From IFeng:

First let’s take a look these three front page headlines of the “Qingdao Morning Newspaper” around the same time this year, last year and the year before last year. Three photos, their content, characters and even the background are extremely similar. That’s right, other than the different looks of the four migrant workers, the rest of the pictures are the same! These are not photo-shopped pictures, they are better than the photo-shopped pictures – newspaper like this one is so easy to make! There are no mistakes!

» » » » Continue reading ‘The same “Money Counting Show”’

From Sina:
Zhengzhou Evening News:

8 migrant workers “kidnap” the boss’s car

Not paying salaries? Then don’t think about leaving. On January 25, construction migrant workers in Zhengzhou surrounded the project leader’s BMW, not letting him to leave. However the project leader called for another car and forcibly left the scene. For this matter, the director of debt settlement office of the City Construction Commission Zhang Shunhai said, the City Construction Commission starting from today suspended this construction company and labor company’s rights to undertake any project in Zhengzhou, until the matter is investigated then precede further actions.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Migrant workers surround boss’s BMW for unpaid wages’

These days, a post titled “A college graduate drifter’s confession letter to his peasant worker father” on MOP triggered heated discussions. Poster named “I am a little cat” (我是小猫猫一个) just graduated from college almost for a year. His monthly salary is one thousand yuan (=150 USD) which is less than his peasant worker father’s, so he had been lying to his family about his life… Many netizens related to him and said “You are not lonely”; “Whether you have money or not, just go home for New Year”. The post soon spread onto other Chinese sites and triggered more discussions on the current social issues in China, college graduates having difficulties finding jobs or finding the suitable jobs. Highly educated new college graduates are forced to work at jobs that do not use their full potential because of the tough job market and wages. They are so called college graduate “migrant workers”. (“民工化”)

» » » » Continue reading ‘A college graduate drifter’s confession letter to his peasant worker father’

From MOP:

Life is a process, a process from birth to death. Everyone has their own attitude towards life. While some people are enjoying their healthy bodies and taking them for granted, some other people are living a difficult life because of their physical disabilities. In Xiaoyangba community Yichang town, Hubei Province, there is a “teacher” with severe physical disabilities. A childhood medical malpractice injured his sciatic nerve, so he forever could not stand up.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Legless teacher, I am proud of you’

[From MOP] A young migrant worker updates a post of his raw, yet I found to be truthful and insightful notes while working at a construction site of soon to be multi-million luxury homes in Sanya, Hainan.

I never speak out. I am a “diving” migrant worker.

(潜水: Diving means lurking here, it is a Chinese internet slang, means someone who reads forum posts but never replies, never expresses their views. It is like underwater diving, never pop their heads out of the water.)

I used to have very low self-esteem, just because I am a migrant worker working at construction sites every day. Maybe it’s because I went to junior college for two years, our manger Yang made me the publicist, so I got the opportunities to take photos.

Migrant worker is the synonym of low-quality in the society. I admit that we are the people living in the lowest level of the society. Even if we were paid attention to, we were seen as the weakest group.

But now I do not feel worthless anymore, in fact we the migrant workers are also human beings, we are proud, all of the high-rise buildings are built up with our blood and sweat; we also are educated, I can write posts; we also know how to live. The reason I write this post is so everyone can know how we build a block of high-rise buildings, and also to show you our lives as migrant workers.

» » » » Continue reading ‘A construction migrant worker’s notes’

[Daqi] Because of labor disputes with the factory, more than 30 Hunan province contractors from a (beer) brewery in Guangzhou went to the Haizhu bridge (海珠桥) together performed a “jumping off the bridge show”. Police yesterday said, after the investigation 16 people involved in climbing the bridge were punished accordingly. Two organizers were held in criminal custody, 14 others were held for civil detention.

The afternoon of November 2, Guangzhou Haizhu bridge was paralyzed. 16 workers climbed on top of the steel frame of the bridge and stayed on top over 3 hours before they were persuaded to come down, resulting in roads from both side of the bridge to be blocked, and the road congestion of the nearby streets.

» » » » Continue reading ‘16 people threaten to jump off the bridge together for wages’

Key: This is a recent forum post on Netease by a young man working in a “typical” electronic assembly factory in Guangdong province where over 90 percent of the factory workers were girls. A rather innocent and insightful observation I thought,  really gave us some insights on the lives of these young factory worker girls.  At the same time it was quite in tune with the book <Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China> by Leslie T. Chang.

» » » » Continue reading ‘The Factory Girls in China’

[NetEase] It’s the new semester, outside the wall of a Wuhan’s college there is the concerning “most awesome” university dormitory. “Wang Hao Feng Focus” (王浩峰聚焦) went to the scene to inspect and saw a five story building rubs shoulders with a high-voltage tower. There were groups of college students going in and out. On the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th floor there were students sticking their heads out of the windows looking around from time to time. One college student said these floors were occupied by college students.

» » » » Continue reading ‘The Most Awesome College Dormitory and Migrant Workers’ Dormitory’

[Netease] His name is Nie, From Shanxi province, a 40 year old ordinary migrant worker in Beijing. How I met him was pure accidental. An honest, kind and straightforward personality, this Shanxi man caught my interest and curiosity. I decided to follow him to capture his life for a day, tell everyone his story. At the same time I hope to show the real living conditions of migrant workers in today’s society. If you must ask if I have other purposes, then it is, on the internet filled with pretty girls, violence, Kuso and vulgar materials, I hope his story will somewhat move our numbing nerves. Let everyone reflect on and think about their own lives.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Live Report a Day of a Migrant Worker in Beijing’

Netizen 落雪是花 posted this in ifeng BBS:

Recently, there have been several so-called artists engaging in “performing art”. They hired a dozen migrant workers to eat next to a naked woman. Its name was “fantasy performance art”. What is “performing art”? I really do not understand, but I laugh at the idea of letting a group of men eat around naked woman and call it art.

» » » » Continue reading ‘Migrant Worker Eating next to a Naked Woman is Art’