Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants - Hardcover

Praise for Chinese Whispers: "An incredibly moving book that in turn angers and saddens and above all makes you want to change things." Nick Broomfield; "An extraordinary, gut-wrenching expose." Independent; "Utterly gripping, deeply moving." Marina Lewycka, author of Two Caravans; "You must read this book. It will help you get into the nooks and crannies of our sweatshops and supermarkets. It will help you understand the suffering of a whole army of people who are not counted and not cared for. Read it, for the sake of your country." Benjamin Zephaniah; "This is not just a deeply moving book, it is a call to arms." Institute of Race Relations; "A remarkable piece of investigative journalism." Observer.

Each year, 200 million workers from China's vast rural interior travel between cities and regions in search of employment: the largest human migration in history. This indispensable army of labor contributes half of China's GDP, but is an unorganized workforce - "scattered sand" - and the most marginalized and impoverished group of workers in the country. For two years, the award-winning journalist Hsiao-Hung Pai traveled across China to uncover the exploitation of workers at locations as diverse as Olympic construction sites and brick kilns in the Yellow River region, the factories of the Pearl River Delta and the suicide-ridden Foxconn complex. She witnessed AIDS-afflicted families and towns; recorded acts of labor militancy; and was reunited with long-lost relatives, estranged since her mother's family fled for Taiwan during the Civil War. What she finds is a peasantry expected to sacrifice itself for the sake of national glory - just as it was under Mao.