History of a Domestic Worker’s Struggles with Domestic Service Companies

Abstract

Out of deep concerns for her fellow women workers, Dust published this article to share her hard-earned experiences and strategies of negotiating with profit-minded domestic service companies that had expanded fast by making every possible effort to exploit workers’ labor. Dust’s article was published at Jianjiao buluo’s social media platform under the title “A Drifting Domestic Woman Worker” (“Beipiao de jiazheng nügong”) on May 13, 2019. We are thankful for Jianjiao buluo’s authorization to publish this translated version in this special section.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

  Dust

Dust is a laid-off woman worker from northeast China, also known as China’s rust-belt where millions of industrial workers have been laid off during the historical process of privatizing state-owned enterprises since 1990s. Leaving her hometown to relocate to the more developed urban areas in southeast China as a migrant worker, she feels as isolated and insignificant as a grain of dust, hence her pen name.

Hui Meng

Meng Hui is an associate professor of English at the School of English for Specific Purposes, Beijing Foreign Studies University. She holds a PhD in American literature from the University of Kansas. She has published academic articles both in Chinese and English. Her research interests are American immigrant literature and self-translation.