The factory was in Bailijun Village in Pingfu County, near Shenzhen. Its Hong Kong owner had moved his business here in 1984 but it was still a relatively makeshift affair. He employed around 200 workers to turn out semi-precious jewellery for the lower end of the international market. There were local regulations, including health and safety laws, but nobody bothered to enforce them. The boss was often around on the factory floor. ‘He didn’t even have a car in those days,’ Wu said. ‘By 1993 he had four—one of them was a Mercedes Benz.’

Wu was earning a hundred yuan a month and spending sixty on his living expenses. At first he planned to make money for a few years then return to the village, but gradually he got used to urban life. In 1992 his wife joined him. They lived apart for the first two years, each in a crowded dormitory room shared with eight to ten other workers, before the factory gave them permission to live together. They had left their two children behind in the care of Wu’s parents. They saw them only once every couple of years, after they’d saved up the time and money for the journey home. In the meantime they wrote to them. Each reply took a month to arrive.