Still Agitated
July 22nd, 2010
With more protests erupting in South China arising over wages, I still hold with what I said in an interview back in May for the July 2010 issue Eurobiz Magazine, in the cover article, entitled, “Labour Pains”.
Employers have been slow to understand the increased financial pressures burdening this young generation. “These people know they have dowries to pay if they are in their twenties. They have to buy a house on top of the dowry. They have parents and maybe even grandparents they are increasingly expected to look after, and the cost of living across the board is rising at an incredible rate in ways that the figures are just not reflecting properly. Employers – especially the Western employers – are kind of clueless about the burdens that the Chinese employees are working under,” says Bill Dodson, director of strategic analysis at TrendsAsia and author of the upcoming China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Re-shaping China and Its Relationship with the World.
It’s a very insightful article. Check it out.
Further reading: Strike in China idles another Honda supplier amid wage protests
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Hi Bill,
I disagree with a lot of what the article (or you…not sure what comes from you and what from others) says here.
First of all, what you talked about was not financial pressure…its social pressure. Big difference. Buying a house (which the parents almost always do for kids), getting a car, etc are not things that kids have to do. Taking care of parents maybe a different story.
Second, you say “especially Western employers”… this implies that Chinese employers are more understanding “of the burdens”. of Chinese employees. Any evidence? Last I heard, Chinese companies still pay less than Western companies for laborers.
Just my two cents.
July 25th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
I agree with Jessie, they did this to themselves, and as long as they continue to choose the path of bckwardness and feudalism, they will have no one to blame but themselves. Maybe this will provide some motivation to modernize their thinking and society.
July 25th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Jesse;
I am going to assume for the sake of discussion that you and I have a similar depth of experience cum the Chinese social/financial pressures relating to the explosion of discontent of the younger generations in China. That is 1) you too are married into a Chinese extended family, 2) you also have Chinese cousins who can’t find girlfriends let alone wives for financial reasons, 3) you actually talk to these people and others about the bride price, 4) you read the Chinese news about the financial pressures young people in China today are not enduring very well in order to meet social obligations (which are changing because of financial realities). However, your statement that the parents buy the apartment for the kids in China belies the sources of your information; or, in the least, does not do them justice.
To wit: I have a couple Chinese cousins who can’t attract girlfriends because their parents and extended families together with the boy’s income can’t scrape together enough cash to buy a flat; I have a middle (Chinese) sister who won’t even talk to a boy unless he already owns a flat and a car – and she’s only 27; I know professional Chinese in Shanghai who’ve perfectly good jobs that, now that they’ve a child, aren’t making enough money to give the kid “a good education” and are considering switching to the financial industry so they can make as much money as their classmates, according to their parents. And then, of course, there’s the “bride price”, which, in the countryside in China, is called in Chinese “buying a bride,” during which the family of the potential bride extort tens of thousands of US dollars from families with boys in which the boy is interested in marrying the girl – we’re talking here the dowry plus the house plus a car (the car in some instances). Increasingly, the boy’s families are simply giving up hope or going to even more remote parts of China to find a bride. Just read the Chinese blogs in which young men have simply given up trying to find a girlfriend (cum wife); they know they’ve a snowball’s chance in Hell of attracting a woman because they make a regular wage – even if they’re white collar. And if they’re blue collar – or a farmer – fugitaboudit! Interestingly, I have a Chinese-American friend whose Chinese cousin’s girlfriend recently dissed the cousin for exactly those reasons.
There is also an upward trend in the number of young men – in the countryside and cities – going to Vietnam and Thailand to purchase brides from families whose financial expectations are lower and whose wives also have lower expectations financially. Now, you might want to separate the financial from the social; but I rather think these millions of young men chasing after even fewer young women (recall the gender imbalance) would prefer to argue with you about it.
The upward pressure on material expectations is clearly driven by the media in China, facilitated by communications technologies, which has become Westernized to the extent that commercials and shows and movies and print channels extol the “good life” a la Americana – and then the Chinese “talk amongst themselves”. Though Western companies may be oblivious to the financial pressures pressing down on this generation in everything from attracting a mate through raising Arizona, Chinese companies are at least conscious of the imbalance, though certainly not enlightened (in the sense of a salary Renaissance). Local governments, on the other hand, have twigged on to the fact that basic salaries are just not enough to meet social needs and material requirements of line workers, at least.
However, note that the vast majority of industrial actions in China are in factories run by Asians – primarily Japanese and Taiwanese – the lowest on the totem poll when it comes to respecting the human rights of Mainland Chinese. Though Mainland Chinese big bosses are not that much more advanced, they are a bit more sensitive than Overseas Chinese and Asian neighbors to when their employees will explode over certain issues. Just a bit.
But then, simply ask one of your extended Chinese family what’s really going on. Or talk to some Chinese. You’ll quickly find your two cents was ill-spent.
July 25th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Outcast;
I agree with you, but disagree with Jesse’s disagreement.
Always a pleasure to gain your insight, however.
Cheers,
Bill