Hong Kong

The idea of sisterhood can be understood as commonalities between women around the world, but here sisterhood is examined only in reference to China. Impacts of colonization and industrialization have affected these areas and communities of women in different ways, but there are threads of connectivity. For example, whether a woman is a factory worker, such as those in Shenzhen, or a manager from Hong Kong, there is a common desire to reach a “model of female beauty,” and “consumption bound them into a collectivity through their shared dreams and desires to become a new kind of gendered subject” (Ngai 158, 159). These women come from all areas of China, speak a variety of different dialects, and function in different stratospheres depending on social status, ethnicity, and kin relationships. But regardless of all these factors, these women are all trying to live up to a common idea of beauty, be it white skin, soft hands, or stylish dress. Thus women in China, dwelling in urban centers, whether permanently or temporarily, are bound in a community of sisterhood by their consumption and desire of a common ideal.