As a teenager, Anna Qu worked in a sweatshop snipping loose threads from garments until her hands blistered and bled. She worked after school and all day on weekends not in Wenzhou China, where she was born, but in Queen's New York at a garment factory owned by her stepfather. Her mother immigrated to America for the promise of a better life for her daughter, but instead he beat, neglected and abused her. Anna writes about her quest to understand her mother and generations of Chinese women before her in her book, Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor.
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Anna Qu (R) Photo: supplied