Feature: Life in a factory: children's summer vacation with working parents

Source: Xinhua| 2019-08-21 21:06:07|Editor: Xiaoxia
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FUZHOU, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Summer is usually not the busiest season of the year, yet it is the most boisterous time in a clothing factory in east China's Fujian Province, not only because of the clanking machines, but also a group of frolicking children.

Carrying a stack of lining fabrics in her slim hands, Wang Jingjing, six, gallops up the stairs to the fifth floor where her parents labor over a pile of half-made jackets.

For Wang Jingjing and her elder sister Wang Lian, 14, running errands for the parents is a privilege they have to compete for. This time, the younger sister won after a game of rock paper scissors.

The elder feigns a sulky expression after losing, sits down on a stool beside her mother and starts to do her homework.

The sisters are part of a group called "little migratory birds" -- children left behind in their countryside homes who travel to cities to spend the holidays with their parents.

Their parents work in Shishi Jinlilaisi Garment Co., Ltd. in the city of Shishi, a clothing manufacturing hub in Fujian, about 750 km away from their hometown Jiujiang, east China's Jiangxi Province.

Every summer, tens of thousands of "little migratory birds" in China "fly" thousands of miles to enjoy a precious 2-month family reunion in their parents' workplaces in Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang.

SWEETEN THE BITTERNESS

Li Xiaolan, the Wang sisters' mother, was so eager to see her beloved daughters. Li's husband drove over 10 hours to bring the children to Li's workplace from their hometown in Jiangxi on the first day of summer vacation.

As the summer vacation progressed, more children arrived at the factory. But they are not there for sightseeing or to play. Most of the time, they are confined in the plain garment factory, which is surrounded by dozens of similar-looking buildings.

At around 8 a.m., workers flock to the workshop to start their day. Around noon, the empty-bellied children drag themselves out of bed and get ready for the day, walking listlessly to the workshop to join their parents, yawning and stretching the entire way.

When the lunch break starts, workers from different regions of the country stir fry pork and vegetables using dozens of induction cooktops that are lined up in the canteen on the ground floor of the dormitory building, making it a grand cooking contest of various Chinese cuisines.

The parents often work late into the night, sometimes before midnight when too many orders need to be completed. Their children like to accompany their parents into the late night.

Despite the long hours waiting in workshops, the children always find their own ways to make their time more joyous and meaningful.

While teenagers often help their parents with menial tasks such as handing over cloth, ironing ready-made clothes, and changing bobbins, preschoolers and young children run and chase each other, playing hide and seek in the building, including the boss's big office on the second floor, seeking entertainment in the simplest way.

"Although it is not good for the company's image, I can live with it," said Wu Yushan, owner of the factory, "because safety is our highest priority. It is not safe for them to roam the streets in the sweltering heat."

Wu said the building has been completely rewired to prevent electric shocks, and the guard was told to stop any children trying to sneak out of the factory without their parents' company.

The factory shuts down every Sunday; thus, most workers take their children to parks or malls in the city.

Wu said the children need activities that are more educational and enlightening. He suggested that the local government use local schools as summer camp venues for hundreds of factory children in Shishi.

Local authorities have taken measures to ensure safe and sound family gatherings. A program allowing college students to offer children companionship and tutoring services during school breaks has been launched, and local volunteers also plan to take the children out for museum tours.

WEAVING A WAY OUT OF THE FACTORY

This summer, a total of 18 children are staying in Wu's factory with their parents. Eight of them are "little migratory birds" from their remote hometowns, while the other 10 are "lucky dogs," who live with their migrant parents in the city.

Congcong, four, spent most of his life in the workshop where his parents work all day long, and his "home," a 6-square-meter room composed of a bunk bed and a small table.

When he turned three, his parents decided to send him to a nearby kindergarten. It cost the young couple 4,500 yuan (about 637 U.S. dollars) each semester. The average monthly salary for workers in the factory is about 7,000 yuan.

Since 2007, Huang Hailong, Congcong's father, has been working in the factory, where he met his wife.

They left their first son in the husband's hometown in the city of Suining in southwest China's Sichuan Province. But later they came to realize they had issues with the parent-child relationship.

"For a while, he didn't want to speak with me, because we didn't see each other very often," said the father. "That is why we have lived with Congcong ever since he was born."

There are currently 6.97 million "left-behind" children in China, while over 14 million children live with their parents who moved away from home for higher salaries in more prosperous regions.

To provide better on-site childcare, like Huang, many young workers now choose to live with their children while moving across the country.

For younger parents, their children's education carries the most weight. They expect their children to go to college and work in an office rather than sweating in a factory.

The factory experience has made these children more self-reliant and capable than their peers. Aside from giving a hand to their parents, the elder ones turn the workshop into a library, cracking books amid the humming sewing machines and electric fans above their heads.

Ou Qiuquan, 19, the eldest amongst the children in the factory, is considered a role model by the frolicking children. Despite lengthy family discussions about his future in the densely populated workshop, he was accepted to Fujian Medical University this summer.

He spent almost every summer with his parents in the factory, where his parents have been working since it started operating in 2005. Later he was joined by his sister and his brother.

Ou Tingfang, his younger sister, is reading "Red Star over China" by Edgar Snow, a school assignment for the summer break.

"I need to work harder than ever before," the 14-year-old girl said. "I don't want to let my family down."

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