But there is a common misconception regarding the consequent working conditions: many imagine all Chinese factories to be "sweatshops" in which workers toil to serve the "greed" of capitalists.

That, however, is to overlook the workers' own experiences.

The Worker's Perspective

"This simple narrative equating Western demand and Chinese suffering is appealing," says the writer Leslie T. Chang. "But it's also inaccurate and disrespectful."

"Chinese workers are not forced into factories because of our insatiable desire for iPods," Chang explains in a TED talk. "They choose to leave their homes [in rural China] in order to earn money, to learn new skills and to see the world."

A few years ago, Chang, formerly a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, spent two years in China getting to know factory workers in order to make their stories known. 
"In the ongoing debate about globalization, what's been missing is the voice of the workers themselves," Chang says. "Certainly the factory conditions are really tough, and it's nothing you or I would want to do, but from their perspective, where they're coming from is much worse … I just wanted to give that context of what's going on in their minds, not what necessarily is going on in yours."