With two young children, Deng Guilian hadn't planned on going back to work. That changed after her husband was arrested while investigating labor abuses at Chinese suppliers for Ivanka Trump's brand.
Now the 36-year-old mom works the overnight shift at a karaoke parlor and stays in a dorm nearby. She gets just three days off a month to see her kids.
'They seem accustomed to not having their mom,' Deng said of her seven-year-old daughter, Chen Chen, and four-year-old son, Bo Bo.
Deng Guilian, the wife of Chinese labor activist Hua Haifeng, speaks during an interview in her home on the outskirts of Xiangyang, China on December 17
The 36-year-old mother of two had to go back to work after her husband was arrested for investigating labor practices at a factory producing Ivanka Trump's clothing line
Hua Haifeng is seen hugging his son after being released on bail from jail in June. Because of his legal case, he has found it hard to find work
She flashed an uneasy smile.
Ivanka Trump has sought to bring an aura of female empowerment to her lifestyle brand and spoken out for women's rights from her post at the White House. But her legacy has been less than empowering for at least one woman in China.
In May, Deng's husband, Hua Haifeng, and two of his colleagues were accused of illegally using secret recording devices and thrown in jail while investigating factories that made shoes for Ivanka Trump's brand. The group they were working for, a New York non-profit called China Labor Watch, obtained evidence of forced overtime and pay as low as $1 an hour, as well as a video of a manager berating a worker for apparently arranging shoes in the wrong order.
'If I see them f****** messed up again,' the manager yells, 'I'll beat you right here.' Another worker was left with blood dripping from his head after a manager hit him with the sharp end of a high heeled shoe, according to three eyewitnesses who spoke to the AP.
The Huajian Group, which runs the factories where the abuses allegedly occurred, has called the charges 'completely not true to the facts.'
Hua Haifeng now takes care of the couple's two kids while his wife works most of the month at a karaoke bar
Hua Haifeng is seen taking the couple's daughter Chen Chen, seven, and son Bo Bo, four, to school on December 18. He has been ordered not to talk to the press so he was not quoted in the report
The investigators were released after 30 days, but the bail conditionsrestrictions on travel, regular meetings with the policehave made it hard for Hua to find work.
Hua was ordered not to speak to the media and declined to comment for this story.
Ivanka Trump, who still owns but no longer closely manages her namesake brand, has remained silent about human rights issues within her brand's supply chainand labor conditions in China, where tons of her products are made and a generation of women like Deng has left their children to go work.
'As a public figure, she has the ability and resources to not only work on labor conditions at her own brand's factories, but also to help improve labor conditions of the global supply chain as a whole,' said China Labor Watch founder Li Qiang. 'However, she did not use her influence to do these things.'
Ivanka Trump is seen leaving her house in Washington, DC on Sunday
The group Hua Haifeng was working for, China Labor Watch, found that the factories that make Ivanka's clothing were paying workers as low as $1 an hour. The Huajian Group, which runs the factories where the abuses allegedly occurred, has called the charges 'completely not true to the facts.' Pictured above is a Huajian Group factory in Jiangzi Province, China in June
This photo taken on September 14, 2016 shows workers on a production line at the Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan, in south China's Guangdong province
Shoes, designed by Ivanka Trump, are displayed on the reduced rack at a Nordstrom store in February
Trump's brand and spokesman declined to comment for this story, but in her 2017 best-seller, 'Women Who Work,' Trump spoke about her commitment to improving 'the lives of countless women and girls' and acknowledged that her father's presidential campaign gave her 'an unprecedented opportunity to advocate for change.'
Her daughter, Arabella, who is one year younger than Chen Chen, has also been an inspiration.
'When I think about the opportunities Arabella will have available to her in the United States, compared with some of the six hundred million girls growing up in developing countries, I'm even more inspired to make a difference,' she wrote.
Arabella and her two little brothers are her 'greatest passion,' Ivanka Trump wrote. 'I'm the first person they see in the morning, and the last to give kisses at night.'
Deng, meanwhile, has traded life with her kids for a mirrored room at a karaoke parlor, where she sells drinks and snacks on the 6pm to 2am shift. Days she spends in a dormitory, where she and a co-worker share a bed with a Snoopy headboard. Room and board are free, but she makes less than 2000 yuan ($316 US dollars) a month. It's not enough.
Neighbors in their small, hardscrabble town on the outskirts of Xiangyang, in central China's Hubei province, seem convinced Hua sold state secrets to the U.S., Deng stated. The family worries Hua could get plucked up by police any day and vanish from their lives again. But Deng said she has no regrets.
'Maybe he's not such a big, important person,' she stated. 'But every time he helps a worker resolve a problem, put yourself in that person's position. Personally, I think it's a very meaningful thing to do.'
Deng Guilian is pictured playing with her son on one of her rare days off on December 17
Her husband's arrest has had a profound impact on the family, which have to wear coats on inside their house because it's so cold
The mother is seen preparing a meal for her kids before leaving for another week of work on December 17
Deng Guilian son hugs her goodbye as she leaves for another week of work on December 17
Den Guilian says her daughter, left, has become more distant now that she has started working away from home
When she left for work on December 17, only Deng Guilian's son showed her off
Deng said her children have become more subdued since their father's time in jail.
'The shadow is that when they don't see their father, they keep calling him,' she stated. Bo Bo has grown reasonable beyond his years. 'He's such a small child but when he talks he seems just like an adult,' Deng said, while Chen Chen tends to follow her dad around. 'My daughter has never asked about what happened, but I can sense she knows many things.'
On a recent Sunday off, Deng's children wandered in and out of the kitchen as she cooked. Their house is so cold everybody keeps their coats on inside.
At 5pm, when it was time for Deng to go back to work, Bo Bo darted around his mom. Chen Chen sat at a small table nearby, coloring.
'Do you want to see mama off?' Deng called to her daughter.
'No,' Chen Chen muttered.
Deng tried again: 'Come on, what's wrong? You're not happy?'
Chen Chen stared at her pink marker.
Finally, Deng had to go. She mussed her son's hair as they walked out into the last light of day. Bo Bo closed the big metal gate after his mom.
Chen Chen kept coloring.