China Migrant Workers I

Around 200 million workers in China are on the ‘tramp’, erecting the country’s shining metropolises as labourers and running the factories as shift workers.

China’s exceptional growth would be inconceivable without this vast army of workers who form the backbone of the Chinese economic boom and are widely regarded as the largest migratory movement in the history of time. And yet theirs is a position on the fringes of society, often living and working in degrading conditions and segregated both socially and legally.

The “Migrant Workers” photographic project aims to deal with the situation of these travelling labourers and their families.

The main focus of the documentary however will not so much be laid on the conditions of their work, but rather on these people’s private lives, their interpersonal relationships, the situation of their families left behind in the country, as well as their overall place in Chinese society.

Shedding light on the huge diversity of migrant workers in China, photographs will portray examples from all parts of the country and from a wide range of trades, ranging from the classical labourer at one of Shanghai’s vast construction sites to the coalminers of the north and the shoe factory seamstresses in the south, all the way to the hostesses at the karaoke clubs in the country’s new boomtowns, the chefs and waiters at the large Beijing restaurants and the domestic helpers employed by rich Hong Kong families.

This story:

Yunjiu, Sitei and Changze, three Chinese farmers, have left their farms to try and find work as day labourers and haulers in the megacity of Chongqing on the river Yangtze.

Even though the proceeds from the farm enabled them to lead a modest life, they’ve still chosen the hard life in Chongqing for a couple of extra Euros a month.

The three of them live with other migrant workers in a dingy shed down one of the many grimy alleyways of the provincial capital.

There are nearly two dozen men in this tiny space without running water or heating.

Every three months, the farmers make their way back to their home villages Feng Sheng and Guang Miny to bring their families some of their hard-earned money.

It takes them three hours by bus and then another hour on foot.
Yunjiu, Sitei and Changze work as delivery boys, usually at one of the meat markets in the centre of Chongquing. Although the wages per load are lower than at the shopping centres or at other markets, there is a more reliable number of clients here.

While the men wait for assignments, they kill time by smoking and playing cards.
Rising numbers of migrants from the countryside and the resettlement of thousands for the Three Gorges Dam have led to an explosion of newcomers in the city. At the moment it grows by about 1,300 people a day.

Chonqing is often called the biggest city in the world. In any case it is among the fastest growing in China. According to the latest estimates, there are 35 million people now living within the administrative district of Chogquing.
© Benjamin Haselberger, 2008