A Factory Romance in Shenzhen

People born in the 1980s and 1990s made up the largest group of workers who left home to find jobs. They witnessed the rapid development of industry in that era. They made one-minute-per-jiao calls at phone shops, holding the receiver for an hour at a time. They bought ten- or twenty-yuan top-up cards for their phones, ate two-yuan portions of fried rice noodles, fifty-fen skewers of spicy hot pot, and three-yuan set meals. They listened to MP3 players, used PHS phones, and took photo-booth portraits, among other things... Some worked factory assembly lines, inserting electronic components or driving screws. Some lived in dormitories. In the end, some went from ordinary employees to office workers, while others opened auto repair shops, restaurant chains, or clothing stores. Some even registered their own companies. Most of them started from the bottom, making their way up through sheer hard work. Naturally, those early years as migrant workers became lifelong memories, filled with bitterness and sweetness, laughter and tears, and above all, their youth...