session 7 (10/9) - dube (film + 19th century)

[Chris Hertzog]

Agreed, his film and discussion makes you really consider how you approach "communism" or collective bargaining, worker rights and human rights in a communist land.  Wait a second, I grew up and was taught that all the communist regimes were bad and had to be completely over thrown in revolution.  Perhaps not.  So many of the workers in China are intetionally using or willing to work with the Communist Party to get their rights and are not trying to throw the whole system out, but to hold it accountable to what is says it should be doing.  This is another learning lesson for me to use with my students to not put a system, people or idea in a neat box, where it can't get out.  To pre-determine how people should behave or act in a given system does not let the story play out, or it may play out in a way that we are not familiar with, but that is history... its messy.

[Jane Shen]

" The painful fight for basic right from the bottom of the society"

This movie had just hit me so hard that the Chinese workers who are at the bottom of the social class, had to fight so hard, even with the cost of their young lives for their basic right. The battle has been so tough, they had to overcome variety of obstacles from their employers, from their peers and even from their own fear of loosing their jobs or revenges.

These workers are fighting with their lives for dignity. They claimed for respects as the same human beings.

Even though workers in the Lide company won the fight with 120 million compensation from their employers, but as Han DongFang said that they were hard to reach later.

I personally resonate the pains the workers been through due to my own experience working as a teacher assistant in America. As the bottom layer in a classroom, a TA earns only 10% of the teacher working in the same classroom facing the same students, however, they were not included in any of the teachers' union, no one stands for their right. As a general aid, paid with hourly minumum wages, no benefits at all, I had to worry about my rent during the reserved hollidays. And summer vacation, which is the most enjoyable time for a teacher was the nighmare for me.

So I would like to say, as the very bottom laobr workers, no matter where or which system, it is a tough battle to fight for their rights.

 

[Nira Sun]

I considered the following two challenges as the keys:

1. What ideas or concepts shall we implement so that we are able to convince people to see the changes that we need?

• Learning popular ideas of managing a country and organizing a government
• Finding out the issues that we currently have in China
• Analyzing the steps and actions that fit our special situation
• Spreading the ideas so that more people will see the issues and changes that we need to make

2. How do we gather people to take the ideas into action

• We need people to agree with our ideas and willing to fight along with us
• How do we protect the people who are fighting with us?

[Michelle Levy]

Jane, I totally agree with you. This movie really hit me hard too. It strikes me as unjust to see people working to live, or even, survive, and be put through hardships with little to no options. When you compared this to teaching assistants I had not considered the parallels, but you are right. I keep thinking as a new teacher that this just is the way it is, but as a credentialed teacher, we don't have it nearly as bad as T.A.'s. I'm really glad you brought this topic up!

[Cindy Nguyen]

With the industrialization boom, many countries become very prosperous and seen as world powers.  As wealth grows so does the amount of money the government can take and invest in.  The chart that was shown in class of "Manufacturing Output" you are able to assume the increase of manufacturing leads to a nation becoming more properous and with wealth comes investment in weapons.  This could be linked to how United States became one of the wealthiest and powerful countries in the world.  I would provide my students with the same chart and have them research the countries and the time era that was given.  This would help students to organize the events which influenced the rise of some nations and the fall of others.

[Nira Sun]

Since I understand the language, I first had a thought on the title. In my opinion, there is quite a big discrepency between the original Chinese title and the translated English one. What I understand about the "凶年" is it means "dangerous / harmful / bad years". I was wondering the orginal intention of the last two characters in the title. I guess the literal meaning is that "the side of...". Too sad that I didn't get to ask the question.

The challenges that were shown in this documentary mainly focused on: How to make the workers willing to participate and fight for their rights. Due to financial pressure and other issues, it was difficult to find workers who were persistent in this journey. The funders, lawyers, and supporters spent so much time on persuading people, supporting them financially so that workers were able to stay with the fight. Most of the concerns from the workers were about whether their strikes and voices will be heard and actually be considered. They also suffered from other suppress from local government and law enforcement.

The documentary recorded a long journey of 6-year fighting. However, their fight is still going on. The main purpose of this documentary, in my opinion, was to bring this issue into awareness to as many people as possible so that more will be joining their fighting journey, and ultimately, earn more benefits for the workers.

[Rick Steil]

After seeing the film and the struggles of the workers in china I go to the time in America when workers were attempting to organize labor. All workers at some time are faced with this dilemma of organizing and putting their jobs and lives in jeopardy. At this point in America, unions are under pressure to give up the rights they fought so hard for. Pensions are under funded, there is a 2 tier system for workers, new workers do not receive the same benefits that older workers do. There are no longer lifetime health benefits and unions are losing their grip on the American worker. Does China believe they will be able to avoid the problems that the workers in America have encountered? If so, is it because they will include the government in this process and call it democratic socialism? 

[Jacqueline Mercado]

 "Where there is a problem, there's a solution"--a quote from one of the activists cited in the film. This sentence is simple and yet the film "We the Workers" shows that the carrying out of this truth is not easily realized, and yet the potential is there.  With the emergence of industrialization, the focus has always been on economic growth and development but not enough attention is given to the inequalities and economic disparities that arise when an economy privileges some and disadvantages others.  In this film, a voice is given to the very workers who are being exploited, treated unfairly and who are not benefiting from China's economic miracle.  Their plight is massive as we see when at the beginning of the film, one worker expresses that eventhough workers may have rights by law, those rights are void since laws are not enforced by the government and others in power.  This kind of thinking shows us why it is difficult to organize workers and mobilize them to action as they fear that if they protest against those in power, there will be further loss to them.  Eventhough this is a theme we see thoroughout the movie, it is inspiring to hear from the workers themselves as they fight for equality, no matter how elusive it may be in Communist China.  The fact that there have been some victories is nonetheless, optimistic.  Although this film was specifically about the workers in China, such themes are universal and most of my students can relate to this kind of inequality and these workers' fight for social justice because some of them know of family members who work in factories and who like the workers in China, also are being exploited with low wages and long hours.  These are themes that my students can relate to. 

[Christine Xu]

China has complicated relationship with workers’ rights.

What the legal right do workers have in china, and what protections do they have in terms of labor standard and wages? There are no cleared answer so far because everything is under control of the government/the communist party. I have heard some incidents happened in china that some workers of the state owned factories committed suicide because of the stressful and hopeless working condition.That is so sad.  I am glad, there are some supporters, like Han Dongfang,  they present for workers and fight for their rights. I hope there are more and more people, dare to speak out and fight for their rights/human rights, so china can be closer to democracy.

[Evelyn Mendoza]

Before the readings and this session, I was pretty much oblivious to China’s great history and the people who helped create it. China’s development and history has been interesting to learn about, but now I feel even more curious about it. I’m impressed by how long the Manchurians were able to maintain control of China, especially after so many had failed. I found that their way of rule was more sympathetic to traditions than the previous regimes. Though the Manchurians were far from benevolent, especially to those who rebelled, there are good lessons for students to learn. From the Manchus long and rule, students can learn that in order for a community to be successful, each group must be willing to compromise. 

[Evelyn Mendoza]

Like many countries, except for maybe Iceland, China’s relationship with worker’s rights is very complicated. China has legislation that outlines the rights of workers. However, there seems to be a lack of interest, or unwillingness, to enforce the law.  The documentary “We the Workers” reminded me of the farm workers movement of the 1960s. The struggles the farm workers faced and the demands they made were very similar to those of the Chinese laborers. Another similarity between the two is the fear that at first kept them from fighting for what is right. Though the farm workers were successful in having some of their demands met, there are still many violations that occur in this day and age. Similarly, in China, even when a business has made agreements with worker representatives, they try to find the way to evade making changes, even going as far as moving to a different district.

If I could find one lesson to take from these workers and laborers, it’s that the struggle never ends. Even when we think we’ve met our goal, we have to be vigilant that there isn’t a return to the past practices.  The fight for what is fair never ends. 

[clay dube]

Our three lead roles are:
Li Hongzhang -- Lesly Gonzalez
Kang Youwei -- Carlos Oyarbide
Qiu Jin -- Jasmine Wang

We need people to lay claim to the supporting roles listed in my initial post. For Kang Youwei and Qiu Jin, a great resource is Jonathan Spence's The Gate of Heavenly Peace, but there's quite a lot about all of these figures online and in Sources of Chinese Tradition.

[Amir Osterweil]

I think one of the biggest challenges ahead, is our giant bureaucracy. It seems difficult to get anything done in our government. For example the emperor involved the  Board of Rites, Board of War, the Board of Revenue, the Bureau of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, the Bureau of Mining and Railway among others to assess a memorial submitted by a metropolitan censor. We are drowning in our own inefficentcy. Another example is the "eight-legged essay" from the civil service exam. We must modernize this exam and others aspects of our government to move forward. We must look to Japan as a model in reforming our education system. The China of the past is not the China of the future!

[clay dube]

Nira makes a great point about the gap between the English and the Chinese titles of this film. Many Chinese films opt for English titles that are not real translations. One example is "Quitting" which is 昨天 Zuotian or "Yesterday," but there are many others. Perhaps you know of other non-English language films with names that differ from their original language versions. What do you think drives such choices? It's possible to ask both Han Dongfang and the film's director, Huang Wenhai 黄文海, about this.

You'll be here at USC for a full day Saturday session, but if you know people in NY, the full version of the film will be screened on 10/21 at the Guggenheim Museum. https://www.guggenheim.org/event/turn-it-on-we-the-workers

If you'd like to comment on the film's Facebook page, please be sure to note that you saw the abridged version at USC: https://www.facebook.com/WeTheWorkersCNHK/

 

[Jacqueline Mercado]

I agree with this observation of the film, that it brings to light how the struggle for justice and equality will not end and must continue.  That is one of my take aways from the film.  The fact that these Chinese workers are taking a stand to fight for what is fair is encouraging and we stand with them as they do; however, the reality is that the core issue of economic injustice and inequality is human greed and that is a force much harder to contain and grapple with.  Hence, the struggle and fight for what is right will and must continue just as inequality and injustice will also unfortunately, persist to exist.  

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