Virtual China '98

My name is So Lai Ngan. My occupation is a seamstress in a factory in Kai Ping called the Huge Dragon Garments Co. Ltd. A normal workday would go something like this:

I woke up at 6:00 am and I left my house for work at 6:15. Then I hopped on my bike, riding 1 kilometer until I reached the factory. As I arrived to the factory, I went by to the houses owned by the factory and visited my sick friend. The factory had hired a doctor across the street to take care of her medical needs. After dropping off some chicken soup by her side, I left for work. I walked through the entrance of the sewing room, slapped in my time card, to record that I was not late for work, and took the orders that were waiting for me. Working from 7:00 am to 11:00 am, having a 2-hour lunch break from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, then I went back to work until the end of the day at 5:00 pm. My orders were to sew together the already shaped, flower patterned, material. From 7:00 to 11:00, I completed 6 pieces of clothing. My back ached so much from hunching over the machine so long, that I was actually counting the minutes until it was time for lunch, for I couldn't wait to relax and get away from all the sewing. At 11:00 am on the dot we were dismissed to our lunch break. As I stood up from my back aching pose, my spine made a crackling sound. I stretched to relieve my sore, knotted muscles. After finishing my bland lunch of white rice topped with fried bitter melon mixed with beef, I talked to the other employees for a while, sharing gossip and the hardship of our work. With 25 minutes left of lunch, I went to visit my sick friend again and fed her white, Chinese porridge flavored with half of a salty egg. Later I went back to work, and finished another 10 pieces of clothing, working as hard as I could to get a raise on my salary. Payday would be next week, and I wouldn't want to receive only another 700 dollars for my monthly wage. I was so sure of getting a raise, for I worked twice as much as usual and even worked extra hours once in a while. So that month I expected maybe 850 dollars instead of the regular 700. I wrapped up my work, went back home on my little, cheap bicycle that is practically 10 years old. I ate my left over of yesterday's dinner and went to sleep early for another long, hard day ahead.

By Karen Bailey

April 30, 1998

When I woke up and went to school this morning I never expected anything to be different. Everything was the same up until lunch. I was walking home with friends and neighbors. When we were walking over the bridge to my house I spotted some foreigners. In all of my eight years I have never seen a foreigner before. They had round eyes. The colors of some of their eyes were very strange. Some were blue and others were green. Three of them had strange colored hair too - it was blonde. I was scared to see them, for protection I hid behind my friend. We all tried to stay away from them. I was not sure if they were mean or nice. When they gave us all erasers, pencils, and sharpeners I knew they were nice. Their leader started asking me questions. I figured that they were as curious of us as we were of them. When I became more comfortable with the people I started to look at all of them. I noticed that one of the girls was wearing real Nikes. I have never had a pair of gym shoes, I have only had sandals but when I was young my Grandfather died so my Mom bought me a pair of dress shoes. I don't know if I have ever seen a real pair of Nikes. All of the shoes that I have seen have been fake (that is what my wise Dad told me).

I ran home to get a bag of noodles. Not even stopping to boil them, I ran back to see if they were there. Luckily they were there just talking to some other people that were watching near by. One of the boys had a bag of what is called chocolate. I really like chocolate but I hardly ever get it. I get it about once a year for my birthday, even then I only get a small amount. I think the chocolate was called 'Kisses'. I have never had a kiss before; I liked the taste a lot though.

I did not want the people to leave. I knew I had to go though because it was almost time for school to start again. It is okay because it was time for them to start biking again. From the way that they looked it looked as though they would be biking a lot. One of the girls had three water bottles and a sack. Two of the water bottles had strange red stuff in it.

I was not ready for them to leave but they left anyhow. As they left they screamed "Bye" "Zaijian". This is a day that I will never forget-the day that I met a foreigner.

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