【英语中国】“中国梦”的阴暗面

“They were 16 years old, on the loose in one of China's most chaotic boomtowns, raising themselves with no adults in sight . . . They missed their mothers. But they were also having the time of their lives.”

Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang

Not everybody is having the time of their life. This week, a 19-year-old worker at the Foxconn electronics plant near the sprawling factory city of Shenzhen in southern China became the fourth employee in two weeks, and the ninth this year, to leap to his death. Two more failed in the attempt. The spate of suicides, coupled with an undercover investigation into conditions at the Foxconn plant by Southern Weekly, a Guangzhou-based newspaper, has shone a spotlight into the darker crevices of China's factory system. Last week, nine professors of social science wrote an open letter to Foxconn in which they questioned the very sustainability of China's role as the workshop of the world.

Few people have heard of Foxconn, in spite of the fact that the Taiwanese company employs an army of 300,000 workers at the Longhua plant where the suicides occurred. But most have heard of Apple's iPad, just one of dozens of electronic devices churned out by Foxconn staff. They also know about Sony, Dell and Nokia, some of the companies whose game consoles, digital cameras, mobile phones and computers are assembled by the company under contract. Foxconn workers – who earn roughly $75 for a 60-hour week – are well acquainted with these brands, though few, if any, can afford them.

The Southern Weekly sent a 22-year-old reporter undercover to work at the Foxconn plant just north of Shenzhen, the city conjured into life by Deng Xiaoping, whose 1992 southern tour declared China open for international business. In addition to the factory floors, where many employees – wearing identical white coats and white caps – sit or stand at their workstations for 12-hour shifts, the city-sized complex has dormitories, shops, restaurants and even its own fire brigade. Now it has a suicide hotline. Southern Weekly's reporter found staff dulled by the monotony of repetitive tasks, even walking and eating to the rhythm of the rumbling machines.

Factory Girls, Leslie Chang's brilliantly reported book about female migrants, also makes grim reading at times. Many factories treat their employees as fodder, refusing to employ people because they are too short, too ugly, too old – 30 is over-the-hill – or simply come from the “wrong” province. They rush through orders, even if that means workers are not properly trained on machines that can – and sometimes do – slice off a finger. They demand employees work long hours, though most are only too happy to do so because of the overtime pay they receive. They often keep back a month of pay, lest their workers find a boyfriend, or a better job, in another factory.

But that is not the entire story. Some 200m migrants have left the countryside in search of a better life. They cannot all be deluded. In the specific case of Foxconn, it is true that the recent spate of suicides marks a sharp rise from last year. But given the plant employs 300,000 – and assuming reported numbers are accurate – suicide rates are significantly lower than outside the factory. China has a particularly high suicide rate for women.

More generally, average wages have been outstripping inflation for years and working conditions have been improving. In 2008, southern Guangdong province, of which Shenzhen is a special zone, began a campaign to weed out shoddier plants, forcing the closure of half its toy factories. (Many moved inland to poorer provinces.) In March, Guangdong became the latest to raise the minimum wage, by 20 per cent. In theory, though probably not in practice, that could alleviate the pressure to work endless overtime.

Labour activists would argue, with some justification, that these are incremental improvements from a Dickensian base. But one side of the migrant experience that emerges very strongly from Ms Chang's book is a sense of prevailing optimism in the possibility of upward mobility. Recent waves of migrants have grander ambitions than those who came before them. Many flit from job to job, continually searching for something better, or putting their savings into property and start-up ventures (or pyramid schemes).

To be sure, that sense of possibility is double-edged. Migrants often get cut by reality. Internet chat also suggests there is growing anger at the perception that much personal wealth is the fruit of corruption, not hard work. Nevertheless, research suggests that a belief in the Chinese dream of upward mobility is still alive. In Myth of the Social Volcano, a book based on extensive polling, Martin King Whyte, professor of sociology at Harvard University, found “an optimistic expectation that the rising tide of economic development is lifting all boats”. Chinese people showed a faith in their ability to improve their own lives often surpassing respondents in capitalist countries, including the US. That sense of possibility – still generously lubricated with double-digit growth – suggests factories will retain their allure for some time yet.

“她们年方十六，在中国最混乱的繁荣城镇之一四处游荡，自食其力，身边没有一个成年人……她们想妈妈，但同时她们过得很快活。”

——《打工妹》(Factory Girls)，张彤禾(Leslie T.Chang)著

不是人人都过得很快活。本周，在富士康(Foxconn)位于深圳郊区的电子厂，一名19岁工人跳楼自杀。这是该工厂两周来第4名、今年第9名跳楼自杀的工人。另外还有两名工人自杀未遂(编者注：截止本周三，深圳富士康制造园区员工跳楼自杀事件已达12起)。深圳是中国南方一个工厂遍地的城市。接二连三的自杀事件，加上广州《南方周末》记者对富士康工厂环境的卧底调查，让人们看到了中国工厂体系中比较阴暗的裂缝。上周，九位社会学教授在致富士康的公开信中，对中国作为“世界工厂”这一角色的可持续性提出了质疑。

听说过富士康的人不多，尽管这家台湾企业在龙华工厂——也就是众多自杀事件的发生地——的雇员有30万人之众。但多数人都听说过苹果公司(Apple)的iPad，这只是富士康工人大量生产的多种电子设备中的一种。大家也都知道索尼(Sony)、戴尔(Dell)和诺基亚(Nokia)等公司，富士康为它们代工生产游戏机、数码相机、手机和电脑。富士康工人一周工作60个小时，可挣得大约75美元。他们对这些品牌自然熟悉得很，但他们几乎没有人买得起这些产品。

《南方周末》曾派一名22岁的记者到富士康在深圳以北的这家工厂工作，以进行卧底调查。1992年邓小平南巡，宣告中国将扩大对外开放，给深圳这个城市注入了活力。在富士康的厂房里，身着统一的白色工服、戴着蓝色工帽的工人在岗位上或坐或站，干着每班12小时的工作。在这个规模可媲美城市的工厂里，除了厂房以外，还有宿舍、商店、饭馆等设施，甚至有自己的消防队。如今工厂里开通了一条自杀救助热线。《南方周末》记者发现，单调反复的工作，让工人们变得迟钝，他们甚至按照机器轰鸣的“节奏”吃饭和行走。

张彤禾精彩记述外来女工生活的《打工妹》一书，也时而暴露阴暗的细节。很多工厂把工人当作炮灰一样对待。他们拒绝招收个子太矮、长得太丑、年纪太大——30岁就已是高龄——甚至只是来自省份“不对”的工人。他们让工人们赶订单，即使这意味着，工人们没有得到恰当的培训，就得开始操作可能切掉他们手指头（这样的事时有发生）的机器。他们要求工人们长时间工作，而多数工人也因有加班工资而愿意这么干。他们往往会扣留一个月工资，以防女工们交到男朋友，或在别的工厂找到更好的工作。

但这只是一个侧面。中国大约有2亿农民工离开农村，到城市寻找生活出路。他们不可能全部被迷惑。具体在富士康这件事上，近期自杀事件的确明显多于去年。但考虑到该工厂总共有30万名工人——并假设媒体报道的数字属实——其自杀率其实远低于整个社会的自杀率。中国女性自杀率尤其高。

更普遍地说，平均工资增速多年来一直超过通胀水平，工作条件持续改善。2008年，中国南方的广东省（深圳是该省的一个经济特区）开展了打击山寨工厂的运动，迫使该省一半的玩具厂关门（许多工厂转移到了内地更贫穷的省份）。今年3月，广东省成为最新一个提高最低工资标准的省份，升幅达20%。理论上（尽管实际上可能并非如此），这或许会缓解无休止加班的压力。

劳工维权人士将会辩称（这种观点不无道理），这些举措只是在狄更斯时代劳动条件的基础上作出了一些渐进改善。但张彤禾著作中强烈体现出的移民经历的另一面是，对于提升自己社会和经济地位能力这一可能性，人们普遍抱有乐观情绪。最近移民潮中的农民工比他们的前辈有着更高的抱负。许多人不断跳槽，不断寻找着更好的机会，或者把自己的储蓄投进房地产和初创企业（或传销活动）。

诚然，那种可能性的感觉是一把双刃剑。农民工经常受到现实的伤害。互联网聊天言论似乎也表明，随着人们认为很多个人财富是腐败（而非辛勤劳动）的结果，他们越来越感到愤怒。然而，研究发现，中国人仍然信奉向上流动的梦想。哈佛大学(Harvard University)社会学教授怀默霆(Martin King Whyte)在广泛民调基础上写成的《社会火山的神话》(Myth of the Social Volcano)一书中，发现“一个乐观的期望，即经济发展正造福于所有人”。调查显示，中国人对自己有能力提高生活水平的信心，经常超过资本主义国家（包括美国）的受访者。这种可能性的感觉——仍受到两位数经济增长的强劲推动——似乎表明，工厂仍将在相当长时期内保持吸引力。

译者/何黎