In 1995, someone stole 30 yuan from me. That was Dongguan’s first lesson: the rules seemed to change from place to place.
Temporary residence permits, assembly lines, taciturn mentors... I used sweat and careful calculation to find a way through the roar of the sewing machines. Only when the person I loved was assigned a price did I have to draw on every last bit of my potential.
I studied English hard and became an “information hunter.” Amid the foreign trade boom of the 1990s, I used the simplest methods to seize the biggest opportunities.
This is a story about survival, dignity, and how to “know what lies ahead and travel far.” It records how a generation rose from the assembly line to become a bridge connecting the world.
