Posts
What keeps them in Shenzhen? The men have jobs as construction workers, security guards, and taxi drivers, but the jobs are on and off. The stabilizing factor has been the women. Virtually every Wuwucun woman of full-time-employment age works on a factory assembly line, and the sneaker industry has been the village's biggest employer for years. In 2005, they made Reeboks. Now they make New Balance, at a massive Freetrend production facility a half-hour bicycle ride away. If you own a pair of made-in-China New Balance shoes, there's a good chance they came from the factory where the Wuwucun women work.
The opportunities in Shenzhen, created by China's economic policies and American consumer appetites, have mostly been good to these workers. But what next? With the Chinese Communist Party's recent unveiling of the 12th Five-Year Plan for the economy, there has been much talk about closing the rich-poor gap, building affordable homes, improving rural-to-urban transition, and converting mass producers into mass consumers. Then there is the question of the Chinese yuan and how quickly it will be allowed to appreciate against the U.S. dollar, making goods like those New Balance sneakers more expensive. All these macro issues affect the residents of Wuwucun on a micro level, and this is a small glimpse into their lives today.
No comments:
Post a Comment