On the glory road home

For the migrant workers at all levels, the annual Spring Festival holidays offer the only chance each year to connect with family and friends back home, and to show off the results of 12 months' hard work.

Some might have gone home with gifts of imported delicacies the folks back home have never seen before. Others would be showing off a fat bank balance in their little account books. Yet others would have driven home in a brand-new motorbike or a car, with a prospective spouse on the passenger seat or riding pillion.

Our nanny has gone home, too, with three huge bags of clothes, shoes and other household necessities that she intends to distribute to her family and village neighbors.