‘We’re all trained to be good obedient children, but what do you want?’ Delving into the inner lives of women in neoliberal China

Migrant workers on the assembly line making toys in Dongguan, Guandong. 2015. Photo: Zhan Youbing, CC BY

Yuan Yang is what migration academics call a “1.5 generation migrant” – meaning she was born in her country of origin and then migrated to another country as a child.

She belongs, too, to what Chinese people call jiulinhou – the generation of people born in the 1990s. As a writer, she is interested in the experience of individuals like her – young women eager to make something of their lives.