Tai Po and the other women spun the silk into thread on iron

looms, and then the fibre was rolled on to drums. The factory was

flooded with steam from the boiling vats which kept the air humid

and ensured that the precious silk thread didn’t break. There was

little ventilation, and everyone struggled for breath. As the women

leaned back and forth, back and forth across the loom, beads of

sweat dripped from their foreheads on to the silk as it coiled into

piles on the factory floor, a slow accumulation of profit for the

factory bosses.