Female Worker (The Soul History of an Ordinary Person in the Era of Reform and Opening Up)

Author: Bi Shushmin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: In the book The Female Worker, Bi Shushmin sets the story against the backdrop of major societal changes, depicting the protagonist Pu Xiaoti—a daughter of a pig farmer—from primary to secondary school, who endures the Cultural Revolution, is assigned to a heavy industry factory as a common female worker, and later faces marital failure before being laid off and, out of necessity, becomes a domestic helper. The novel portrays a kind-hearted and resilient woman who faces life and fate with calm endurance. The historical context of Pu Xiaoti's life spans from the Cultural Revolution to the Reform and Opening Up, and then to the modern society impacted by the market economy. Each era's transformation leaves its mark on the protagonist's life and fate, bringing her immense shock and influence. S with the ups and downs of Pu Xiaoti's survival is the dramatic fluctuations in her personal emotional life. She is destined to miss her beloved primary school classmate Gao Haiqun, whom she deeply admired, only to be paired with Bai Erbao, a fellow primary school classmate she looked down upon, by fate. After helping Bai Erbao "grow" into a trade union official through "managing the household and raising children," she is ruthlessly abandoned by him. Years later, Pu Xiaoti, out of a sense of duty to pay her daughter's tuition fees, reluctantly "sells her work years," falling from the position of deputy workshop director to a market-based domestic helper. There, she encounters her employers—her primary school teacher, her teenage lover, and her classmate and ex-husband, Pu Xiaoti. She is a kind mother, but also a strong woman who refuses to bow to fate. Perhaps she herself is unaware of her nobility, but such a compassionate and empathetic heart makes us look up to her.
In the eyes of ordinary people, the protagonist's life is unfortunate, but the subtle peace and emotion permeating the story carry profound life philosophies that serve as an endless tribute to life. Watching her in the story, we cannot help but question the meaning of life, how we should face hardships and difficulties, and how we should perceive happiness. In her preface, Bi Shushmin explains why she chose the female workers as the protagonists of her story. She says, "For ten years, as the head of the health clinic in a heavy industry factory, I experienced the joys and sorrows of ordinary female workers, watched their life fluctuations, and had grown to consider them sisters. They were lonely and isolated, though there was still endless labor and challenges ahead. But their inner kindness and courage, along with their clarity and determination in the face of fate's ups and downs, compelled me to pick up my pen because they were flesh and blood to me."
During her student years, Pu Xiaoti was a beautiful, aloof, and academically girl, like most people, with dreams as delicate as flowers. However, these dreams withered before they could fully bloom amidst the turmoil of the times. Her marriage was a misfortune of fate; out of desperation, she married someone she did not love and suffered greatly in the process. Her career was fraught with obstacles, and in the end, she could not find employment. Bi Shushmin, with her deep empathy and sensitivity, vividly portrays the harshness of fate and the vicissitudes of life in The Female Worker—as quoted in the promotional introduction for the serialized version in Beijing Morning News:
She wanted to preserve a forever dream for both him and herself.
A delicate youth with bitter bittersweetness, the silhouette of a beautiful and impoverished girl quietly stood in the heart of a man she revered the most.