Adrift in the South -- Xiao Hai, Paperback
When Xiao Hai turned fifteen, his family paid a vocational-school teacher 1,200 yuan to find him a factory job in Shenzhen. So began a decade spent moving between the garment mills and electronics factories of China's fast-growing southern cities.
Adrift in the South is a first-hand account of a life spent dodging corrupt officials and abusive employers, working long hours in brutal conditions and sleeping in overcrowded dormitories. Xiao Hai gives voice to a generation of migrant workers searching for survival, meaning and dignity in a country undergoing dramatic economic and political transformation.
A landmark work from China's migrant worker literature movement, this memoir offers a rare perspective on the human cost of the country's economic rise.Author: Xiao Hai
Publisher: Granta Magazine Editions
Published: 6/9/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65 lbs
Size: 7.8" H x 5" L x 1.1" W
ISBN: 9781738536269
