Waste Tide

DEBUT On China's Silicon Isle, electronic waste is processed by poor migrant workers known as "waste people" to island natives. The workers toil long hours with dangerous chemicals, as three local clans and their unofficial leader profit from the environmental degradation of the island and the toxic conditions in which the laborers live. As an American businessman, his Silicon Isle native/Boston University-educated translator, and a young waste girl become involved with the island's struggles for power, a deadly virus is unleashed, sparking a workers' rebellion, rampant violence, and heroic acts. As in Chen's short stories, this work is stylistically gritty and spare, emphasizing the harsh realities of Silicon Isle and the devastating burdens developing areas of the world (and marginalized people) suffer as the result of technology they cannot themselves enjoy.