| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (53 min. 37 sec.) ; 323970594 bytes |
| Summary |
This is a story of a sweatshop scandal told with the use of a hidden camera. China Blue makes a stronger case against worker exploitation than any news item could, simply by showing the everyday lives of some Mainland China factory girls. The "New Era" of economic progress in China has created a new generation of entrepreneurs like Mr. Lam, a former police chief turned owner of the blue jeans factory in southern burg Shaxi, "China's Famous Clothing Town." It's drawn an estimated 130 million workers from rural areas during its five years of operation. Most workers start as youths like 15-year-old Jasmine, who has never traveled before and didn't want to leave home. But she feels duty-bound to take advantage of the opportunity to send wages home, even if she'll now only be able to visit her family every couple of years or so. Entering at the bottom of the totem pole as an excess-thread cutter, Jasmine makes about 6c an hour, and is charged by the factory for room and board. She also has to work shifts that can stretch to 20 hours. Weeks pass before she gets a glimpse of the city - months before she gets her first paycheck, between the factories cash flow-strapped payroll delays (which at one point prompt a brief workers' strike) and the custom of withholding initial payout as insurance a worker won't jump ship. Mr. Lam's thinks himself a relaxed manager, proud of his operation and open about letting the filmmakers shoot as they will. But when deadlines approach and employees complain about endless hours or ever-postponed pay, his real attitudes leak out: They're "uneducated, low-caliber" types sans work ethics, lazy and devious. Of course, after a 20-hour shift with no paycheck in sight, what kind of employee can you expect? China Blue is charming, because its subjects are. Finding amusement in the few spare moments they can, sweet-natured Jasmine and her more citified zipper-installer friend Orchid (who's found time for a boyfriend) are disarmingly natural on camera. Their welfare becomes of real concern to the viewer as the exhaustion and ill-health wrought by brutal work stints grow apparent. The degree of access and intimacy this documentary entails is surprising; it is also revealed Chinese authorities did try to shut down the filmmakers several times. (From the US, in Mandarin, English subtitles) |
| Event |
Broadcast 2011-10-27 at 20:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Jeans (Clothing)
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Sweatshops.
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Women clothing workers -- Social condition.
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Women employees.
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Work environment.
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China.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Peled, Micha, director
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