The Great Migration in China
February 3rd, 2008 by Vicki BakerIn his post on our obliviousness to incremental changes, Erich referenced the great migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the 20th century. It was one of those pivotal changes that went almost unnoticed at the time.
A few days before Erich’s post, I picked up Floris-Jan Van Luyn’s A Floating City of Peasants: The Great Migration in Contemporary China at my local bookstore. Synchronicity?
The book contains very moving profiles and photographs of a handful of the some 120 million peasants who have left rural villages to find work in China’s larger cities since the 1990’s. This is not a “story” that gets much coverage in our press, but it’s one of the most history-changing events of recent times, in my opinion.
I urge everyone to take a look at this book, and then contemplate how much of the daily stuff of our lives here in the US owes to these people and their hopes and sufferings. Our national debt is being financed by China, out of wealth created by these migrant workers living for the most part without basic human rights or protections.
China’s development is bound to have major environmental consequences as well. In 2005/6, there were explosive protests against pollution and environmental degradation in rural China. Since then, there has been little news, but whether this has because the movement has been repressed, or that the Chinese government has succeeded in banning the international press from protests, I don’t know.I don’t have any answers or solutions or big pronouncements about globalization or economic/environmental justice right now. I’d simply like to advocate for attention over oblivion to what’s going on in China. The 2008 Olympics will certainly deliver a huge dose of spectacle, not exactly what’s needed.
Finally, continuing the the theme of one of my recent posts, Van Luyn includes in the book a calligraphy fragment from Yan Jun, a poet/musician in the underground music scene in Beijing. The piece is called “Against All Organized Deception.” I can’t find out much more about Yan Jun and his music or poetry, but you have to love the title.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Vicki: You’ve described a situation that many Americans simply chuckle about– “Oh, those Chinese people make all of our stuff.” But you’ve piqued my interest. How are these workers treated? How many chemicals are the people being exposed to, thanks to those many factories cranking away? When I buy from China, shouldn’t I care about these issues?
Unless we know more about the global ramifications for our local decisions, we are flying blind. This is why I rail against those who put such unearned faith in the “free market.” http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=1844
I think that markets are, indeed, driven at the local level. But that’s not the entire story for those of us who give a damn. We need to investigate further to know what we are doing to whom when we grab ten packs of plastic toys to blithely hand out as party favors. And when we joyously upgrade to a bigger screen TV. We don’t really want to know these things, of course. It takes effort and how many of us have an hour or two to spare when the information we find out might convince us that buying those new THINGS is not all fun and games? That buying them drives a global engine that economically compels many workers across the world to earn a living doing things that we, ourselves, could never ever imagine doing. Not for that sort of wage and not in that working environment.
Or, sometimes, the situation might be something in which we can participate in good conscience. But isn’t it worth a bit of time to investigate?
Synchronicity? Yeah. And I’m going to read the book too. I’ve also got another incentive for knowing more about the working conditions of these workers–both of my daughters were born in China, which causes me to feel an additional tie to China.