The last population census found that 140 million Chinese people are working away from home. Tina Qian visited Sichuan to find out what the local government and Women's Federation are doing to help women migrants bound for Guangdong factories, and spoke to women working as maids in Beijing.

In Xinzheng (新政), a town 40 kilometres to the south of Zhengzhou in Henan, a Returned Migrant Women’s Friendly Association (返乡打工妹联谊会) provides mutual aid for its thirty members and other women who want to start their own businesses. Christine Warmer met Gao Wei, Li Feng and Yang Yi, who helped found the Association in 1999. Having also started businesses, the three women are regarded as success stories. But success isn’t their whole story, as they tell here in their own words.

This paper starts from three premises. Firstly, that the Chinese Communist Party and government have relatively little interest in or commitment to 'human rights' per se, as this is still regarded sceptically as a 'Western' concept. Secondly, that the Party and government's central concerns are stability, nation building and economic development. Thirdly, that Party and government view 'civil society' - or, at any rate, 'social forces' - not as an intrinsic good but as a possible mechanism for achieving social and economic goals in areas from which the state is withdrawing

The following account of a young Sichuanese worker's venture into to the bright lights of Guangzhou appeared in the newsletter of the Chinese NGO, Migrant Worker's Document Handling Centre.

While we are busy writing reports, making budgets and discussing action plans, do we ever stop to ask how much we understand the communities with which we work? Can appropriate development interventions ever be introduced without listening to what the project beneficiaries have to say about how they live?

Good. What does one have to do to be considered good? How many people wish their tombstones to read 'She was always good'? So it was with some trepidation that I began Xin Ran's The Good Women of China. Sadly, I discovered much of the unhappiness of the women portrayed is a result of trying to squeeze themselves into society's perceptions of goodness. They are obedient wives, dutiful daughters, loyal cadres, and good women.

Pan Suiming (潘绥铭), Professor of Sociology and Director of the Sexual Sociology Research Institute at the People's University in Beijing, is China's most renowned authority on the commercial sex industry.

Laid off in 1992, Zhen Zhen has at last said goodbye to a life of temporary employment, becoming the owner of her own little 'pan stickers' (guo tie) stall. She's an excellent cook and her homemade version of this snack food has a taste all of its own. As she tells it, there's always a queue in front of her stall.

'Health Topics - 2923 2923' announces one of many similar advertisements in the Labourers' Post (Laodong Wubao). Calls to this number are rated at CNY 3 (USD 37 cents) per minute, but callers will not find a doctor on the other end of the line. After a recorded pop song, we got through to a young woman who offered personal services of a rather different kind. Telephone sex has arrived in China.

The July 1998 'comprehensive reproductive health survey,' the principal findings of which are summarised below, was designed and conducted by the China Population Information and Research Centre (see their site) on behalf of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). It was intended as a baseline survey for UNFPA's recently begun 32 county reproductive health services project (for outline see article ODA for reproductive, maternal and child health - Donors look mainly to western provinces ). Data from the survey was to be used both to design project interventions and as a benchmark from which to evaluate the impact of the project once completed.