labor - Dagongmei in Shenzen, review

Lengthy trips by train and no internet connection to get my attention diverted made it possible to go through Pun Ngai's 'Made In China', I already mentioned some time ago. I do not agree anymore with the positive notes of the review by the Taipei Times I quoted then, but still think it was a worthwhile read, but for very different reasons.
The ideological take of the book, part of the struggle against globalization, is a direction of the book I do not really like. Fortunately, it does not stop the author from telling sometimes compelling stories about the life of the Dagongmei or 'working daughters' in the factories of Shenzhen.
What is another drawback is that the basic research is ten years old, making it still interesting from a historical and academic perspective, but makes you wonder what has happened since.
The lengthy descriptions of the Taylorist way the factories are organized probably fits into a book like this, but apart from differences in time and place, those have been described before in length.
What I found really compelling is the way how the profound differences in gender, language, culture, kinship and almost ever characteristic that can be used to make a difference between the labor force in the factory she describes is used as a disciplining force. Those differences are much more important in dividing the work force than what they possibly might have in common. It would be interesting to know whether those differences between people in basically the same situation is still the same dividing force it was ten years ago.
In the big cities I do see that the importance of the place where people come from might sometimes lose some of its importance, but are then replaced by other alliances, that divide the Chinese. That lack of feeling of belonging to each other makes it very hard to develop any cooperation that surpasses region, educational and other divides.

Order 'made in China'