Monday, April 6, 2009

Factory Girls in China

The shear ubiquity of young female factory workers in China overwhelms the consciousness. All dressed in their standard issue light blue factory jackets covering simple blue jeans and t-shirt tops one cannot help but wonder where do they come from, so many that I have seen in numerous cell phone refurbishing, plastic housing, and plastic painting companies.

They lightly and briefly chat amongst themselves but are mostly silent with each other and rarely make eye contact with the western foreigners visiting their factories. What is going through their minds when they do make eye contact? Can they even comprehend the differences in our lives and standards of living? What do they feel? Are they screaming inside to be freed from the drudgery of these jobs? To not lose their young adult lives to the 6 day a week, 10 hour days of factory life?

How many of these young women are their, performing such basic manual labor as preparing unfinished, molded plastic cell phone housings for the painting line. Brushing and cleaning everyone by hand and taping them and attaching them to the painting assemblies to be painted in modern painting equipment.

These young women are aged 16 to 24 -- some maybe more, some maybe less? Every factory I visit, I see these women. And there are thousands upon thousands of factories across the coastal cities of China set up to serve the growing demand for low cost products across the world. There are millions of these young women in factories across China. Millions of them.

Why don’t factories hire more men? Because women get along better. I have been told that the men tend to fight too much and get involved in drinking and gambling. I guess I would too if I had to work like this.

The workers are housed by the factories in small dormitories. Eight to ten women to a small room in bunk beds. Men are to groups of 6 because of the prevalence of fighting. In some multi-shift plants they hot bunk with a second shift. The rooms are barely 20 by 10 ft. You can spot the dormitories by the laundry hanging out off of ropes outside of every window, air drying in the smog of China.

They receive room and board in most factories as most of them travel in from the countryside mostly sent by their families so that they can send money home to help support other family members who barely survive on their farming wages. The girls earn about $250 pr month plus room and board. That is about $10 per day or $1 per hour. Most of which returns home every month.

What must they be thinking everyday hour after hour? Does this eliminate the spirit from them? Do they ever smile? I never see them smile. Do they have hopes and dreams? Do they fall in love? Can they imagine life outside of this world? What is their one day off per week like? Do they laugh and play with their friends?

They only return home once per year during the Chinese New Year when the entire country shuts down for two weeks. The trains are filled with migrant factory workers returning home. Platforms are filled with thousands of people heading back to see their families who they haven’t seen for a year. Can you imagine your daughter being sent away at the age of 15 or 16 for a year to work in a factory and then to be sent back again after her week-long visit? The train rides can take several days each way. Many girls do not want to return to the factories away from their families, friends and siblings. The factories often withhold two months of back pay to keep workers locked in to their jobs.

And they leave for their families every year with barely enough cash to pay for the train ticket home. Last year, in February of 2008, a rare, devastating snow storm hit northern and central China and literally shut down the entire Chinese rail system across the country. You probably saw the news stories and the video of millions of stranded passengers on train platforms across the country with no place to go and no money to feed themselves. I left China just as this storm was hitting and I was astounded at how many Chinese people were sitting on platforms in southern China going nowhere. It was a national emergency. But the people could only sit and wait. I cannot imagine what it was like in the north.

Are these young Chinese women better off or worse off? How much choice do they have? What happens to them after the age of 25? They must get married. With China’s one child policy, there are millions of men that will not be able to find wives. There are just not enough women in China.

Can this really happen in the 21st century? Can you even comprehend the living conditions? Can you comprehend making $10 a day? Living a dreary monotonous young adulthood. The years of your life that should be the most exciting and the most full of opportunity? Can you imagine sending your daughter off to this life? It is a modern Dickensian tale… a haunting one that brings us cheaper and cheaper consumer products to meet our insatiable consumer appetites.

If you are interested in reading more on this topic I encourage you to read: Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie Chang and The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage by Alexandra Harney.

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