Chicago becomes a "sweatfree city", the Chop-Suey Circuit, and the World Before Her documentary

A Chicago campaign to encourage the city administration and lawmakers to not purchase materials made from sweatshop labor began in response to a string of tragic incidents in the apparel industry: the Ali Enterprises fire in Pakistan; the Tazreen Fashions fire and most notably, the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh. In all these incidents more than 1500 apparel workers were killed and thousands more injured within a seven-month period. Chicago Fair Trade launched a local campaign in Summer 2013 and their work came to fruition late last month when the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance to join cities like Los Angeles and St. Louis in officially becoming “sweatfree." We'll find out how the ordinance will impact the city with Chicago Fair Trade’s executive director, Katherine Bissell Cordova, and Chicago 47th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar, the alderman who sponsored the ordinance.
And, as a Chinese American and the great granddaughter of Joe Eng, a Chicago nightclub and restaurant mogul, WBEZ’s Monica Eng was eager to dig into a new book called China Dolls. It explores the world of Chinese American night clubs in the 1930's and 40's through the eyes of three young women who worked in them. The book is the ninth by Chinese American author Lisa See, best known for her bestselling books On Gold Mountain, Shanghai Girls and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Monica and Lisa sat down and explored a little known part of American history.
Then, "The World Before Her" is a documentary by filmmaker Nisha Pahuja. Pahuja joins Jerome McDonnell and Weekend Passport co-host, Nari Safavi, who calls the film “superbly done.” "The World Before Her" tells the story of two women in India, one a Hindu Nationalist leader, the other a professional beauty pageant contestant. Though seemingly different women, the film reveals their commonalities through their own internal contradictions and how they deal with issues in Indian culture like patriarchy, chauvinism and misogyny.

(photo: A still from "The World Before Her")