Women of the Silk

Women of the Silk is a 1991 Chinese historical fiction novel by Gail Tsukiyama. It follows Pei, a Chinese girl in the years between the first and second World Wars, who is sent away to work in a silk factory. Curious and intelligent, Pei spends her youth on an impoverished fish farm. Having realized they no longer have enough money to survive, her parents send her to the factory to augment their income. Pei is initially terrified, but adjusts to her new environment, eventually deciding to devote her life to silkmaking rather than to marry and raise a family. The novel is known for its well-researched commentary on a unique cultural niche of 20th-century China, and its attentiveness to parts of women’s internal life and bonds of sisterhood that often go underrepresented in canonical literature.

Women of the Silk begins in Pei’s childhood. Her parents, Pao Chung and Ysung, work in the mulberry groves and raise fish in Kwangtung, a Chinese province. When Pei turns eight years old, bad weather and worsening growing conditions cause their farm business to flounder. Desperate for income, Pao Chung sends Pei and Li, her sister, to a fortune teller, who predicts that Li will marry but Pei will remain unmarried her entire life. A month later, Pao Chung brings Pei to Yung Kee, leaving her in the care of her relative, Auntie Yee. Pei goes to work at the silk factories, most of her income going to support her family.

Once at the silk factory, Pei quickly fits in. She meets several friends who become close; especially one of the girls, Lin, who comes from a once-wealthy family in Canton. Lin takes Pei under her wing and mentors her about different parts of the silk trade. Pei also grows close with Chen Ling, Auntie Yee’s daughter, who teaches the silk workers about ancient Chinese religious thinking, advocating a feminist worldview on women’s rejection of societal expectations of their reliance on men. Pei’s third closest friend, Meili, has a romantic connection to a man from the factory’s surrounding area named Hong.



After a few years at the factory, Meili is abandoned by Hong after getting pregnant, and commits suicide rather than endure her family’s shame. Incensed by the death, Pei decides to complete the hairdressing ceremony, in which a female silk worker devotes her life to the silk trade, and, in doing so, rejects marriage. Lin joins her in the ceremony. Soon after, Pei and Lin travel to Lin’s family in Canton for Lin’s brother’s marriage celebration. Pei meets white people for the first time, realizing the immense privilege they live with.

Upon returning from Canton, Lin and Pei notice differences in the factory. The country has gradually moved into an economic depression, and consistently bad weather require them to work more than ever before, driven by the factory’s owner, Chung. The women unionize to demand improvements to their working conditions. After striking, Chung concedes to their demands, but fighting between the workers and Chung’s male employees results in the death of one worker, Sui Ying.

In the year following Pei’s return to the factory, Auntie Yee dies. Grieving, and feeling with the other workers the constant threat of international aggression and Japanese soldiers’ occupation in China, Pei and Lin decide to make a pilgrimage to the village of Pei’s home. Pei and her family reconcile here after many years of emotional distance and estrangement, and Pei realizes that her mother loves her.



Pei and Lin finally return to the factory in Yung Kee. A younger woman named Ji Shen knocks on their door, clearly beaten and abused. She tells her story and reveals that her sister and mother were raped and killed by Japanese soldiers. Also a rape victim, she is burdened by constant nightmares of these traumatic events. Ji Shen and Pei become close, eventually planning to escape to Hong Kong and ensure their safety from Japanese soldiers. On one of their final nights, the silk factory closes. Lin joins their plan to escape for Hong Kong. However, while doing her final accounting in the factory, it burns down, killing her. Despite his grief, Lin’s brother insists that Pei escape. As the novel closes, Pei makes her way to Hong Kong with Ji Shen, their fate left ambiguous.

Women of the Silk is an evocative portrait of a complex and politically fraught time in China’s history. At the same time, it functions as a validation of the stories of women and other marginalized people whose lives are disrupted, not only by immediate violence, but also the powerful expectations and assumptions enforced by tradition. Tsukiyama expertly weaves these different forces into a vivid and hopeful account of a people who are relatively voiceless, even compared to women in China and the rest of the world today.