<br /><br />Nor had I had I seen that women are becoming factory managers, although I do know of the enormous numbers of women who work in factories.<br /><br />Do you know where more can be read about this?<br /><br />It is hard to believe--after seeing the beautiful faces above--some of the conditions in Thailand which adversely affect girls, such as being pulled from school to work.<br /><br />But what is very worrisome is the trafficking of women and girls, often coerced, often for Westerners, often due to extreme poverty. <br /><br />I believe that you deal with this in one of your books, which is good. There should be a world outcry about this, about young lives stolen.kathy d.noreply@blogger.com