Migrant worker writers

Feng37 told me the other day that he was planing to translate the poems of

Zheng Xiaoqiong（郑小琼）,a grass-rooted poet who is better known as

migrant workers in Dongguan(东莞 known as a hub of world manufacturing

sector),.Feng37 quoted  a few lines written by Zheng,that is- there are

over forty thousands cut fingers of migrant workers in Pearl River

Delta,it occur to me from time to time,how long it would be when put

together and lined up?I regret that my powerless words can't not even fix

one of them-
　　"珠江三角洲有4万根以上断指，我常想，如果把它们都摆成一条直线会有多长

，而我笔下瘦弱的文字却不能将任何一根断指接起来……"

  I came across the statistics of migrant worker's cut figures

occasionally but read it from some advocates' reporting or writing

,calling for an independent workers union.I failed to

comprehensive the strong feeling shared by Zheng who works at the assembling line all day long.I even felt sorry it was

Feng37 as "an outside" that remind me of that emotional lines.Please

forgive me, feng37,for the word of "outside" employed here,but I must

confess it did mean something to me.  

  At the same time,I began to think about another migrant worker

writer.There used to be another migrant worker writer emerging in

Shenzhen(深圳 known as the first Economic Special Zones of China) ten

years ago. A girl known as Anzi（安子）became the advocate  of the migrant

workers with her narrative style of novel, Youth Stage,with the subtitle

of A Picture of Girl Migrant Workers 《青春驿站――深圳打工妹写真》. She

received much publicity after her debut novel published in Shenzhen Daily,a

mouthpiece of Shenzhen Municipal Government,and wrote columns in various

newspaper ,served as an anchor in the radio talk program by taking the

question from the migrant workers.Later on, as a representative of the

migrant workers,Anzi became a representative of national people's

congress,listed in a CCTV's documentary  " twenty persons,Twenty years"

,in celebrating the 20th anniversary of Shenzhen Special Zone in

1998.Anzi's successful story interpreted as  a migrant worker's struggle

against the hardships in life,and Shenzhen as the hub of million of migrant

workers,making their dream come true.

Zheng Xiaoqiong and Anzi,they are varied in generations.But they came to known by the public as the advocate of millions migrant worker as well.I always wonder whether it is possible to make a comparison between them .