2025/1/8
Last night, I stayed at the youth hostel I booked, only falling asleep at two in the morning. When I woke up, it was already ten o’clock. After resting for a bit, I prepared to go to the factory to work at the scheduled time.
The journey was quite far, about forty kilometers from the youth hostel where I stayed. Calculating the cost using public transportation (subway + bus), it was about 12 yuan.
After bouncing around for about two or three hours, it was around noon when I arrived near the target factory.
Speaking of which, the location of the youth hostel I stayed at was roughly in the more developed part of this city, with many people. But after reaching the suburbs, I found that although there were still many tall buildings, the community infrastructure was not bad, but there were very few people. It was noon, but I couldn’t see more than ten people walking on the street at a glance.
Later, I planned to take the bus to the factory. When I was on the bus, the agreed time was 1:30 PM or 2:00 PM. But before 1:00, the agent hurriedly asked if I had arrived and urged me to go quickly, probably to confirm whether I could earn this labor fee.
At 1:17 PM, I arrived at the factory and found a group of people already gathered. Based on previous work experience, usually about a hundred people go in, and only about twenty are left at the end, which is considered good. This is also common knowledge: when visiting the factory, 50 people go in, work for a day, and only 25 come out; half leave after a week, and after a month, only a few remain.
I took a look at these people’s mental states and roughly categorized them into two types. One is students here for internships or pocket money, who look very uncomfortable, with features such as cold eyes, pale complexion, obese body, and a hairstyle I can’t quite describe—probably the classic hairstyle of men in bourgeois schools. They mostly discuss anime and games, all trash talk.
The other group is unemployed workers, which is a bit more complex. Some are small-bourgeois bankrupts. They seem to be in better mental condition than the students. I chatted with a few, and one used to be a Didi driver. I asked him how the industry was, and he roughly said it was not profitable, earning about 1.2 yuan per kilometer on average, and they had to pay platform fees, so they hardly earned a penny themselves.
Waiting for a while, it was already past 2 PM, exceeding the scheduled interview time. At this point, the agent finally appeared. The reason for waiting so long was to wait for those who were late for various reasons. This was not out of kindness, but because the more people they recruited, the longer these workers worked, and the more money the labor agency could siphon off.
After some fuss, around 2:20 PM, the agent started speaking, roughly telling us what questions the supervisors might ask and how to answer. In short, regardless of our actual situation, we should first fool the supervisors to get the job.
Finally, we entered the factory. Upon entering, without even touring the factory, some team leaders began selecting us. They asked if anyone had relevant industry experience or wanted to work in certain fields. They screened some people this way, then started giving speeches, which were full of insults to workers, saying workers must work hard, with no rest for thirty days, not allowed to go home during the New Year, and not accepting short-term workers. If you didn’t meet these conditions, they said this place didn’t need such people, and to leave early.
After enduring this so-called pig-headed supervisor’s scolding for over ten minutes, we finally visited the workshop. We handed over our phones because they said it was a trial production workshop and phones were not allowed to prevent leaks of company secrets.
The workshop environment didn’t seem special, with no resting areas for workers, only guard posts. The work was somewhat unique—related to automobile manufacturing, mainly welding car bodies. It was a bit complicated for me, but I had no choice now, so I thought I might as well work for a day. After the visit, we entered a long wait.
When leaving the factory, the agent suddenly approached me and asked if I would go home for the New Year. I said no, since my relationship with my family wasn’t good, and going back wouldn’t be meaningful. The agent thought for a moment and asked if I wanted to go to another factory 180 kilometers away, offering many conditions. They said I would only need to work for two weeks and could become a team leader afterward. I thought about it and told this stupid agent that his words sounded nice but were very sneaky in practice. He guaranteed a salary, but I doubted I could get it steadily. So I refused, and he started talking to other workers about these things.
After leaving the factory, we waited until around 3 or 4 PM before being assigned a dormitory. The dorm was outside the factory, in an apartment about a kilometer away. We were supposed to sign a contract today, but we didn’t. I decided to just go with it for now, as I had no better options. Each person paid a 200 yuan deposit and 25 yuan for water and electricity. Before earning any money, I had to spend money first—that’s the first layer of exploitation.
Later, the agent said a health check was needed, costing about 60 yuan, which would be reimbursed after the work period.
The dorm environment was decent, with four beds in a room, bunk beds, and a desk, quite spacious—better than university dorms in some ways. When dividing the dorms, someone asked if anyone was a non-smoker, and I joined that group. My three roommates were: one tall, about 1.8 meters, called Quan; another pale and thin, called Cheng; and the third, carrying a big bag and a guitar, seemed quite strange, called Tao.
Many people’s financial situations shocked me. My three roommates seemed to be in the same state—they had no money left, only a few dozen or a hundred yuan. It’s hard to imagine what they had gone through before.
Moreover, many had no daily necessities with them, so they had to buy some. There was a supermarket downstairs, but its prices were much higher than those on Meituan’s supermarket delivery. A set of bedding on Meituan costs only 35 yuan, but here it was 90. A plastic basin was over ten yuan, another layer of exploitation. I bought a set of bedding on Meituan.
In the evening, I watched some videos and didn’t do anything meaningful afterward. Since I didn’t have headphones and didn’t want others to hear my entertainment content, I reduced it significantly. I was quite tired that night, and I went to sleep around 8 or 9 PM.
So this is how the factory operates internally; I have always been engaged in mental labor, only when I was still a student did I work in a factory to earn some pocket money. I see the date is the 18th, which is very recent. Will the author continue to write work diary entries later? I really want to understand the current situation of frontline factories.
Speaking of the date, you looked at it wrong, it’s January 8th not January 18th (。 The diary will continue to be updated, and it’s been more than ten days since I started working after joining the company, so my situation at the factory has actually changed a bit. As for how long I will do this job, I don’t have a specific plan, maybe I will do one or two months and then switch to another factory. However, I think it is beneficial for others who haven’t worked in a factory and don’t understand the factory environment to write down my work experience, so even if I change jobs, I will continue to write.
Sorry, I misread. But I still hope the author can continue updating, it really helps a lot and is very meaningful. Keep it up!
A very good diary that allows everyone to see the true environment of the factory now, as well as the real experience and difficulties of working in the factory. It gives a merciless blow to those “Ronggong派” who only jump around online, rely on empty talk and fabricated lies to save face for themselves.
Speaking of this matter, the left circle is quite ridiculous. These people constantly talk about ‘integrated work,’ a term they’ve been using since I first came into contact with the left circle about five or six years ago. It sounds amusing, and I wonder what kind of life these young masters are living. The so-called ‘integrated work’ is nothing more than earning a living through one’s own labor. In their eyes, it’s an extremely special ritual, but in reality, it’s just one of the many ways Chinese laborers barely maintain a normal life. Probably because these left circle people have a special economic status, over the past five or six years, I haven’t seen many of them do actual work, nor have I heard of any decent work experiences. There’s nothing to talk about in terms of propaganda or revolution, which makes it even more laughable.
It’s like this. I also find it very strange. Every time I see various leftist groups, there are always people who seem to be worshiping, talking about how glorious and sacred Ronggong (Fusion Worker) is, which feels very eerie. I’ve never understood that Ronggong is just based on participating in hired labor, with the opportunity to carry out political propaganda among colleagues. It makes it seem as if going to work is some kind of special ceremony. Besides students and the bourgeoisie who stay at home every day living a good life, who in this society doesn’t work? If you don’t work, you’ll starve.
Only the leftist circle that is lazy and despises labor would think that working is something special. In reality, these people only stay at home parasitically enjoying themselves, while inhaling various spiritual opiates and shouting hollow slogans of so-called “Marxism.” If asked to engage in real labor and reform, and to unite workers, they would be completely unwilling.
That’s exactly right. Only those who do not work will treat labor as something special. Just like bureaucrats in the middle ages showing off by planting trees and ancient emperors showing off by plowing fields, only people whose minds are filled with exploitative class ideology believe that labor itself is something sacred and illusory.
It’s true, it’s been several years. Since four or five years ago, the so-called online newspaper faction and the offline integration faction have been in conflict within the left circle. As a result, after several years, online newspapers have made no real progress, and have even regressed significantly compared to before; as for the integration work, it is practically nonexistent. These people seem to treat labor as something extraordinary (or perhaps their young master lifestyles truly make them feel that labor is completely unnecessary). They act as if integrating work is a divine descent from the heavens, which is truly unbearably pretentious. This so-called faction that claims to contact workers also has different groups. One was represented by “Zoe,” a survey faction, which essentially treats workers as rare species to be investigated, acting as the master, and then using the resulting reports— which are not particularly widely useful— as tools to dominate within the left circle. Another faction was the laboring group, but whether they have made any real impact so far seems to be zero. This actually makes me think of a truth: China’s petty bourgeoisie is truly severely decayed, morally corrupt, and deeply detached from labor. For them, only ideological transformation, especially labor transformation, can make them a useful class for the revolution.
That’s how it is. Moreover, what they call “integrating into work” is not really becoming workers, but just laughably “merging in”—in plain terms, going to experience life from a lofty position, and then feeling self-congratulatory. Practically, they are detached from workers and cannot really do any propaganda because they simply do not want to give up their parasitic, indulgent lifestyle. Therefore, in the face of the reality of class struggle, they will not fight alongside workers even as working conditions worsen. They just think, anyway, I can still live comfortably at home, so why should I demand my wages? Anyway, I still have to go back to school and “drink coffee and stir up revolution,” so why should I struggle? Such people cannot spread Marxism among workers; they can only cause harm.
2025/1/9
I got up at 6:50 in the morning because I needed to go to the hospital for a check-up, which required taking a bus. The journey took about forty minutes, and the bus stop was far away, about 1.8 kilometers. So, I went with another worker (Cheng) who also hadn’t had a medical report in the past three months.
However, because I misunderstood the bus schedule and thought the departure time was the actual arrival time, we stood outside in the cold wind for over an hour. During the wait, I chatted with him, and he shared some of his past experiences. He said that this year, he lost everything after playing cards and gambling with a few people for three months—playing ‘zha jin hua’ (炸金花), he and another person lost all their money, losing about eighty to ninety thousand yuan, which was his entire year’s salary. He also had two thousand yuan saved with his boss, who was a relative, so that money was safe. Now, he had no money at all and had to come here to work.
He had no money for the check-up, no money for food, and even the deposit for the dormitory was paid by the agent, who kept his ID card.
After the check-up, I met Tao at the hospital. I didn’t expect that he also didn’t have a medical report because three people went back by taxi.
On the way, I chatted with the taxi driver. I asked him if the current industry was good to work in. He said it was easy but always losing money. His car was rented, and he paid 100 yuan daily to the company, 3,000 yuan monthly, and a deposit of 5,000 yuan. If he quit, he would lose the 5,000 yuan. The driver was already forty years old, and it was difficult to find other jobs. Even if he did, wages wouldn’t be much higher.
During the conversation, Tao said something shocking. I only felt the oppression and slavery of ride-hailing platforms on taxi drivers, but he found some pleasure in this oppressed life, smiling and saying at least he was somewhat freer.
By the time we returned, it was around ten o’clock. The agent started leading us into the factory. Once inside, we were assigned to different production lines. Due to the unplanned nature of capitalist production, several of us were sent to help out. The work involved sorting factory waste, such as wiring harnesses, aluminum, plastic, iron, etc., and categorizing them for recycling.
While working, a somewhat shrewd worker talked about wages. He said he earned 27 yuan per hour. Some people who had worked here for a few days mocked him, saying his wages were higher than those of regular workers. As he spoke, he became scared, worried he might not get such high wages, but also tried to boost his confidence, claiming he had never been owed wages, had ways to recover his wages, and mentioned labor laws. Usually, only those without arbitration experience and who dared not fight the middlemen would say such things. Experienced workers would be calm and confident, able to analyze the situation. He claimed he dared to fight and had never been owed wages but looked very anxious, unable to explain his fighting methods, clearly trying to save face.
After a while, he still felt scared and didn’t dare ask the middleman. He wanted me to be the scapegoat, asking me to inquire about wages, and he smiled and said it was about mutual benefit, basically implying he was cowardly and wanted others to do what he should do.
At the same time, I noticed that this factory also used some methods of dividing workers that I had seen in other factories. Here, the status of regular workers was probably much higher than temporary workers.
The factory regulations limited us to eight hours of work for the first three days, so today we finished at 5:30 pm. After dinner, I returned to the dorm at around 7 pm.
Some roommates talked about their work experiences today and also discussed wages. Cheng said he had gone through labor arbitration in previous years, so he wasn’t worried about not getting paid by the middleman. It seems some workers also choose to fight legally on their own.
There isn’t much more worth writing about afterward.
Why do those who are oppressed so severely still feel ‘free’?
Maybe his previous life was exploited and oppressed more severely.
This is the petty bourgeois mentality: thinking that delivering packages, although with low income, is something you can do if you want and stop if you don’t, and somewhat considering it as self-sufficient and profitable, believing there’s no need to be tied to the factory machinery all day. Although I don’t know his specific experience.
No way, this person is just an idiot.
2025/1/10
Today I continued working; I walked there with Cheng. When I was at work, he asked to borrow five yuan from me for breakfast again.
Today, when entering the factory area, I encountered someone, here referred to as Ru. Ru is the roommate of the person I mentioned yesterday who asked me to question the intermediary but didn’t have the courage to do so himself. (Let’s call him A here, because I don’t know his real name.) Because a few of us were called yesterday to sort garbage, today when I entered the workshop, I didn’t know what to do, so we all waited to be assigned tasks. I saw Ru go to the team leader to ask for a work uniform. I asked him what was going on, and only then learned that A was restless yesterday, afraid that the intermediary would deduct wages, and didn’t dare to fight with the intermediary. During the morning break, Ru saw him cooking noodles to eat, but when it was time to start work, he was gone, and his work uniform was left on that person’s car. Probably he ran away, so he had to ask the team leader to find a way to get him another set. Because the production here is very chaotic, and due to the bourgeoisie’s neglect of workers’ safety gear issues, it was impossible to find new uniforms and helmets. In the end, I borrowed a set from a night-shift worker, who smiled and said it was no problem, mutual help.
I thought I would be working inside the workshop today, but unexpectedly, I was sent out to help again. Today, I was again sorting a pile of scrap boxes. The process also highlighted the decay of the capitalist system: the sorting requirement was to classify the two sets of boxes and stack them in another warehouse. That warehouse was very cramped, with a poor environment, filled with all sorts of messy things like machines and iron racks, covered in dust, and some exposed rebar that could trip people. In such a position, if someone was moved and hit the back of their head, they could very well die. Moreover, even after completing the sorting, it was still very messy, so next time it needs to be sorted again, it would have to be done all over again, which is a complete waste of labor.
At noon, I ate a meal, and in the afternoon, I continued working—still sorting the warehouse. But there was no specific work content or goal; it was basically whatever the supervisors told us to do. I chatted with some workers, and they talked about changes in the factory’s attitude towards workers. For example, yesterday, someone was photographed by the factory executives and posted in a so-called group chat. It was probably because some workers found it boring, so one person stood on a cart while another pulled him around playing. After the photo was taken, they were warned. They said that previously, just sitting in the factory area could get someone fired after being photographed, but now, when these people are just playing around and get photographed, nothing happens. This is because now the factory is short-staffed; if workers are casually dismissed, it would negatively impact capitalist production. But when production contracts and fewer workers are needed, they will find excuses to dismiss workers.
Another incident was the electricity fee dispute. Initially, our card had eighty yuan worth of electricity prepaid, but it was used up in two days. We didn’t use any high-power appliances, but the electricity was used very quickly. We all thought this was suspicious, but a few roommates were too timid to raise the issue, so I had to do it proactively. After I raised these questions, Tao and Quan also helped speak up, and finally, the dormitory promised to check the electric meter. This was the third layer of exploitation of workers.
Today, I chatted with other workers while working, but I felt there was too much idle talk, which wasn’t good.
In the evening, the intermediary came to sign contracts with us. These contracts are just like the Treaty of Xinchou—full of unequal constraints against workers. They say if you leave within seven days, you get no wages; if you don’t work three months, wages become 20 yuan per hour; if you leave without notice on the same day, they deduct fifty hours’ wages, which is over a thousand yuan. If you don’t work enough for a month, wages are reduced by twenty percent. All of this is disgusting, but these are violations of labor law. Even if we sign, if wages are deducted later, we can legally fight back (arbitrate) according to labor law. After thinking about it, I decided to sign. Quan is more radical, but his demands are strange. He mainly asks for a 3,000 yuan retention bonus, not the 23 yuan/hour wage. His reasoning skills are poor; he can’t explain clearly and just repeats a few words, so he couldn’t persuade the intermediary. I thought about it and believed this was just a struggle between workers and capitalists, so I helped him debate with the intermediary. I said, if they had us sign this contract on the first day, it might be acceptable, but now we’ve worked for two days, and they only ask us to sign now—that’s unreasonable, contradicting the original agreement. The detailed rebuttal might be more intense, but I don’t remember clearly now, so I only wrote this much. In the end, the intermediary was forced to compromise and made some amendments, but the promised retention bonus of 2,000 to 3,000 yuan was not included. I thought about it and realized the intermediary probably wouldn’t promise this at all, so I gave up on that demand. If they cause trouble again, I can just use arbitration and refuse to sign the labor contract to get double wages.
After this incident, my roommates’ attitudes varied. Of course, they all support me. Cheng is somewhat centrist; he thinks the intermediary is stupid but also finds his own intermediary somewhat reliable and wouldn’t feel disgusted about wages. Tao is the stupidest; he signed these contracts without even reading them, just smiling and saying that the state will support workers anyway, which made me furious. I scolded him, saying, “What nonsense are you talking? If the state supports workers, why do police always beat workers during strikes and protests for unpaid wages and never arrest capitalists directly?” He probably has a strong petit-bourgeois mindset and refuses to listen, just fooling himself into thinking the intermediary will pay wages on time and fairly, and won’t cheat him. Seeing me say this, he got angry and said, “None of your business,” and told me not to continue, annoyed. None of the other roommates said much, but he started saying that the dorm wasn’t just for me. I think he’s a complete fool, so I continued discussing my views with the others. Seeing he had no real argument, he went back to his bed to lie down and numb himself with entertainment. But the other roommates probably didn’t want to have a fierce conflict with Tao, so they didn’t discuss this matter much afterward.
This incident made me realize that workers are also divided into left, center, and right factions based on their living conditions and experiences. I initially thought everyone was leftist, Cheng was centrist, and Tao was rightist.
Speaking of labor arbitration, it indeed has become increasingly useless, dragging on for more than half a year, making it very difficult for workers to wait patiently.
It seems that the composition of workers in the factory is also quite complex, with many petty bourgeoisie after bankruptcy entering the factory and bringing petty bourgeoisie ideas to the workers. Therefore, we cannot say that, like those in the left circle who promote the idea that workers are universally progressive and advanced, we still need to be cautious in distinguishing.
Moreover, students entering factories also have a significant impact on workers. Currently, Nazi schools are batch after batch of students who have become degenerate in the school’s den of vice being thrown into factories. These people are very morally corrupt. In the factory where I work, there is a student doing an internship. After just one month, he has already visited prostitutes several times, and even incited others to do the same. The number of workers he has influenced negatively is four or five.