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Chinese factory labour is a very different demographic to what the west had. A majority of Chinese factories workers come from China's 50% rural population wher
by shimon_e 14y ago
Chinese factory labour is a very different demographic to what the west had. A majority of Chinese factories workers come from China's 50% rural population where the children are raised by the grandparents in exchange for ~30% of the parents salaries. As in, the first generation raises the third generation in the villages, while the second works in the cities. Chinese life is very different to what most westerns are familiar with.
- mc32 14y agoAFAIK, the mentality of quite a few mainlanders is long-term. In other words, one generation is willing to put in the downpayment for the next or the one after that such that one generation is willing to put up with sacrifice if there is evidence for prosperity for the next. (This was exaggeratedly exemplified by Mao's "we don't care if we lose 300 million, our women will make it up in one generation".) For example, moms and dads riding rickety bikes to and fro work, etc. rather than buying a car on credit or taking hand-me-downs without second thoughts from relatives and so on and using the saved money instead to put their children thru school or pay for after school cram schools. Not to say that doesn't happen in North America, but here it's more exceptional than in China, as far as I could tell.
- azernik 14y agoMaybe now that's very different from what Westerners are familiar with, but during the West's Industrial Revolution the demographic story of factory labor was also about the rural-to-urban migration of that "second generation".