Down-Size of the City and Laid-Off of Its Workers

[Chenyin Pan]

If Rodger & Me still can only brought the slightest compassion and concern from audiences in America, let alone an outsider like me from China, then Michael Moore did a great job in The Big One made in 1998 which really drove home many issues regarding corporations, capitalism and even city dynamics. "Save our jobs!" was only the outcry from some hill-billy Ozarks when Wall Street was bullish. Globalization was the buzzword at the time and who the hell care about how those rednecks doing in the middle of no where?

Strangely, not only good Americans lost their manufacturing jobs at the time, thousands and tens of thousands people lost their jobs as well in China. Well, in late 1990s government didn't call workers lost their jobs, they call them being "temporarily laid off"(job losing is a capitalism stuff, they said). I was only 5th grade at the elementary school in 1997, first I noticed my mom tend to goes to the leather shoes factory she has already been worked for over 15 years less frequently, then she completely stopped to go to work in 1998. The factory in the end only paid her roughly USD 3,000 ( in 1998 exchange rate was roughly 10-1) based on the longevity ( USD 200 per year times how long you have worked in the factory). She tried to start up some small businesses with ex-coworkers but all those business expeditions didn't last very long. So Chinese here can at least get themselves off hook cuz Americans didn't realy lost their job to us in 1990s.

I don't know how hard for those folks that used to work at assembly lines in Flint or other auto-cities. Out of sudden you lost your job and it's won't be back for good. One woman in The Big One said she worked two jobs for 6 days a week. She can only see her kids during the afternoons for a hour of something. I also don't know whether unions at the time helped the workers in the States or not. I'm thinking about another movie Norma Rae about the young guy from north and the local gal Norma Rae were succeeded in unionize the textile factory she worked at South Carolina back in 1960s. Well it might helped but not helpful enough to keep the jobs there.

Union here in China is really a fxxking joke! It is incompetent as well as insipid. When you think how effective and revolutionary it use to be back in 1920s for communism activists to organize workers to fight for their rights and even overthrown the "anti-revolutionary" government, currently this organization called "union" is nothing but a window dressing. Industries been deliberately concentrated to few regions in the coastal parts of China for the sake of "export-driven", low cost and cheap labor. While those farmers turned factory workers been greatly exploited, young smart-alecs, as I was, are still bragged and inspired to move to big cities and climb the ladder to be a middle class.

Then yet, where is this thing called "Union" in America? When manufacturing jobs has already been "outsourced" to emerging markets and even though there are blue collar jobs left in the States, well, wait a minute, don't those guys look Latino to you? Hola, mi amigo! Those guys are really good for the business, they are illegal, so you don't have to worry about Social Security for them. They are cheap and can accept cash only, you not gonna pay them more than you do to the local good old boys, right? And, they don't speak English, that's couldn't be more fantastic, less argument, less trouble.

Where the hell are those manufacturing jobs now? Americans blame themselves for giving those jobs to third world countries like China and China for seducing Americans by selling all those cheap junkies to Wal-Mart, Costco and Target. While in China, many people browbeat by this hypocritical saying while other patriotic ones feel the true indignation.

The skylight in downtown Manhattan has always been our stereotype to America: modern, blooming, cosmopolitan. That's really makes people hard to come across the notion of down-size that happened and is still happening. I asked more than once the question "How do you like Birmingham?" to young fellows that not from the area. "I think Birmingham is great, it is a big city." I just spoke to myself inaudibly "Man, you have no idea what you talking about."

China's cities lack the characteristics. Cities that in the middle part of the country that used to have all kinds of industries to keep the city self-sufficient are now no more than ticky-tacky boxes and tons of people. Young kids have been taught to go to big cities in the east for opportunities and that also precipitate the down-sizing: best of the local talent are away, for good.