Made in China

A Memoir of Love and Labor

By: Anna Qu

Narrated by: Catherine Ho

Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

A young girl forced to work in a Queens sweatshop calls child services on her mother in this powerful debut memoir about labor and self-worth that traces a Chinese immigrant’s journey to an American future.

As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in her family’s garment factory in Queens. At home, she is treated as a maid and suffers punishment for doing her homework at night. Her mother wants to teach her a lesson: She is Chinese, not American, and such is their tough path in their new country. But instead of acquiescing, Qu alerts the Office of Children and Family Services, an act with consequences that impact the rest of her life.

Nearly 20 years later, estranged from her mother and working at a Manhattan start-up, Qu requests her OCFS report. When it arrives, key details are wrong. Faced with this false narrative, and on the brink of losing her job as the once-shiny start-up collapses, Qu looks once more at her life’s truths, from abandonment to an abusive family to seeking dignity and meaning in work.

Traveling from Wenzhou to Xi’an to New York, Made in China is a fierce memoir unafraid to ask thorny questions about trauma and survival in immigrant families, the meaning of work, and the costs of immigration.

©2021 Anna Qu (P)2021 Random House Audio

A wonderful heartbreaking memoir

Engrossing from the very beginning. l highly recommend this book. The narrator was perfect.

Sad & Compelling narrative of a troubled mother daughter relationship

This memoir was so moving I listened to it in two sitting. Qu writes with a compelling range of emotions. Her story is both shocking and sad, but it is touched by moments of warmth that provide emotional depth. 10/10 will be recommending to friends/family.