A scene that has long since disappeared is the daily spectacle of thousands of female textile workers flooding in and out of the gates of the hundreds of textile factories that used to be scattered across the city.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, textiles were the leading industry in Shanghai. At the peak, there were more than 550,000 textile workers in Shanghai in 1988. Of these, over 80 percent were female.

Scenes from the heyday of Shanghai's textile industry, which at its height employed some 550,000 female workers Photos: Courtesy of Cheng Xiaoying

Scenes from the heyday of Shanghai's textile industry, which at its height employed some 550,000 female workers Photos: Courtesy of Cheng Xiaoying

Scenes from the heyday of Shanghai's textile industry, which at its height employed some 550,000 female workers Photos: Courtesy of Cheng Xiaoying

Most of the textile factories were closed and a large number of textile workers laid off during the city's economic reforms of the 1990s. Fangzhi nügong, the Chinese phrase for female textile workers, is rarely uttered by locals today.

However, for writer Cheng Xiaoying, the female textile workers made an indelible mark on his memory, and he sees them as a symbol of the golden years of his youth.

In 1973, when he was 18 years old, Cheng became an air conditioner maintenance worker at Shanghai No.12 Cotton Mill on Yangshupu Road. He worked there until 1985.

"During that time, I witnessed the lives of many thousands of Shanghai textile women, from their falling in love, to getting married and having children," he told the Global Times.

Cheng's recently released novel, Nügong, is a testament to the lives of the city's female textile workers and the now-defunct industry they toiled in.

"Nügong in Chinese has two meanings. One is 'female workers,' the other is 'women's handiwork,'" said Cheng.

Cheng's work involved him shuttling through the various workshops, checking on the temperature. This gave him frequent opportunities to witness the female textile workers during their three shifts of repetitive, laborious work. He also saw how they made their own fun to pass the time and keep up their morale, such as by flirting with male workers.

"Since the temperature in the workshop was always moderate no matter what the season outside, they wore thin and loose uniforms without bras to make themselves more comfortable," Cheng said. "It was common to see women's underclothes hanging inside the workshops."

According to Cheng, at that time, most textile factories in Shanghai had a nursing room. The families of textile workers would bring their babies there, where they could be breast-fed during work hours.

"After finishing feeding their babies, the female workers hurried back to the workshop with milk stains on their thin uniforms," Cheng said.

According to Cheng, most of the characters in his novel are based on people he knew in his days in the factory.

The two main characters are sisters Qin Haihua and Qin Haicao, who work in the same factory in which their parents were employed.

Cheng told us that from the 1950s to the 1980s, it was common for the whole family to work in the same textile factory. Textile factories had very good benefits and could provide all kinds of services to their staff, who would live in nearby residential areas.

"Each factory was just like a small society," Cheng said.

Haihua, the older of the sisters in the novel, is conscientious and does her best at work. She eventually becomes the director of the factory, and when all the female staff are laid off, leads them in finding new employment.

Haicao, the younger sister, is unwilling to submit herself to the factory from the very beginning. She leaves the job early on to set up her own business.

"These two sisters represent two kinds of female textile workers from that time, and to be honest, I personally favor Haihua," Cheng said. He added that most of the female textile workers were like Qin Haihua, who formed a deep emotional connection with the factory as they believed it had given them all they needed. "They were fatalistic, forbearing but grateful and had a strong survival strength, which are typical qualities of traditional Chinese women," Cheng said.

In Cheng's novel, Haihua accepts the marriage arranged by her father, wedding her father's apprentice Gao Tianbao, who works in the same factory as they do. However, she is not fond of Gao because she thinks they don't communicate well with each other.

"She has ambiguous feelings about several males she meets in her life. I hope the readers will pay attention to the details of the relationship between Haihua and her husband," Cheng said.

Toward the end of the novel, Gao and Haihua are making love. Gao sweats profusely, so Haihua picks up a fan and starts fanning her husband to relieve his heat. "This shows that, although Haihua was somewhat detached from the lovemaking, she still cared about him," Cheng said.