This post documents the life of AfterBurner, including thoughts, the job search process, labor records, etc.
(I couldn’t think of a more suitable picture, so I just found a landscape image without privacy information to use as the cover.)
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These past two days, just before graduation, I was suddenly told that I had to go through the procedure of transferring my group membership (pseudo Communist Youth League membership), which took up an extra day of my time. That’s when I remembered I still had this thing.
I joined the pseudo Communist Youth League five years ago. At that time, my family told me that this thing would make it easier to “join the Party,” and after “joining the Party,” it would be easier to get a good position in places like school. They even told me that if I didn’t want to write the application myself (referring to wasting time on academic work), they could copy one from the internet for me — so I still copied one myself, after all, having my parents write it for me was a bit too ridiculous.
Later, during my undergraduate years, my family urged me again to “join the Party.” At that time, I hadn’t been involved in forums yet, and I didn’t want to pursue the title of “Party member” just for personal gain, so I procrastinated and refused. But every time I went home, my parents would urge me again. Two years later, they finally got tired and said, “It’s easy to join the Party at your school, but at our school (where they work), the counselors have to pay more than twenty thousand yuan, and there’s no guarantee of getting a spot! This is the last time I’m telling you, you decide for yourself!” Let’s not talk about this anymore.
In the end, I didn’t join. Luckily, I didn’t mess up back then, or else I would have had trouble.
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Your parents are really good at scheming.
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It’s too outrageous. Those who join the Chinese Communist Party in our area are all fanatic opportunists who are well-versed in bourgeois social tricks, constantly circling around the counselor, begging for a bone like a tail-wagging dog. Seeing these people desperately trying to opportunistically join the party now makes me sick. The counselor even asks others to cooperate in voting, which is the most disgusting part—it’s already been pre-decided.
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He makes outrageous statements; you should insist on rebutting them and not just ignore them.
This calculation can’t be done, right? We also need to consider circulation costs, average profits, and so on.
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The very small amount of data obtained here indeed cannot be calculated accurately, perhaps only a rough estimate can be made.
[Labor Diary 02] Well, actually it’s a three-day diary.
After solving some life problems, the feeling of labor intensity became acceptable. The first wave of mental fatigue has passed.
The biggest life issue in this electronic factory is drinking water. The afternoon work duration is 6 hours, and not drinking water during this time is harmful. However, drinking water in the dust-free workshop requires a report to leave the production line, go outside, and then to the water room, which is very troublesome. I do packing work outside the workshop (packing express deliveries at the electronics factory). There is a water dispenser in the corner of the packing and transportation workshop, but it’s obviously not meant for workers, because entering the packing workshop requires wearing dust-proof suits and passing security (no water cups allowed here), then passing through the dust-free workshop, and then entering the packing workshop to take off the dust-proof suits—meaning workers in the packing workshop are in a state of having water but no cups. I am someone who sweats a lot and finds it hard to endure not drinking water, so I bought a 250ml mineral water bottle, drank it empty, squeezed it flat, and hid it in my pocket. After passing security, I quickly took it out (prepared for the workshop leaders) to the water dispenser. After success, I even taught this method to a new worker who came with me. Now, workers on three packing lines in the workshop have learned it (although when tasks are many, there’s still no time to drink), and the team leaders and supervisors are too lazy to manage. However, this method doesn’t work for workers inside the dust-free workshop, and I haven’t had a chance to talk to them yet. I need to think of other ways.
On the other hand, I found another reason for the high work intensity: there are work saboteurs! The packing workshop workflow involves three people: one takes products off the assembly line and sorts them, another scans and registers (like a cashier), and the last packs. The scanning is a task that can be done sitting down, and the saboteur is responsible for this. He is very fast, but he pursues workload as if scoring points. Yesterday, he even stretched his neck over the line and shouted “Hurry up! I have no work!”. Of course, the line didn’t speed up because of this, but he went to get products from another line to scan, and within the last hour, he handled 980 items (49 boxes). Today, I swapped to an adjacent line, asked colleagues about that saboteur, and everyone disliked that selfish bastard. But besides slacking off, I can’t think of other ways for now.
Meanwhile, to fully utilize labor, the team leader also wants me to switch to logistics work. Logistics involves supplying raw materials (empty boxes, tape, etc.) for packing, and then pulling away finished products. But I don’t have safety shoes that fit my foot size, so that plan was abandoned. In the morning, I was assigned to load empty boxes, and I learned the total workload for the day: three lines handled a total of 680 boxes, roughly 660 were actually used. Each box contains 20 products, and each line needs to produce about 4400 products per day. The average hourly wage for regular workers is mostly 20 yuan, and the retail price of a single product on online platforms is 180 yuan. Now, just knowing the number of workers on the line can estimate the level of exploitation. (In fact, it should be calculated how many people are on the line, then derive the social necessary labor time to produce these goods, and compare it with the total wages to get a more accurate measure.)
Currently, I talk more with a worker who started the same day as me (hereafter called Z), but our effective chatting time per day is limited, mainly during the 20-minute walk back to the dorm after work. Z used to work on construction sites and came to the factory as a transition. He is older than me, and he mostly talks about his experiences (joining the middle repair party requires at least fifty thousand yuan to open the door, and if you commit a crime, you can use a fake party membership to cover it). He is quite aware of the mafia-like nature of the middle repair party, so it’s not really a rant. But I haven’t yet succeeded in steering the conversation from complaints to political economy and Marxism, I need to prepare some notes.
There’s also another worker, A, who is two years younger than me and has a college diploma. A started at the factory a day after me, and I got to know him because I helped him solve the water drinking issue. We haven’t talked much since we just met and didn’t see each other after work, so I need to communicate more with him in the future.
I have consciously started talking to people, making progress in social skills, but I still haven’t achieved targeted propaganda.
On a personal level, I am beginning to adapt to the labor life, so my mental state has improved. Since the June wages were issued in mid-July, the first half of July’s wages will be deducted. When that happens, I plan to take more leave, go out, and look for the next job.
Additionally, the team leader wants to transfer me from packing to logistics (loading empty boxes, bags, tape, etc., and then shipping the finished products). The previous logistics worker was a young worker, C, who told me he had been doing logistics alone for a month and was very tired (responsible for logistics of three lines alone!). Two people working together would be better. He also said he has been doing it for four months, and his hourly wage from 28 yuan dropped to 26, then to 20 yuan, indicating that wages for general workers are closely related to the student graduation season.
In the past two days, I’ve been assigned in the mornings to help him fold boxes (stack nine empty boxes into a pile, about 680 per two hours), and I understand he is very tired, so I didn’t refuse. Tonight’s shift schedule shows I’ve already switched from packing to logistics, so I’ll see how the entire system operates.
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Follow-up conversation with logistics worker C:
The ten minutes of idling downstairs in the warehouse every morning is a small venting session. C has complained about the factory being overmanaged, working hard for little pay, and wanting to switch to delivery jobs for more freedom; he also complained that when he sits down upstairs during his free time, the boss immediately criticizes him (dialect, indicating reproach), saying he “has no work in his eyes”; he also complained that the team leader with the red hat always asks him to help the packing workers, but rarely asks the latter to help him.
(The packing workers include A and Z. Unless the red-hat team leader calls them to help, they won’t come. I have worked in both packing and logistics. The main reason A and Z don’t help is that they don’t know much about logistics work or what logistics entails. They simply don’t understand how the production line operates. Also, like me, they are hourly workers and are reluctant to do extra work.)
When C was complaining about the difficulty of resigning, he whispered that when this country was first established, it wasn’t like this, back then workers and peasants really held power. Unlike now.
I was surprised and quickly chimed in, “Now it’s a capitalist society, we’re all in an employment relationship!”
Unfortunately, he didn’t respond (was my logic incoherent? Or was he cautious because others were in the warehouse?), and he returned to the topic of resignation, saying “If it really doesn’t work out, just go to the no-smoking area, light a cigarette, and resign on the spot…”
I plan to continue talking with him, but not too hastily. We should first work together, chat more, and become friends.
Regarding the conflict between logistics and packing workers, I think I shouldn’t ignore it. This conflict stems from the boss holding the wages of formal workers, allowing him to assign more tasks and exploit them. I should find an opportunity to talk to C and suggest he confront the “dog” with the red hat (because without C, the red-hat boss would have to do logistics errands himself, and I don’t understand how the production line and warehouse operate).
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[Labor Diary] 06-27, 06-28
On the 27th, I covered a shift for a packing worker on leave, working at the end of the assembly line for a day. During this time, I met another new worker, who was also an intern student. He told me that the factory has now tricked interns into doing eye-straining work checking screens!
This factory has started using onboarding training as an excuse (contracts signed in the morning, training in the afternoon), and without hesitation, they first send students to work half a day “lighting the lamps”! They take advantage of students’ reluctance to refuse on the spot, making them work half a day, then consider it a probation period within a week, with no wages if they leave, turning students into half-day free labor when they run away at night!
Extremely shameless!
However, that student worker looked like a typical petit-bourgeois rightist. Every time new workers come to help, I speed up my work and then take them to the water cooler (to avoid the supervisor’s sight) to chat.
That student told me he wanted to run away, taking “Xiaomei” (a female colleague) with him.
I told him not to think about her, and asked what about the guy assigned to “lighting the lamps”? He said it’s okay, that guy works the night shift and would leave in the middle of the night when he can’t stand it.
I was speechless.
Then he said he had joined the middle-class party at school and wanted to come to this factory as an assistant engineer (he was tricked into doing manual work), to add some gloss to his resume. He also said that the engineers in this factory look down on workers (he just arrived, doesn’t know how to operate machines, and the engineers tell him, “If you can do it, do it; if not, get out,” “I make 4,500 yuan a day here”), but on his individualist stance, he said, “I wish I could learn their skills.” He didn’t say it outright, but from his expression, I could tell he definitely looked down on workers.
I was utterly speechless and left in dismay.
–06-27–
In recent days, I’ve seen some suitcases in the luggage storage area in front of the factory administration building, indicating that this sweatshop is constantly losing workers and recruiting new ones, maintaining a high “metabolism” of staff. This is good news. I plan to tell interviewees about the “lighting” scheme. There’s a twenty-minute window before the day shift starts, which I will use to chat with candidates. I decided to talk to them every day before the night shift begins.
Today was the first day, but unfortunately, all the visitors were regular workers waiting in line in the corridor for interviews. I approached them, told them about the intern being tricked, but got only awkward responses like nodding. I only talked to two people. They told me their work details had already been agreed upon, so I felt there was nothing more to say, and I left quickly. Meanwhile, in the next room, other regular workers (already employed) were doing routine health checks, including the recruitment staff. I was again weak and afraid someone might hear me curse the factory’s shamelessness, so I ran out as soon as the administrative staff finished their check and left.
In the evening after work, I had dinner outside with young worker A. He graduated a year ago, two years older than me. But he told me he already has a child! I was surprised and asked further. A found his girlfriend at school, who is three years younger than him (so she’s not graduated yet!). During his internship before graduation, they had a relationship, resulting in an abortion first, then a child. He said he spent 300,000 yuan (including gifts and wedding expenses) to get married, and now owes 4,000 yuan on credit. He came to work here to earn for baby formula. His partner and child live in a rented house, and he is working alone out of province.
I felt annoyed by his reckless behavior, but I weakly thought, “The deed is done, what can I do? Besides, it’s their private matter,” and didn’t directly criticize him, only saying some trivial things like “Your wife is also working hard, you shouldn’t neglect her.” This doesn’t help improve women’s situation, but I felt helpless. Directly criticizing A might not be heard, and I was afraid he’d think I’m nosy or overbearing…
A has been in several factories, mostly at Foxconn. He thought there couldn’t be a worse electronics factory than Foxconn, but now he’s seen more. He didn’t mention the middleman issue anymore, because he thinks his income this month is enough to pay off debts (his wage is 26 yuan/hour before August, then 15 yuan; I earn 20 yuan/hour), and plans to leave after getting his paycheck on the 15th. Today, his fellow villager also ran away without claiming his money, reducing the number of workers with conflicts with the middleman. Since I’m with a different middleman, it’s hard for me to help. I feel a bit lost.
–Finally, about myself–
Before working, I looked down on bourgeois ideas and fascist male chauvinism, thinking, “It’s just that, and the ‘Dawn’ magazine criticizes it well!” But after truly interacting with workers with old ideas, I felt that bourgeois ideology is a wall of unknown thickness. I can’t find a weak spot to start from, and I worry that direct struggle might not be understood. But this wall must be torn down. I need to think of ways, talk more, and look for opportunities.
Also, I must overcome my weakness. I should try to analyze the internal contradictions among various parties (for example, the regular workers who have been working long-term probably realize how shameless this factory is). I need to estimate the situation.
Tomorrow morning, I will go again to the interview site to promote.
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[Labor Diary 08-21] Restaurant Kitchen Trial Work
The previous job shifted to night shifts, workers were too tired to talk, and there wasn’t much worth mentioning. A’s intermediary was in another province, cheating him with a “difference compensation” at an hourly wage of 26 yuan, but the contract signed was only 15 yuan. In the end, he received the salary based on 15 yuan and hurriedly returned to his hometown in another province to find his wife and children.
The factory entered the off-season, with production tasks reduced to two-thirds of the original, and C changed his mind and decided to work until the New Year. Z had already told the intermediary that he would only work for twenty days, and when the time was up, he took the money and left.
I worked until the next payday, first received half a month’s wages, then looked up the Labor Contract Law and the Interim Provisions on Wage Payment, took notes on relevant articles, and went to find the intermediary to terminate the labor contract. Previously, the intermediary lied to me that I should go to the team leader to handle resignation, but of course, the team leader wouldn’t do it. After all, the labor contract was signed with the intermediary company, so I told him directly that I had fulfilled my obligation to notify the team leader and the intermediary in advance, and we were terminating the contract and settling wages.
Seeing that I wouldn’t be fooled, the intermediary told me it could be processed, and the remaining wages would be paid next month. I asked for a written promise of payment and took a photo, but after obtaining the promise, I became weak and didn’t want to continue fighting.
Later, I was wandering in the commercial district, saw recruitment information at a shop entrance, and directly added the store manager’s WeChat, finding a job in a restaurant kitchen. These past two days, my main work has been washing dishes and vegetables. The trial work has not yet signed a labor contract.
The working environment here is much more relaxed than in an electronics factory. Surprisingly, the female store manager has a very good relationship with the workers, and I didn’t see her directly controlling or oppressing them; instead, she would even bring drinks from the shop for the workers. The female team leader, who is subordinate to the store manager, only maintains a superficial harmony with the workers—privately, they call her “Silly Egg.” She always assigns tasks to others, especially during busy meal times and before closing, and she often divides her own work among the workers. The latter tend to assign tasks under the guise of “teaching,” and once you learn the task, it’s yours.
The workers told me privately, “If ‘Silly Egg’ arranges work for you, just ignore her; only what the store manager asks you to do counts. When the team leader asks you to do other tasks, just pretend you didn’t hear; we’re ‘united outwardly!’”
On the first day of trial work, I replaced a summer worker’s position; that day was his last shift before leaving. He enthusiastically taught me how to do things, in detail—don’t rush to send the utensils in the kitchen after washing, or they will not save resources but instead add burdens; when arriving for work, just fill the washing basin to 2/3 with water because the water from the leaking tap will be enough by noon; the rinse basin’s plug isn’t tight, so I need to put on a disposable glove over the plug to seal the gap; every day at work, I need to rotate a storage rack 15°, or it will block the door of the sterilizer… There are various details in the work that require thinking.
Every afternoon when there are no customers, I can rest for about an hour and a half. The workers use kitchen utensils to make a bowl of claypot rice as their meal, while the team leader and store manager say they are “tired of eating the same,” and will go to other restaurants or order takeout. Since the store manager doesn’t manage closely, at the end of the shift, they can take away near-expiry or opened packaged foods (like pre-made pumpkin soup, juice, etc.) as a kind of dinner.
My shift coincided with their stock delivery, and apart from rice, everything was packaged food. The only non-prepared item in this kitchen is rice cooked in a rice cooker, with a microwave available.
This restaurant’s signature dish is claypot rice. It always leaves a layer of crispy rice at the bottom, which is hard to wash. But customers love it, sometimes even requesting more crispy rice. However, none of the dishwashers like this—after using the bowls, they have to first scrape the rice crust with a spoon, then soak them in hot water, then scrub vigorously, and if it doesn’t come off, scrape again with a spoon to clean thoroughly before sending them to sterilization. This restaurant is very demanding on spoons—front desk staff told me that over two months, more than twenty metal spoons were lost, many bent or broken during washing.
Washing vegetables is also a troublesome task. On non-holiday days, a meal requires three to four jin (about 1.5 kg) of bok choy—not much, just one bunch per meal. The vegetable sink is a bit low, so I have to bend over to work. The most frustrating part is that I often see these vegetables again in the collected bowls. These vegetables are only for decoration (just a few leaves of bok choy, not enough for balanced nutrition). I hope that in the future, as people are liberated from capitalism, the waste caused by commodity circulation will be greatly reduced.
In a restaurant, customers are essentially exchanging equivalently with the owner—the bourgeoisie—while the service is provided by the proletariat. “We spend money, so you must serve us well”—this is a common idea among customers. However, the first half is addressed to capitalists, and the second half is directed at service workers. Customers often don’t see the relationship between capitalists and workers and use this to demand increased labor intensity from workers to satisfy them.
An hour before closing, workers start tidying up and think, “No more customers, no more takeout,” but orders still come in. On my first day, I saw a summer worker leave a basket of dirty dishes unwashed; he explained that during cleaning the night before, a group of customers suddenly arrived, so the dirty dishes had to be left for the next day. During my two days of work, there were also takeout orders in the evening. But due to the demands of bourgeois business discipline, workers must clean up before leaving, and cannot refuse customers arriving before shift end—they can only work on two fronts.
For the high-intensity work brought by weekend customer flow, workers are even more terrified.
The material enjoyment of the bourgeois and petty bourgeois customers actually makes them accomplices in the oppression of service workers by the bourgeoisie.
I am not yet familiar with the workers in the store, and I need to learn more about them.
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[Labor N Diary]
School started in September, and there are far fewer people coming to eat in the mall, so the labor intensity has finally decreased. The summer workers in the store have all left these days, leaving only me, the store manager, the team leader, a female worker temporarily helping from another branch, and another hourly worker. It is said that the hourly worker might not continue because of the few shifts.
This morning, the store manager excitedly told us that because last month was the summer vacation period with high work intensity, she applied to the company for extra bonuses, and everyone got some. The team leader was very happy and said, “It’s not for nothing; working is about making money.” I asked the store manager if the summer workers who left before received bonuses (the student worker told me before leaving that she had worked 25 days in a row, which shocked me). The store manager said they had already been given bonuses when they left. But when I asked how much the bonus was, it was only 100 yuan per person. Hearing this, I was a bit speechless. So the bourgeoisie plans to buy off the entire store staff with 500 yuan? That’s a bit stingy.
In the afternoon, the store manager suddenly said she was “called by the leadership to have a meal,” and dumped the work on the team leader who was supposed to have half a day off. Fortunately, there weren’t too many customers or delivery orders at night, so I had some time to chat with her. I asked why the leadership wanted to treat the store manager to a meal. She said she wasn’t sure, but this kind of thing happens once or twice a month on average, and all the store managers from various branches go. She recalled the 100-yuan extra bonus and was still happy, saying she finally didn’t work for nothing—“No wonder other workers like to call her ‘idiot’,” this thought suddenly popped into my head.
The work intensity during the summer vacation was probably more than 1.5 times the usual (daily turnover during summer was 6k-8k yuan, while after school started it was only 3k-4k yuan). They worked for a whole month but were only given less than one day’s wage as a reward. What an expensive “incentive”! I told her that she put in one and a half times the labor for that 100 yuan, but she told me, “Effort always pays off; if you work hard, you can get promoted later.” Later, when we took out the trash in the freight elevator, I told her the company was stingy, and even when the store manager applied, they only gave this little. She made a “shush” gesture with her finger. Maybe this is an unconscious scab mentality?
These days, when I clean up customers’ leftover bowls, dishes, and trash, I separately collect drink bottles and cardboard, then give them to the cleaning lady on our floor at night. After three consecutive days, the cleaning lady and I have gotten to know each other, though we haven’t exchanged much yet (after all, I spend most of my time in the back kitchen). The amount collected each day is not much; after crushing the bottles by hand and putting them into a 25kg-sized rice bag, it can fill about two-thirds. It’s not much, but the cleaning lady is very happy when I give it to her—I don’t know her salary yet, but I guess it might be very low, as jqr said, because older workers face heavier oppression, leading to lower wages.
The hourly worker is also an older female worker. After seeing me give bottles to the cleaning lady, she told me that when she worked at another branch, she saw dishwashing workers collecting bottles to sell and could earn from several dozen to over a hundred yuan a month. When there are many customers, there is more trash, but ironically, this side income is more than the reward given by the capitalists.
The store will continue to recruit people, so there will be more opportunities to interact with the service industry proletariat rather than student workers. In the future, I can also think about how to communicate more with the cleaning lady.
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[Labor Month Notes] This back-of-house work is quite boring, so I’ll summarize it here. This is a direct-operated small shop, managed by a “manager,” but everyone calls her the store manager. In reality, she is not the capitalist himself (of course, franchise stores are often managed by a capitalist who finds a worker traitor to be the store manager to control and pressure ordinary workers), and like many store managers, she is very familiar with long-term workers, engaging in a lot of vulgar socializing. The “team leader” who gets along well with the store manager is more complicated; he is both a worker aristocrat who relies on speculation to manage and oppress other workers, and also a woman heavily oppressed by her old family, forced to rely on speculation to pursue personal liberation. Most of the time, there are only four people in the shop: besides me, there is only a temporary worker or someone transferred from another chain store for support, usually a small supervisor. This makes interpersonal interactions very difficult, resulting in a situation of three worker aristocrats and one worker. Fewer people mean fewer conflicts, and being with a group of worker aristocrats makes it even more boring. During this month, a part-time worker came to the front desk. She is an older, experienced catering worker doing long-term part-time work. But on her first day, she had a falling out with the store manager. The reason was that during the evening peak, the front desk ordering machine crashed, the store manager was very anxious and scolded her, but the fault was not with the worker. I didn’t know what was happening in the back kitchen at that time. Later, when closing and cleaning at night, the temporary worker asked the store manager if anyone was free to do the job, and the store manager impatiently replied “yes, yes,” and then they argued again. Finally, the store manager asked, “Are you coming tomorrow or not,” and the temporary worker said, “Not coming, working isn’t to be scolded.” The store manager (very hypocritically) said, “Let’s part on good terms.” After closing, while waiting for clock-out time, the team leader came to mediate, saying to the temporary worker, “The store manager was just a bit anxious at the time, she’s usually very nice.” Basically, just speaking on behalf of the store manager. The store manager left early, and the team leader left shortly after. I finished work and came out of the back kitchen just in time to clock out. The team leader approached me for vulgar socializing; I responded a few words and then clocked out. I saw that the temporary worker looked unhappy; for workers, resisting the oppression of worker aristocrats is indeed stressful—financially risking losing their jobs, and facing many twisted reasons (like “you’re making too much trouble”) used to suppress them. I hadn’t spoken before, but I felt I should say something. I saw the team leader walk in one direction and the temporary worker in another, so I caught up with her and said, “Working isn’t for being scolded; if the store manager scolds you, just scold back. That’s how I used to work (telling her that sometimes workers in factories also scold worker aristocrats). The bosses and team leaders are not on the same class as us; they have power and are supposed to speak for the boss. We come to work and shouldn’t be scolded by them.” Maybe I spoke too hurriedly, and the older sister of the temporary worker didn’t directly respond to me. She looked a bit better, asked where I was from, where I live now, etc. After chatting a few casual topics, we parted ways at the intersection. Later, that temporary worker indeed didn’t come back. The situation with the team leader is more complicated. At first, I thought she was just a worker traitor, but her family situation is hellish; she relies on speculation to be a worker aristocrat, which has some elements of personal liberation. One day, a young female worker came to the front desk; she just graduated from school. That day, there were few orders, and in the evening, the team leader and the female worker started chatting casually. The team leader told her about her past: she started working at 17, her family didn’t give her any financial help, and she married early. The main reason was that she had a younger brother. When she was working before, her salary was only three or four thousand, but her brother would ask her for money to buy clothes worth over a thousand yuan. She didn’t say it directly, but it’s not hard to guess that her early marriage was probably her family exchanging her for a bride price to give to her brother. However, she seemed not to see this oppression clearly. She took out her phone and proudly showed us a photo of her brother’s scholarship certificate. For women under heavy oppression, speculation (whether for education or as a worker aristocrat) is a way to reduce oppression within capitalist society, different from those who pursue personal enjoyment or even oppress others through speculation. Then, talking about marriage and having children, the young female worker said, “Now online, they say if you want to have children, you should prepare a secret savings account, and your own mother shouldn’t be told,” meaning to avoid becoming a family woman without economic sovereignty, you need to save your own money. So, when talking about having children, both said they didn’t want to. I didn’t say much when I heard this in the back kitchen. Later, the team leader showed me the scholarship photo, and I said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t let your brother buy clothes worth over a thousand yuan.” But she just took it as a joke and continued to show the photo to the store manager. Hearing their conversation, I truly felt what life is like for women. Work is discriminated against, that’s not okay; marriage also involves oppression from patriarchal authority (keeping a secret savings account, not telling the husband, not even telling your parents!), which is also not okay. I am the eldest son and direct grandson with inheritance rights in my family, and I find it hard to imagine such a situation surrounded by oppression. In a society with private ownership, at least I can trust my family to keep my personal property. When I heard “not even your own mother should be told,” I realized that my political and economic status is completely different from that of ordinary working women.
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(The missing content has been edited and completed)
I used to live in a school dormitory, where there was a woman who was a corridor cleaner. She would get up at 5:40 a.m. to clean the boys’ dormitory, and she and her daughter would clean six floors alone. She wouldn’t finish work until 10 p.m. and go home, and after work, she was often abused by her husband at home. Her husband was frequently drunk, didn’t work, and lived off her, so she preferred to work late at school and wait until her husband was asleep before going home. Moreover, the students in the dormitory were uncooperative, saying that the aunt’s cleaning at 5 a.m. disturbed their rest, and she also had to take out trash, wash cardboard shells, and scrub toilets. Sometimes, when the boys’ dormitory was drunk and vomited everywhere, she still had to be careful to clean it. At first, I also looked at the aunt with some bias, thinking that people like her, who contact trash with their clothes, smell worse, and from an intellectual perspective, I didn’t want to get close to her. Later, I learned about their experiences and the boss—who was connected to the school administration—blaming the aunt for working slowly and then ‘helping’ him with work. After that, I started to understand them every night. From what they said, our school was originally farmland, and after demolition, they received a large sum of money and resettlement housing. Later, all of it was transferred away through the daughter’s dowry and bride price. In Qinhuangdao, the bride price is at least 160,000 yuan, and in poor counties, it can be as high as 280,000 yuan. But their lives did not improve. The boss, who earned a million a year, also said that cleaners didn’t need to work hard, claiming they were migrants experiencing life.
It turned out they were temporary workers, unlike the administrative staff of the school who had bourgeois positions (it takes a week to process student registration and reissue student IDs because teachers are on business trips). The administrative staff are permanent employees, work less but earn more, with a six-hour workday and double weekends earning around 15,000 yuan, while temporary workers (such as dormitory managers, security guards, cleaners, and cafeteria dishwashers) only earn about 2,200 yuan a month. This shows how severe the exploitation is.
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Hello Erxinji, how come you’re back?
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I learned about this website through the Bil Plant vs. Zombies of Brown Bear. I strongly disagree with his criticism of Plants vs. Zombies, so I visited the association’s website.
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Hello Erxinji, looking forward to seeing your self-introduction
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