Author Description

Over the past three decades, tens of millions of Chinese people have migrated from various provinces and cities throughout China, to Guangdong. Most of them move to work in factories covering many industries. Unfortunately, many of those who have moved have experienced hardships, or event lost their lives. Migrant workers and migrant worker poets have written many beautiful poems, based on the hardships. Although Beijing and Shanghai are popular destinations for migrant workers, such cities have not cultivated the large-scale poetry trend led by migrant workers that Guangdong has achieved. This phenomenon is due to the geographic location of Guangdong, which attracts labour-intensive manufacturing industires, which have held a dominant role over the past two decades. The expanding low-cost labour market has attracted a large number of uneducated youths from the countryside. These young people tend to live in close proximity of the Pearl River Delta but do not reside in urban residential households. The lifestyle of a "migrant worker" is accepted with little resistance by these young people. The experiences that a migrant experiences dictates that they have very different lifestyles and emotional experiences to those who pursue different careers. A persons's life is inadvertently changed by intangible economic and political forces. Migrant workers suffer physically as a result of the tasks they carry out on a daily basis. They lead a challenging life; which often challenges their mental stability, making them vulnerable, but they desire and pursue humane morals alongside a poetic lifestyle. The depressing poems show the tension between the 21st century economic system, human dignity and the challenges stemming from cultural and geographical traditions. For many decades migrant workers have lived in the lowest standards of accommodation in our society, and have absorbed the sacrifices, humiliation and responsibilities of this life choice. Mi