Mom Who Cleans Buildings Offers Anthropological Insights

Shenzhen, often called China's Silicon Valley, dazzles with its large shopping malls and towering office buildings. Yet, beneath this veneer of wealth and modernity, the essential tasks of sweeping, scrubbing, and waste disposal are relegated to a low-profile, often marginalized group: older women, many of them mothers, who have migrated from rural areas. Their labor maintains the city's cleanliness, making them indispensable yet frequently invisible.

'Mom Who Cleans Buildings,' authored by journalist Zhang Xiaoman and translated by He Youying, brings these often-overlooked lives into focus. The book centers on Chunxiang, Zhang's mother, who left her rural home in Shanxi province after working various jobs to save money. At 52, she moved to Shenzhen in 2020 to work as a cleaner. Despite her limited literacy, her daughter meticulously gathered her workplace experiences, compiling them into this volume. The cleaners earn around 2,500 yuan (approximately $345 USD) per month, working relentlessly under the watchful eyes of supervisors. Some, unable to afford housing, resort to sleeping on makeshift beds in building restrooms, while others subsist on leftover food from store freezers.

The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of rapid economic growth in China, a period marked by widening class and regional disparities. The stories of these women, etched with sweat and resilience, form a poignant and warm tapestry of diverse human experiences. The book resonates with concepts like David Graeber's "bullshit jobs" or Xiang Biao's "disruptive proximity," offering a vivid anthropological account. Ultimately, the profound emotional connection between mother and daughter serves as the bedrock of this compelling narrative, providing a deeply personal lens through which to view broader societal issues.