My Years as a Migrant Worker in Dongguan: From QC to Manager

In the summer of 2003, Chen Zhiyuan, a young man from Hubei, boards a southbound green train with just 300 yuan in his pocket and arrives at a hardware and electronics factory in Qingxi Town, Dongguan. While everyone else works to make ends meet, Chen Zhiyuan works so he can buy his boss’s company! From a low-level quality control inspector armed with a caliper to the head of a trillion-yuan empire, every defective product he handles becomes a stepping stone to the top. Along the way, there are schemes on the production line and shadow wars in the office. The caliper in his hand can measure the tolerances of a part, and it can also gauge the depths of the human heart! This is a snapshot of the ups and downs of a generation of migrant workers. In factories filled with the roar of machinery, innocent love collides with harsh reality, while brotherly loyalty intertwines with workplace betrayal. As the gears of fate grind forward, can the young man who once believed that “hard work will get you ahead” still find his way back to the person he was when he first set out?