Archie

I sure do. Here in Shenzhen, young women of my age and background had two options. Sex work for the arrogant Hong Kong businessman who came over the border and treated Shenzhen like their own private brothel, or work on the factory line for a pittance making things for Americans to slap their labels on and resell for massive profits. We’d make a 1 dollar for every 10 they did off of what we made. No choice; we didn’t know how to design what the West wanted or market it to them if we did. They knew things we did not, and we were told if we knew those things, and used that knowledge- well, that was stealing. They owned ideas and had pieces of paper we never agreed to saying no one but them was allowed to have those ideas. But late at night, we took those things apart, we figured out how they worked, and how to make our own. We studied English and translated videos for each other, learned culture, learned what people wanted and would buy, and English just barely good enough we could sell it to them ourselves. A few of us even got good enough to improve on those things- to innovate. I see little girls in Shenzhen now, and they’ve got all the options in the world, they’ve got their own ideas, and I see how enraged that makes some who think we should stay beneath them forever. I see your politicians desperately scramble to deny where we are and scramble to put us back where we were. To restore those “good old days” when everyone knew their place- before we got all uppity. I know they’ll fail, and I smile for that little girl and all the ones like her because no one’s going back.