Little Chinese Seamstress

I am forty pages into the book and so far the story's about two teenage boys, that were sent on china's re-education program,  to the Phoenix of the Sky Mnt. The teenagers seem to hate the backbreaking work, and being cut off from civilization. Their only refuge is watching films each month, in distant villages. They meet a tailor's daughter and call her the little seamstress, ( one boy grows found of her). One of the teens becomes sick with Malaria, and is scared that he will die at the Phoenix of the Sky.