{"product_id":"adrift-in-the-south-9781738536269","title":"Adrift in the South","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA new title from Granta Magazine Editions: A first-hand account of a migrant-worker's journey along the factory floors of southern China.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Xiao Hai turned fifteen, his family paid a vocational-school teacher 1,200 yuan to find him a factory job in Shenzhen. So began fifteen years spent moving between the garment mills and electronics factories of China's fast-growing southern cities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAdrift in the South \u003c\/i\u003eis a memoir of life as a migrant labourer in the twenty-first century, making iPhones and baby clothes, hand-stitching football shirts and cutting plastic into radios. Here, Xiao Hai reveals the alienation and tedium of factory life, the small indignities and indifference of the larger system. And he tells the story of how poetry led him somewhere unexpected: to join a small community of artists living, working, and studying together on the outskirts of Beijing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis memoir is a landmark text from China's migrant worker literature movement, a grassroots group of writers providing an unvarnished account of what life is like for the 300 million migrant workers powering the world's second-biggest economy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781738536269\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: 04 Aug 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Granta Publications Ltd\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x12.9(L)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003eXiao Hai was born in Shangqiu City in Henan Province in China. At fifteen he moved to Shenzhen to join the workforce. He spent the next decade moving between cities, working factory jobs and writing poetry. He is the author of the poetry collection \u003ci\u003eSisyphus on the Wenyu River\u003c\/i\u003e, and translations of his poetry have appeared in \u003ci\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eChinese Literature Today\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTony Hao is a Connecticut-based Chinese-to-English literary translator and writer. Authors he has translated include Taiwanese novelist Tong Wei-Ger and Chinese short story writer Ban Yu.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003eAt fifteen, the writer Xiao Hai left his home town to find work in the factories of southern China. This deeply affecting memoir, which is strung like a wire between the alienation of the assembly line and the dignifying promise of literature, documents his experience. * The New Yorker *\u003cbr\u003eThe garments on our bodies, the instruments and the gadgets all around us, so much of it comes from China. But who made these commodities, and under what conditions? In Adrift in the South, Xiao Hai offers an unstinting account of his labour, and a youthful life spent on the factory lines of China. But he also shares his loves, especially the love for writing that resulted in this memoir. * Amitava Kumar *\u003cbr\u003eReaders of works such as Leslie T Chang's Factory Girls will be familiar with the intermingled sense of ambition and listlessness among China's manufacturing workers. Xiao Hai's account, in a sparse but effective translation by Tony Hao, stands out for its retrospection . . . an account of the world behind the \"Made in China\" label and a potent reminder of the humans powering the manufacturing boom. * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eThen, there is the path China did take: the helter skelter modernization of Reform and Opening. Artists and writers - such as the author of this volume, Xiao Hai, born in 1987 - toiled for years on factory floors, creating for China the wealth they fantasized about sharing in. Adrift in the South, a memoir of Xiao Hai's life on and off the assembly line, is a snapshot of that era. -- Alexander Boyd * China Books Review *\u003cbr\u003eNightmarish... A sombre, sometimes bitter account of the world behind the \"Made in China\" label and a reminder of the humans powering the manufacturing boom * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eA rare insight from inside China's manufacturing boom. In this often nightmarish memoir, the author recounts the economic insecurity, abusive and unsafe factory culture, and sheer futility of work during the first two decades after the country joined the global trading system. His question: what was it all for? * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eA story of one person's journey to becoming an artist... Resonant for anyone who's ever felt pulled into a life that doesn't feel like their own... There's been very little published to widespread acclaim in English from China, especially in nonfiction. Xiao's work is part of a migrant workers' literary movement that is not only changing this, but is also being credited for helping to revive Chinese literature more generally * Observer *","brand":"Xiao Hai","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49077127020761,"sku":"9781738536269","price":29.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/9530\/8441\/files\/9781738536269.jpg?v=1786457211","url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/adrift-in-the-south-9781738536269","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}