My mother is a cleaner

★★"My Mother, the Cleaner" selected as one of the "2024 China Good Books"; on CCTV's Spring 2024 Reading Selection List, won "China Good Books" for January-February 2024; author Zhang Xiaoman won the Dao Feng Book Award - 2023 Non-Fiction Author, won Douban's 2024 Work of the Year & Douban's 2024 Chinese Literature (Non-Fiction); won the 2023 Shenzhen Reading Month's "Top Ten Laborer Literary Good Books - Non-Fiction List" Annual Top Ten Good Books, "Nandu 2023 Top Ten Good Books", Sohu Culture's 2023 Good Books Selection "Book of the Year", Asia Weekly's 2023 Global Chinese Top Ten Good Books (Non-Fiction), "Jing Bao Deep-Hong Kong Book Review" 2023 Top Ten Good Books - Non-Fiction, Tencent Good Books 2023 Top Ten Good Books.
【Editor's Recommendations】：
★The obscured daily lives of cleaners under the operation of the urban giant
Who maintains the "dignity" and "cleanliness" of a super city? This is a group of migrant workers who fill their extra-long working hours with physical labor. They seek their living space in the all-inclusive city of Shenzhen, coexisting with dirt and garbage, supporting the city's civilization's endless pursuit of tidiness and detail. Author Zhang Xiaoman's mother is one of these urban cleaners. Their initial reasons for settling in the city are so similar, and their life journeys are closely tied to the trajectory of societal development. They seek out their niches in Shenzhen, have their own social circles, know how to find opportunities, are very clear about their status in the overall class hierarchy, and speak of their work in a self-deprecating tone. They are a large group, yet they are always on the fringes of urban life; the city's "tidiness," "comfort," and "convenience" are almost unrelated to them. The essence of their destiny, however, also mirrors that of most of us.
★Mother and Daughter, "Blue" and "White," the rift and fusion of two generations
When her mother became an urban cleaner, "I" and my mother lived together again. My mother observed "my" life with a critical eye, and "I" responded fiercely. But "I" loved my mother and wanted to understand her even more. "I" tried to understand her by starting with understanding her cleaning work in a super mall. My mother then brought back very specific and vivid daily sketches of the cleaner community to "me," and mother and daughter together pieced together the living conditions of this group. My mother was a blue-collar worker who did physical labor all her life, while "I" was a white-collar worker who seemingly entered the "decent class," which my mother always took pride in. As mother and daughter documented the stories of the cleaner community, "I" was able to look back at my origins and increasingly felt that many of my seemingly diligent actions and seemingly connected circles were actually vulnerable. "I," like my mother and the cleaners, was someone who couldn't break free; we shared common origins. And in this process, my mother sadly realized that her children, who studied hard to succeed, ultimately just barely maintained a screw-like job in urban life, and with a slight mishap, could also slip out of "mainstream life." Through the stories of the cleaner community, perhaps we can also reflect on our own situations and lives. As for "me" and my mother, a true understanding between the two generations may never be reached, but the process of documenting and writing about my mother's life made "me" and my mother trust and support each other more than ever before.
★Jointly recommended by Liang Hong, Chen Nianxi, and Huang Deng!
【Synopsis】：In 2020, my 52-year-old mother came from a rural area in southern Shaanxi to work in Shenzhen. After living independently for over ten years, "I" reunited with my mother in Shenzhen, living under the same roof again. We argued in our cramped room; my mother disapproved of "my" spending habits, and "I" found my mother's living habits unbearable. We were deeply entangled in a relationship of mutual involvement, burden, and dependence. However, we loved each other, and "I" knew my mother's weakness was her unconditional love for me. So, "I" wanted to understand her. "My" mother poured her youthful sweat into mines and construction sites, and now works as a cleaner in a few square meters of an urban office building. "I" wanted to record my mother's working history, striving to traverse the life in her memories. My mother's life created a "haven" for "me," who works a screw-like job, allowing "me" to breathe, reflect, and cherish my origins. This is a writing project that my mother and I completed together.

2023-11-01

光启书局

404

9787545219869