艾米莉·洪尼格所著的《姐妹们与陌生人（上海棉纱厂女工1919-1949）》以1919—1949年上海纱厂（华商纱厂和外商纱厂）女工为研究对象，把女工放到上海经济社会生活的大背景下，探讨纱厂女工的生活状况、工作情形及30年间女工参与劳工运动的发展和转变情况。《姐妹们与陌生人（上海棉纱厂女工1919-1949）》是妇女史、劳工史、社会史、口述史的综合研究成果，是20世纪80年代美国学术界关于中国劳工史研究的代表性著作。

《中国新工人：迷失与崛起》从新工人 群体微观的故事引导我们走向社会结构层次 的总体把握。中国经济的崛起造就了一个新 的群体，这就是新工人群体，我们通常称之 为打工群体。两亿多的打工者从农村来到城 市，本书通过一百多个访谈故事来反映他／ 她们在城市待不下、却也回不去农村的迷失 状态。本书强调，迷失是崛起的前奏，中国 新工人的主体意识正在觉醒。中国新工人的 未来决定着中国的未来。39

Based on official Chinese sources as well as intensive interviews with Hong Kong residents formerly employed in mainland factories, Andrew Walder's neo-traditional image of communist society in China will be of interest not only to those concerned with China and other communist countries, but also to students of industrial relations and comparative social science. Winner, 1987 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award, American Sociological Association Winner, 1988 Joseph Levenson Prize, Association for Asian Studies Winner, 1988 EGOS Award, Section on Organizations and Occupations of the American Sociological Association

As China has emerged as an industrial powerhouse over the past two decades, a new class of workers has developed: the dagongmei, or working girls. The dagongmei are women in their late teens and early twenties who move from rural areas to urban centers to work in factories. Due to state laws dictating that those born in the countryside cannot permanently leave their villages and familial pressure for young women to marry by their late twenties, the dagongmei are transient labor. They undertake physically exhausting work in urban factories for an average of four or five years before returning home. The young women are not coerced to work in the factories; they know about the twelve-hour shifts and the hardships of industrial labor. Yet they are still eager to leave home. In "Made in China", Pun Ngai offers a compelling look at the lives of these women, workers caught between the competing demands of global capitalism, the socialist state, and the patriarchal family. Ngai conducted ethnographic work at an electronics factory in southern China's Guangdong province, in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, where foreign-owned factories are proliferating. For eight months she slept in the employee dormitories and worked on the shop floor alongside the women whose lives she chronicles. Ngai illuminates the workers' perspectives and experiences, describing the lure of consumer desire and, especially, the minutiae of factory life. She looks at acts of resistance and transgression in the workplace, positing that the chronic pains - such as backaches and headaches - that many of the women experience are as indicative of resistance to oppressive working conditions as they are of defeat. Ngai suggests that a silent social revolution is underway in China and that these young migrant workers are its protagonists.

“出去”，农民工用这个简单的词定义他们的流动生活。“在家没事做，所以我出去了”，出去打工的故事就是这样开始的。 如今，中国有一亿五千万农民工。在南部工厂林立的城市，农民工在拉动国家出口经济的流水线上全力以赴。他们代表了人类历史上最大规模的人口迁移，是一百年来欧洲移民到美国总人数的三倍。 新一代农民工出现的时候，大多数人都认为，迁徙是一条追求更好生活的路。他们比上一辈更年轻，受过更好的教育，外出的动机也更多是因为对城市机会的追求，而不是受农村贫困所迫。 是自尊，而不是恐惧，让他们留在城市。走出家乡并留在外面——出去，就是改变你的命运。 当我想写本关于中国的书时，这个国家的农民工吸引了我——几百万人，离开村庄，去城市工作。直到后来，我才发觉，原来我跟我写到的那些女孩有着那么深的联系。我也离开了家，了解生活在举目无亲的地方那种孤独漂浮的感觉；我亲身感受到人轻易就会消失不见。我也更能理解那种全新开始生活的快乐和自由。 打工女孩的故事有某些共性。在工厂里你很容易迷失自我，那里有成百上千个背景相似的姑娘：在农村出生，没念过什么书，穷。工厂是做什么的从来都不重要，重要的是那份工作带来的艰难或机遇。打工女孩的命运转折点永远是她向老板发难的时候。那一刻她冒着失去一切的风险，从人群中脱颖而出，迫使这个世界将她视为一个个体。 在中国，外出务工已经有二十多个年头，绝大多数外国媒体都报道过工厂内部的恶劣环境，许多写中国农民工的书也并不真实。我希望能写点儿别的，写写工人自己怎么看待外出务工。我尤其对女性感兴趣。背井离乡，她们得到最多，或许失去也最多。