Results tagged “migrantworkers”

We thought we'd seen the last of babies taking drags off ciggs with the first video, but nope.

The Chinese economy boom has helped increase numbers of both great and not-so-great things. On one hand, you've got rising literacy rates, development and internet penetration. On the other hand, you also get more pollution, city overcrowding and... syphilis. According to the World Health Organization, cases of the STD are now growing by 30% a year, and it's all because of migrant workers who now make enough money to hire more prostitutes. All the more reason to take up Zhang Feng's proposal and give them sex toys, eh?

"In this province we have 30 million migrants living apart from their wives or husbands whose hunger for sex has never been recognized by society or the government...

• Magazine's business chiefs resign [SCMP] "Top business executives at Caijing magazine, the mainland's most influential business publication, have resigned en masse, heightening speculation its ownership may change hands soon or that its managing editor and founder, Hu Shuli, may leave and start her own publication... Caijing general manager Daphne Wu Chuanhui and eight of her nine business directors have resigned, according to reporters briefed about the resignations."
• Can the Future of Western Newspapers be Saved by China? [Sino Tech Blog] "When looking at the Western and Chinese online newspaper landscape, many obvious differences are evident. There has been much written recently about the demise of the newspapers in the West as their circulation plummets and their online revenue models struggle to counter these losses in revenues. But what about the situation in China? Is the outlook as bleak? Is their similar trends and examples as there are in the US?… This is what I wanted to explore and understand more."
• Upgrade rather than cancellation for CCTV's concert series [Danwei] "The cancellation of CCTV's popular touring concert series, The Same Song (同一首歌), reported by the mainland media late last week and covered in this post, now seems to be little more than a rumor. The Beijing Times spoke to CCTV management and published a brief article on Saturday: 'Rumors have been flying saying that CCTV's flagship program The Same Song would be canceled after the National Day holiday. Yesterday, CCTV arts and entertainment center director Zhang Xiaohai said in an interview that no such cancellation would occur.'"

• According to this website, Shanghai's planning on building a shanzhai version of the U.S. Pentagon before the World Expo. Like most weirdly shaped complexes in China, It'll be a shopping mall. [非常日報]
• People's Daily looks at the "Bund Origin" program and reflects on the Huangpu area's last 60 years. [People's Daily Online]
• Adam Minter interviews a migrant worker who's working to clean up Shanghai all spiffy like by refreshing the paint on windows. [Shanghai Scrap]

Can't view this Youtube video? Try clicking here.

The Global Post is currently featuring an interactive online exhibit that portrays an "intimate look at China's migrant workers." Besides stories and pictures, they also have video slideshows and audio translations of actual migrant workers' thoughts.

Two months after the first swine flu-related death in China, Shanghai has been hit with its own number one serious victim. A 35-year-old migrant worker is currently comatose and suffering from multiple organ failure in Shanghai No. 1 People's Hospital thanks to the A/H1N1 virus. He fell ill on Thursday and was confirmed to have the flu on Friday. His status comes as over 100 people across China were infected with A/H1N1, which according to Xinhua means that the peak season for flu has begun. Better start reviewing that PSA we wrote up about preventing, identifying and treating this dastardly disease.

In case you didn't think our cities were crowded enough, an official has predicted that some 300 million Chinese currently living in rural areas will move into urban centers during the next 15 to 20 years. 300 MILLION, aka the population of the United States aka half the population not living in cities right now. The official was pretty upbeat about it, arguing that the fast pace of urbanization will create at least 1 trillion yuan in annual investment opportunities - building water supplies, waste treatments, heating and other public utilities. We're not anti-city by any means, but this sounds like a disaster. Not only do we already have some of the world's densest cities, but weren't we all about encouraging farmers to stay on the land last year? What's with the sudden about face? Source: China Daily

• Facebook blunder betrays NZ millionaires [ABC] "Interpol is still trying to find a couple of cashed-up Kiwis, believed to be living it up in Asia, after they were mistakenly given $8 million ($NZ10 million) by Westpac. Rotorua service station owners Leo Gao and his girlfriend Cara Young fled New Zealand with about $NZ3 million after they discovered the money in their bank account. But their chances of being caught have increased after they were joined overseas by Ms Young's sister, Aroha Hurring, who posted details about their location on her Facebook page. Police believe the trio are in China after Ms Hurring foolishly updated her status to say she was drinking the local Asian beer and enjoying the heat."
• Taiwan Firm to Offer Google Phone in China [WSJ] "HTC Corp. plans next month to start selling in China a smart phone based on Google Inc.'s Android operating system, the first Google-based phone in the world's biggest wireless market, HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou said in an interview. The new HTC phone is a version of the company's Magic model, unveiled in February, that has been customized to incorporate software from China Mobile Ltd. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile operator, with nearly 500 million accounts."
• In Chinese city, WWII enemies are now partners [LA Times] "Looking back, Japanese businessman Tomatsu Ito says, he might as well have moved to Mars rather than a few hours' flight away to China... Often desperate, he would phone JianHua Yang, his second in charge at the branch office of an Osaka, Japan-based software company. Yang is a Dalian native who, like many here, speaks Japanese. Their budding bicultural friendship symbolizes a trend here: Ito is among thousands of Japanese flocking to this bustling port on China's eastern seaboard. Resentment still runs deep in China over Japan's 40 years of often brutal colonial rule in this region in the early 1900s, but Dalian has become a singularly welcoming oasis."

We've highlighted mini-documentaries on the plight of migrant workers before, but there can't be enough said about these 200 million generally faceless people who have borne the burden of China's economic boom on their backs.

Last night around 7pm, a man at the Baoshan Road station on the No.3 line was beaten to death. According to police reports and witness accounts, four to five young men chased down the deceased and began beating him near the No. 1 entrance close to Qiujiang Road. The deceased was around 40 years old and operated a stall right outside the subway station. Police are currently investigating. Source: Netease

The fire started at around 9:48am at the construction site for Shanghai IFC, a twin set of buildings located at 8 Century Avenue. The flame spread across a dormitory and activity room for migrant workers, causing part of the three story building to collapse before it was extinguished by firefighters at around 11:20. There were no casualties. The cause of the fire is now under investigation. Shanghai's HKD 8 billion IFC building is being developed by the same people who built the IFC in Hong Kong and is expected to house HSBC's Shanghai headquarters. Check out a video report and more pictures at Xinmin.cn.

       

From the Netease forums comes the story of 皖怀希望小学 (Anhui Hope Elementary School), a grade school for migrant workers in Shanghai that was mysteriously vandalized and then shut down earlier this year.

According to Shanghai Daily, seven workers were buried when a construction site in Jiangsu Province collapsed earlier today. The accident took place this morning in Lucheng Township, Danyang City. The workers were helping to build the new Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which is supposed to accommodate bullet trains that can travel up to 350kmph and cut the travel time between China's two mega-cities to roughly five hours.

When migrants move from their villages to look for jobs in the big city, they often don't take the kids. According to a recent press report, as many as one out of six children in China - 58 million - are left behind with town elders. This video is about some of the “left behind” children in the southern provinces of China. Source:McClatchy

One of the biggest threats to stability China could face is already starting to happen: millions of people, most of them migrant workers, are unemployed. Chen Xiwen, the vice head of the Central Finance and Economic Leading Group, released several disturbing figures on Monday (helpfully translated by Victor Shih):

The CCP warned that 2009 will be "possibly the toughest year" to secure economic and agricultural development since the beginning of the century. A document issued jointly by the State Council and the Central Committee said that the world economy's slowdown would have an increasingly negative impact on the Chinese economy. The best solution for keeping growth up would be boosting rural areas using social security schemes and rural land and employment rights protections. Will 2009 be the year migrant workers actually choose to stay home? Source: Xinhua

Dai Longquan, a 19-year-old man from Jiangxi Province is currently recuperating at Renji Hospital after having a 28cm drill bit removed from his brain by surgeons. He was adjusting the drill when a tiny little accident happened — the bit shot into his right eye socket and was embedded 18 centimetres into his brain. By the time Dai was rushed to the hospital, he was already in a critical condition and was lapsing into a coma. Doctors made two small openings on each side of his brain and not only removed the bit (three centimetres of which had been bent into a right angle), but also saved his eye.

This time last year, many people were prevented from going home to celebrate Chinese New Year with their loved ones because of the deadly winter storms. This year, it's the global economic crisis that threatens to dampen the holiday spirit for China's 200 million migrant workers, many of whom are now jobless as factories are shut down and jobs are cut. Kimberly Lim of Reuters speaks to a Shanghai-based couple who are unable to fork out enough money to return home to neighbouring Anhui province. (On a totally unrelated note, we found it interesting to see a cross adorning the wall of their small, bare room.)

Over 2.3 billion passenger trips are expected to be made via land and water transport over the 40 days of the Lunar New Year season. 188 million trips are expected to be made via railway alone, up 8% from last year. As a result of the global economic crisis which saw many factories going under all over China, waves and waves of migrant workers started going home much earlier this year. Where these people will travel to after the Spring Festival remains a big question mark because most of these people still do not know where their next job will be.

• A 23 year old woman has been charged in Minhang District for attempted extortion for allegedly trying to extort 500,000 yuan from her boss after she saw a love letter on his computer.
• Great news for families of migrant workers here: Children without a Shanghai hukou can now apply to the local education administration to receive education.
• Over 100 fare dodgers on the Shanghai subway were caught and fined the maximum penalty of RMB45 during a four-hour crackdown yesterday. Maybe if the maximum penalty were a little higher, people would think twice next time.

This report by France24 throws light on what migrant workers who are resident in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing but lack the proper hukou documents go through to put their children in school. The schools which will accept their children run outside of the state education system and charge a monthly fee of RMB100 — no small sum for parents on migrant worker salaries. Schools like the one featured in this report may soon become a thing of the past though as the government mulls changes to grant children of migrant workers full access to state education.

• The World Expo Tunnel, which stretches beneath the Huangpu River, connecting Pudong and Puxi reached its full length on August the 20th: it's 2.67 kilometers long, and located 1.117 kilometers below the river.
• The soccer World Cup qualifier match between North and South Korea has been moved from Pyongyang to Shanghai, because the North had refused to play the anthem or fly the flag of its opponent (technically the two Koreas are still at war). The match is scheduled for September 10, sounds like an interesting game, eh?
• Migrant workers in Shanghai will be able to claim unemployment benefits and have the right to get health benefits while they are employed. This was stated by the department of safety in labor this week. Welcome news for a group who are definitely in need of a few more rights.

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In the days following the earthquake a number of stories have started surfacing about Sichuan's enormous migrant labor force and their concerns for loved ones back home. Out of the many laborers that have moved into China's rapidly developing urban areas, more come from Sichuan than any other province. A recent article from the Wall Street Journal tells us:

According to official figures, eight million migrant workers come from Sichuan. But the official figures exclude many unregistered workers and those who have left home seeking work but stay within the province. Some estimates put the number of Sichuanese migrant workers at 20 million, out of a total migrant labor force of roughly 120 million.

‘From Camilla French and Judy Brettschneider of Current TV:

Gathering Dust’ is a collection of fleeting portraits of migrants in Beijing. It visits a cleaner, a migrant school teacher, street vendors, sex workers and migrant children. These migrants come from poor rural areas, and when in Beijing, live at the fringes of urban society. Yet they perform many of the menial jobs without which, Beijing’s and China’s astonishing development would not be possible. We wanted to capture these stories on film and spent 3 weeks in Beijing shooting the project. It wasn’t always easy, as migration is a sensitive subject. We found many closed doors, especially with the Olympics only one year away. But in the end, we wanted to focus on personal stories of migrating to Beijing from different parts of China.” Official statistics place the number of internal migrants over 130 million: 10% of China’s entire population. Today, they make up more than 40% of the urban workforce, and being largely unskilled labourers, and perform menial tasks such as rubbish collection and construction. Despite their large numbers, internal migrants are strongly disenfranchised compared to urban residents. China’s household registration system (hukou) ties government services to native place and occupation. Poor migrants are prevented from accessing social services in urban areas, such as subsidized housing, free education and pensions. Living conditions are often cramped, and diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis spread easily. In 2006, 80% of new HIV cases reported in Beijing were migrant workers. Children inherit the hukou from their parents, and without government education, they have little chance on improving their social status. Annual school fees in Beijing exceed the income of some construction workers. Roughly half of migrant children therefore cannot attend school, and nearly 10% are forced to drop out. There are cheaper ‘migrant schools’. But teaching is often sub-standard, and diplomas are largely unrecognized by state education authorities.

If you visit Contrasts Gallery on Jiangxi Lu now, you will find lots of migrant workers have actually made it their temporary home, but that is not some avant garde artist doing his latest exhibition. Here's a note from reader Arjen van der Schoot who loaned one of his paintings to the exhibition that is currently being held hostage by the workers:

Contrasts Gallery on Jiangxi Road opposite Hamilton House over a disputed RMB 1 million renovation at the gallery. About 20 workers have squatted in the gallery for nearly a month now, desperate to go home for Chinese new year with money they claim they are owed. The workers are sleeping on makeshift beds on the floor and the walls are lined with mounds of rubbish, mostly empty lunch boxes. Electricity has been cut off leaving most of the gallery submerged in icy cold darkness. The workers are also keeping about 25 works by well-known artist Qian Gang hostage. The 25 works represent two years worth of work, and Mr. Qian is anxious to have the issue resolved and his paintings, some of which are on loan from private collectors, returned. The gallery’s staff is taking turns to keep an eye on the workers.

Long story short, the place is a zoo, but what'd you expect. Of course, things are made worse by the weather. Here are some pics from the last few days. From what we've been hearing both in the news and in our apartment elevator, the dastardly weather gods have caused big time cancellations and problems. Despite the crowds of cold people and the massive B.O. from the people waiting inside the subway station, things seem more or less ok. Order has been maintained. Lots of places are already sold out, but order has been maintained, in part thanks to the police and PLA.

Huang Qingnan (黃慶南), the activist from the Shenzhen Dagongzhe Migrant Worker Centre who was brutally hacked on his back, waist and leg is finally well enough to give an interview. Erm, well, not really. From this video, it appears he was splashed with acid too? We can't quite tell. Urgh. Anyhow, the muscles on his left calf have all been destroyed, which means he will have to learn how to keep his balance with his remaining muscles. The Dagongzhe centre was forced to close for a while after the attack, but now they've sprung back into action with fund-raising activities which you will see in the second half of the clip. Let's see how the mafia react to that.