My mother is a cleaner

★★Won the 2023 Shenzhen Reading Month "Top Ten Workers' Literature Good Books·Non-fiction List" Top Ten Books of the Year, "Nandu 2023 Top Ten Books of the Year", Sohu Culture 2023 Good Book Selection "Good Book of the Year", Asia Weekly 2023 Top Ten Chinese Books (Non-fiction), "Jingbao·Shenzhen-Hong Kong Book Review" 2023 Top Ten Books·Non-fiction, Tencent Good Books 2023 Top Ten Books; "My Mother Does Cleaning" was selected for the 2024 CCTV Reading Selection Spring List, and won the China Good Books 2024 January-February Good Books, the author Zhang Xiaoman won the Blade Book Award·2023 Non-fiction Author, won the Douban 2024 Annual Work & Douban 2024 Annual Chinese Literature (Non-fiction), LESS New World 2024 Annual Work [Editor's Recommendation]:
★Amidst the whirlwind of urban sprawl, the hidden daily lives of cleaners—who maintain the megacity's "respectability" and "cleanliness"? These migrant workers, filling their long workdays with physical labor, forge their own niches in Shenzhen, a city of all things inclusive. Living alongside stains and garbage, they uphold the city's unwavering pursuit of tidiness and detail. Author Zhang Xiaoman's mother is a member of this group of urban cleaners. Their initial motivations for arriving in the city are remarkably similar, and their journeys are closely tied to the trajectory of the times. They find their niches in Shenzhen, establish their own social circles, know how to seek opportunities, and are acutely aware of their place in the social hierarchy. They speak of their work with a certain self-deprecation. They are a vast group, yet they remain on the margins of urban life, virtually cut off from the city's "cleanliness," "comfort," and "convenience." The essence of their fate mirrors that of most of us.
Mother and daughter, "blue" and "white," the gap and integration between two generations. When my mother became a city cleaner, I reunited with her. She observed my life with a critical eye, and I responded fiercely. But I loved her and, even more, wanted to understand her. I began by understanding her work as a cleaner at a supermarket. She then brought me back very specific and vivid sketches of the daily lives of the cleaners. Together, mother and daughter pieced together the living conditions of this group. My mother had been a blue-collar worker toiling her whole life, while I, a white-collar worker, had seemingly made the leap to a "respectable class," a fact my mother had always been proud of. As we documented the stories of the cleaners, I was able to reflect on my own origins. I increasingly felt that many of my seemingly hard-working actions and the seemingly connected communities were actually vulnerable. My mother, like me, and the cleaners, share the same inability to give up. We share a common origin. Throughout this process, the mother came to the sad realization that her children, despite their hard work, ultimately struggled to maintain a mere cog in the urban fabric. A single misstep could lead them to slip outside the mainstream. Through the stories of the cleaners, perhaps we can also reflect on our own circumstances and our own lives. As for my mother and I, true understanding between the two generations may never be achieved, but the process of documenting and writing about my mother's life has strengthened our mutual trust and support.
★Recommended by Liang Hong, Chen Nianxi and Huang Deng!
[Synopsis]: In 2020, my 52-year-old mother came to Shenzhen from rural southern Shaanxi to work. After more than a decade of independent living, I reunited with my mother in Shenzhen, living under the same roof again. In our small room, we argued. My mother couldn't stand my spending, and I couldn't stand her lifestyle. We were trapped in a relationship of entanglement, burden, and dependence. Yet, we loved each other, and I knew that my mother's vulnerability was her unconditional love for me. So, I wanted to understand her. My mother, having shed her youthful sweat in mines and construction sites, now works as a cleaner in a few cubicles of a city office building. I wanted to record my mother's work history, striving to traverse the life she remembers. My mother's life created a small "enclave" for me, a cog in the wheel, allowing me to breathe, reflect, and cherish my origins. This is a writing project we, mother and daughter, have created together.

2023-11-01

光启书局

404

9787545219869