As the title suggests, a record of working at an auto parts factory. Previously, there was a lack of communication with the workers, only knowing to keep working silently, turning labor reform into exploitation upon entering the factory. I plan to record more situations of communication with the workers here, as well as conflicts with scab capitalists.
5/30 Factory Diary
Let me talk about the conversation I had with my master today. In the afternoon, I found an opportunity to chat with him. He was drinking water at the time, and I remembered that I hadn’t seen him take any traditional Chinese medicine today, so I took this chance to ask about his health. My master suffers from chronic pharyngitis and poor spleen and stomach health. The former causes him to have a lot of phlegm in his throat every day, and the latter previously caused him to be overweight at 160 jin (about 80 kg). When I heard 160 jin, I was very surprised—one because he is not tall, about 170 cm, and the other because I always saw him as a very lean person. At this point, he expressed great trust in the hospital he went to, even saying it “saved half his life.” I told him that sounded a bit exaggerated, but he insisted it wasn’t, because his previous poor spleen and stomach health caused the overweight and indigestion, which naturally affected his overall health. Still, I found it hard to understand. It is said that the hospital’s prescriptions work very well; his chronic pharyngitis was treated quite effectively. Even during the previous COVID-19 outbreak, he didn’t get vaccinated but only took medicine prescribed by this private hospital, and he improved within two days. Hearing this, I was very skeptical. Could a hospital under capitalism really be as miraculous as he said? Compared to other useless hospitals, this one might indeed have some advantages in quantity, but compared to hospitals in the socialist era, there is definitely a qualitative difference, and it’s a big gap. When I heard it was a private hospital, I asked if the cost was high. He said that with medical insurance, it’s actually okay; a week’s medicine costs only a few dozen yuan. The factory’s medical insurance is only for regular workers, and it costs a few dozen yuan per month. For someone like him with health issues, it’s quite cost-effective. He also mentioned that medical insurance doesn’t cost much, but social security is the bigger expense. Paying social security might not be worthwhile anymore. If you started paying ten years ago, it might be worth it, but now it seems unnecessary. It depends on the national situation—nowadays everyone is struggling, and whether those in power protect themselves or others is clear to everyone.
We also talked about his past life. During the pandemic, he basically stayed lying in his rented room, eating, drinking, sleeping, and playing games every day. Despite this, he still had an income source. He earned money by helping others level up in games, reportedly making over a thousand yuan a week. He said that even if he wasn’t lying at home, he could survive; he previously learned renovation from a master, and whenever that master had work, he would take him along. I had always thought my master was a very dull and introverted person, but today I found that as long as someone actively talks to him, he can open up. However, during our chat, I lacked sufficient Marxist theoretical knowledge, so the conversation was rather mundane. When he mentioned “marginal utility,” I couldn’t properly analyze the concept. Later, when we talked about games, it even turned into a game introduction session. Although it’s necessary to understand the game to critique it, at that time I just nodded silently without thinking about analysis or criticism, making it a mundane social interaction.
I also talked with Lao Wang today, but the conversation was not smooth. I saw a news report about petitioners being locked in black jails and abused, and I wanted to expose the darkness of the Chinese revisionist government with Lao Wang. Instead, he lectured me, saying, “I’ve been in Beijing for so many years and I know about these things, there are plenty of them. Don’t you understand the principle of officials protecting each other?” I was a bit angry when I heard this—partly because of my intellectual mindset, thinking only intellectuals like me know these things, and after Lao Wang’s lecture, I felt annoyed. Another reason was that Lao Wang showed no sympathy for the victims; he thought it was commonplace, saying, “If others bully you, don’t expect to report it; you’re just a victim.” This made me feel Lao Wang’s coldness and negativity. However, my intellectual mindset was indeed wrong, or you could say it was the mindset of leftist circles. If the other party knows about these issues, humbly learn from them (if their attitude is good); if they don’t, help them understand and expose the darkness of the Chinese revisionist government.
On my way home by bike, I was really hungry, so I bought a gluten stick and a starch sausage from a small stall near the subway station and chatted with the vendor for a while. I noticed there weren’t many people around and thought the urban management officers probably wouldn’t bother because there was only her stall. But her answer surprised me: “What a coincidence, maybe they’ll come soon.” Seeing her meager business and recalling the recent story Lao Wang told me about two vendors fighting and one dying, I felt that even small producers like this can barely survive now. The urban management officers come to crack down and fine them, with fines of 200 yuan, and sometimes even impound the food cart for a week. How can people who live off this survive? I cursed the urban management officers, calling them “dogs, giving people no way to live, just thinking about squeezing money from the people.” I asked the auntie if she works during the day. She said she has to do housework at home during the day and has no time to work outside. She only sets up the stall after work to earn some living expenses. Hearing this, I felt complicated. In capitalist society, most women are confined to housework and don’t see the wider world. Reflecting on my mindset while writing this, I felt guilty. I didn’t bring up women’s liberation because I was still obsessed with pornography and other base things, desperately wanting to treat women as sexual objects and imprison them as family slaves. If I continue to cling to the interests of pornography, I won’t be able to join the revolution and might even stand against it.
Small business owners’ competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Zhongxiu (middle repair) has never cared about these people’s lives and deaths, suppressing and oppressing them for heavy profits. And like the women mentioned here, they are entangled in tedious household chores and only engaged in small-scale production, so their thoughts are also restrained. Under the deception and manipulation of Zhongxiu, they spend their remaining lives in such a dark and sunless environment. This dark and ugly old society!
Come to the forum more often for exchanges, read more and think more about posts on women’s issues. It must be recognized that pornographic ideas are the fierce enemies of the broad women, and they are harmful thoughts that腐蚀 (corrode) oneself. We must persistently carry out ideological struggle.
That’s how it is, the economic crisis is becoming more serious, and small producers are also struggling to survive.
Speaking of this, I also remember that the female workers in my factory, during their free time, also weave insoles. I’m not quite sure if it’s to supplement family income or for their own use, but indeed, they not only have to undertake heavy factory labor but also bear heavy household chores. Proletarian women are the most oppressed.
I will.
5/31 Holiday Diary
Today I moved into the factory dormitory. When I entered, I said hello to my roommate. He probably didn’t hear me, so he stared at me for a while and then turned back to look at his phone. At that time, I thought he was someone very unwilling to communicate with others. I only thought, “This is terrible, this dormitory environment is hell.” After sitting by the bed feeling at a loss for a long time, I decided to start a conversation with him, but we only talked about trivial things to get to know his basic situation. His surname is Zheng, he is from Henan. He previously worked in an automotive company doing intelligent driving testing, but after the project ended, the company directly fired him. However, this position is hard to find elsewhere, so he chose to come to this auto parts factory to do machining. Since the second or third grade of elementary school, he was led by classmates to smoke together, and now he smokes a pack a day. He himself feels that “his lungs are probably completely blackened.” In middle school, he received a 1000 yuan scholarship, but because of skipping classes and fighting, he had to pay a deposit to the school. The 1000 yuan was basically taken back by the school and would never be returned. I thought the school was really stupid; the so-called scholarship was just a formality, and even the 1000 yuan had to be swallowed back. Moreover, the deposit system was outrageous. Why does the school collect deposits? Is this a detention center or a prison? Ridiculous. Zheng’s parents are both workers. Because the family needed to renovate, he had to hand over his monthly salary to his family, and his living expenses were given to him by his mother. I questioned why he didn’t keep his own earnings but had to give them to his family. He said, “My mom asks for it, I can’t just refuse.” I couldn’t think of a good reason to argue with him and ended up saying “Indeed,” speaking without thinking, falling into mundane social interaction, and not challenging his wrong ideas. But fundamentally, it was because I hadn’t completely cleared away my Confucian family values. In the evening, when we talked about marriage, he said their bride price was very high, over 200,000 yuan. Now the family had two houses from demolition compensation, so if he didn’t marry, they would be quite well off. But if he married, it would drain the family’s savings. I mentioned the bride price issue, saying that nowadays marriage is disgusting, with the bride’s parents treating their daughters as commodities to sell. I gave an example: I have an uncle who raised two daughters, now he doesn’t work and only takes care of the kids, even boasting about selling his daughters in the future. Zheng agreed, saying it was indeed disgusting. When his sister got married, the bride price from the other side was not taken by his mother but given back to the groom’s family. I was surprised and asked why. He said it was because the groom was from a single-parent family, and Zheng’s mother didn’t want her daughter to suffer in the groom’s family, so she returned the 88,000 yuan bride price. Compared to my uncle, Zheng’s mother’s action was much kinder. Zheng also said it was all his fault for not working hard in school. If he had gotten into university, he would be willing to marry. Now, working a job with no future, he doesn’t think about marriage. His family had even arranged blind dates for him seven times. At night, I went out to eat a pot chicken dish with Zheng. We spoke little during the meal; he called himself a “quiet gourd” (someone who keeps to themselves). I guessed he might have many dark thoughts inside or simply didn’t like to communicate. He said he had few friends and rarely chatted with them. I saw he spent most of his day scrolling Douyin and watching LOL streams. I really wanted to pull him out of this indulgence, but my own mental state wasn’t good, and I didn’t know how to advise him. Also, I chatted with Zheng about some political topics, but they were quite mundane and tasteless. One reason was that he wasn’t very interested in most topics, and the other was that I didn’t have deep knowledge myself. I felt I could read some history books later and explain the materialist view of history to him.
On the way moving dorms, I met some ride-hailing drivers, each with their own characteristics. Driver A was very irritable. When a Hongqi car stopped ahead and didn’t move, he furiously honked and cursed, “Damn Hongqi car owners are all idiots.” When Gaode Map (Amap) took him on a remote path, he also started cursing, “Damn, Gaode is a damn idiot.” I asked him about the Hongqi car comments, but he seemed not to understand what I said and didn’t answer. About Gaode Map, I mentioned it seemed to have been acquired by Jack Ma. Then he started cursing Jack Ma, “Jack Ma is a pure idiot, damn him.” When I tried to talk about Jack Ma, he seemed deaf to me, as if his mind was full of insults and unwilling to communicate, which was very strange. Driver B: I accidentally left my dorm key in his car. When I realized and called him, he had already taken another order and left. I hoped he could help and come back to me. I offered to pay his fare. At first, he was very reluctant, but after repeated requests, he agreed. When he arrived, I asked if going offline now would affect him. He said, “Of course it affects me; if I go offline, the platform won’t let me queue for orders.” I felt sorry for him. Although I paid him 20 yuan for the fare, it seemed his loss was more than 20 yuan because he couldn’t get orders. When I said I would pay 20 yuan, he agreed readily. I don’t know if it was too much or too little, but honestly, it felt like the former. Because for the same route, the platform might take a cut, so the amount he finally got was far less than 20 yuan. I felt that the impact on his orders shouldn’t be that serious.
I think it’s really necessary to chat more with him and make friends. Actually, you can also understand his and his family’s specific situation; from the looks of it, their relationship seems good, and his parents are both workers. If he’s not interested in political topics, you can start by caring about his life and finding related news.
6/1 Holiday Diary
After getting up in the morning, I took the bus to the hospital for a check-up. On the way, I read “A Draft History of Modern China.” Upon arriving at the hospital, I found that the department I needed was not available, so I had to take a taxi to another hospital. The ride-hailing car was a Neta (Nezha) car. After getting in, I took the initiative to start a conversation and asked the driver how long he had owned the car. He said it would be exactly two years in a few days. I sighed and said that the Neta company was about to go bankrupt. The driver expressed helplessness as well; most cars like his are privately purchased, and owners like him are greatly affected. If it were a private car, it would be understandable, but ride-hailing drivers drive a lot and their vehicles often need maintenance. Now that Neta is going bankrupt, not only can they no longer buy original parts needed for the car, but even aftermarket alternatives are unavailable because manufacturers know that the number of these cars on the market is small and not growing, so producing parts for this car is not profitable for them. I worried that one day this driver’s car might break down completely and be scrapped, even though it still looks brand new. In the fierce competition of the new energy vehicle industry, workers and these car owners are the biggest victims. Later, we talked about some real estate topics, such as how Evergrande and Greentown use schemes to gain benefits without investment… but my knowledge of political economy is poor, and I haven’t understood the specific logic of the real estate bubble, so I couldn’t explain the truth to the driver.
After the check-up, the doctor said a minor surgery was needed. Hearing about the surgery, I felt uneasy because if I needed to take leave, the factory might have objections since I am still in the probation period. When I asked about the cost, I was shocked: a small surgery would cost 6,000 yuan in total, and the hospital stay fee for one day was 3,000 yuan according to the appointment slip. I was quite confused, feeling it was not worth spending so much on such a minor illness. After returning to the dormitory, I called home and was told not to do the surgery for now. The hospital was just trying to complete their business and make money off me because I was young and naive. However, my family’s intentions were not pure either; they kept urging me to go home and visit the hospital with them, fearing I might be cheated. Actually, they just wanted me back under their control. I pretended to agree and said I would visit the hospital near home when I had time. My actual plan was to buy some topical medicine to apply for a while; if it could suppress the condition, that would be best. If not, I would visit several other hospitals to get more opinions.
I didn’t do much meaningful today, mostly just traveling. My mental state was not very good either. After rereading “A Draft History of Modern China” at night, I felt somewhat better. Tomorrow I start work again.
I’m also shocked, the healthcare system in Zhongxiu is really too decayed.
Haha, really, small illnesses don’t need treatment, and big illnesses don’t need treatment either. Once you enter the Chinese Medicine Hospital, it’s over.
Before Qingming Festival, I also had a preauricular fistula incision and drainage surgery. Simply put, it involves making an incision to drain the pus inside. The surgery, along with medication and hospitalization, cost about 4000 yuan. I stayed for about a week. The main issue was that some unnecessary examination fees were particularly expensive—blood tests, chest X-rays, even infectious disease screenings were required, all under the pretext of “eliminating interference with the surgery.” In reality, it was a legal way to make money, very shady.
When will the new self-introduction be posted? If there’s no update, are you just indulging in pleasure masturbation?