China has undergone major changes over the last few decades, its results exemplified through the phenomenal 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Buildings have sprung up over the once rural landscape, Shanghai's skyscrapers could be compared to New York City's, and the sheer transformation of Chinese cities is undeniable. And yet, the people physically behind this transformation are often overlooked, their stories are largely untold, and the conditions under which they live are muffled by the grandeur of what they've produced.
The migrant workers, the constituents of China's "floating population" (流动人口), are the reason for the urban metamorphosis. Having migrated from the rural areas of China to the cities for work, these migrant laborers are largely underpaid, under-appreciated, and overworked. Stories of their lives, in which they work for little or nothing at all, have slowly surfaced into local and international news but only among those who are interested. The aim of this blog, therefore, is to promote awareness of their situation to the general public, and allow others to see what China's economic backbone truly consists of.
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