There is more to the series of suicides among Chinese factory workers than might at first be apparent, says Paul French, China editor
Chinese factories are back in the news following a rash of suicides at Hon Hai Precision Industry Corporation (also known as Foxconn). The deaths made headlines globally as Foxconn works for a range of well-known brands including Apple, HP and Nokia.
The suicides at Foxconn’s massive Shenzhen facility were generally supposed to be linked to working conditions and excessive overtime. Foxconn reacted to these criticisms quickly, announcing a 33% wage increase virtually across the board.
But still the wave of suicides continued. Many analysts closer to the situation in China disagree with the original analysis. Many ordinary Chinese have also been perplexed – suicide is not uncommon in China, though poisoning (for women) and hanging (for men) are the preferred methods. Jumping is rare, and people have concluded that something out of the ordinary has been going on at Foxconn.
China’s factories are staffed by young people, far from their home villages, living in dormitories and part of enormous workforces. In these virtual company cities – Foxconn’s Shenzhen workforce is 400,000-plus, the population of Manchester or Kansas City – the interpersonal and the emotional are equally as important as basic conditions.
The only western equivalent might be the stresses and strains many young people feel on leaving their small town for life at a big city university.
Leslie Chang, former Wall Street Journal China correspondent and author of the book Factory Girls, says: “The instinct from the outside, since we don’t know the people involved, is to blame the factory. But the individual’s story and circumstances matter most of all.”
Chang, who has spent a lot of time with migrant factory workers in southern China, adds: “Life in the factory universe is complicated. Young people who have never left home before must negotiate relationships with co-workers, roommates and bosses. They must learn how to talk to strangers, make friends, date, save or spend money and cope with the loneliness of being on their own in a strange city. From the cloistered worlds of school and the farming village, they find themselves in a climate of material and sexual freedom, cliques and rivalries, lecherous bosses, love triangles and extramarital affairs, unwanted pregnancies and abortions. They are often under pressure from parents back home who issue conflicting demands from afar. These factors create a stressful environment from which, for a handful of workers, suicide seems the only escape.”
Life changing
This social aspect of Chinese factory life has largely been ignored by many journalists and commentators outside China. They believe episodes such as that at Foxconn to be solely about factory conditions and are then perplexed when, after wage rises and improved conditions, the suicides continue.
Less than ideal working conditions rarely come as a surprise to young people entering a life of migrant work. What is a shock is the life away from the villages and small communities, which are all they have known up until they arrive at a place like Foxconn.
Some of the suicides appear to be related to intensely personal issues such as failed love affairs or betrayal by supposed friends. One worker, Li Hai, left a note to his family after taking his own life saying simply that he had “lost confidence in his future”.
Certainly many factory workers are lonely and isolated. Chang recalls a woman she knew who had undergone a series of abortions without being able to confide in a single friend. “The shame of personal failure, coupled with fear of gossip, keeps them from sharing their burdens with other people,” she says.
In the wake of the tragic events at Foxconn simply raising wages hasn’t solved anything. Recruitment for Foxconn is all about going out across China looking for evermore young people to assemble iPods, laptops and mobile phones.
Perhaps Foxconn needs something more akin to a student services office – a place young and confused workers can go when the stresses and strains of their lives in new cities become too much.
Chang sums up the strain of migrant worker life in China, saying: “It’s the small lies and trivial corruptions; it’s the fleeting relationships and crushing loneliness. It’s the fear that in a factory of 70,000, or a city of 10 million, you could just disappear and no one would notice. Those are the things that eat away at the soul.”
Based in China for more than 20 years, Paul French is a partner in the research publisher Access Asia.