Eating Bitterness: Stories from the Front Lines of China's Great Urban Migration. Award-winning journalist Michelle Loyalka follows the trials and triumphs of eight Chinese migrant workers-including a vegetable vendor, an itinerant knife sharpener, a free-spirited recycler, and a cash-strapped mother-offering an inside look at the pain, self-sacrifice, and uncertainty underlying China's dramatic national transformation. These stories illustrate why China continues to advance, even as the rest of the world remains embroiled in financial turmoil. At the same time, Eating Bitterness demonstrates how dealing with the issues facing this class of people constitutes China's most pressing domestic challenge.