The American Line Worker in China
This interesting story of a young mans will to learn Chinese culture has been bouncing around the Chinese blogosphere for a week or so, and it makes for interesting reading.
The story first appeared on the day before Christmas Eve, and tells the tale of one young Americans goal to become fluent in Chinese, whilst making money working in an electric bike factory in Tianjin.
Click continue reading to see more.
Background:
A factory owner and his friend were chatting about the economic crisis, and how deep it would go. The factory owner replied that its effects are very deep, to the point that he has a new employee, a white American man! The friend simply didnt believe that an American would come to work on a Chinese factory line, perhaps the factory owner had taken one of China’s many ethnic minorities, who often look very Western, to fool the friend. The friend soon discovered that the factory owner wasn’t fooling around.
The rest of the story is translated from the original posting:
For proof, I decided to take my digital camera, the factory owner said it was no problem, and took me to where the American man works:
He looks like he works very hard, the noise on the factory line is very loud, everyone works silently, when he saw me taking a photo of him, he ignored me.
Here he is using an electric screwdriver.
Here he is fitting an electrical wire, his job is basically to screw in the screws, adjust the handle bars, and attach the wire.
He looks very young, has he reached 20 years old yet?
Although in Tianjin its very cold, and snow has just fallen, this American line worker works so hard he’s sweating
This American line worker works 8 hour shifts, the same as his Chinese counterparts.
After his shift was over, we followed him back to his dormitory [most factory workers live on site for free in company provided dormitories.] He sorted his bed out, and turned on the TV.
When his workmates are working, or eating, he usually watches TV by himself.
We finally started talking to him, and found out his Chinese isnt bad at all! His Chinese name is 克罗(Ke Luo) and comes from a small town in Ohio, USA. He’s 22 years old, and has been in China for two years, furthermore, he really likes China and thinks of himself as being Chinese!
He says that since coming to China, he’s relied on doing some simple jobs to raise money to keep himself, and doesnt want his parents to send him any money. As soon as we talk about his family, he seems very lonely here in China.
After resting, Ke Luo, goes down to the cafeteria for dinner, but as he finished work at 4pm today, and the cafeteria hasnt yet opened, I decided to treat him to dinner at a small restaurant close the to the factory. He says he often comes to this place to eat, its cheap, and its good he says.
As its a little cold today, we get a bottle of Baijiu [Chinese white wine - those who've drank it will agree it tastes like gasoline] he likes it, and says its like brandy.
I ask him how much the factory owner pays him per month, he says 1500rmb ($220USD) He’s done other work in China, such as cleaning, serving, and teaching in English.
I noticed the way he holds his smokes, and how he drinks baijiu, just like a common Chinese man!
Before he was studying Chinese in a school, but the fees were too expensive, so he got a job in the factory. This way he can study Chinese much faster! He knows that its Christmas tomorrow, I ask him if he misses his family. He says that he does, but the price of a ticket is far too expensive for him now. He has no choice but to stay in China for Christmas and the New Year holiday.
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Total immersion, the best way to learn the language.
Only $220 a MONTH?
Also, do you happen to know the town in Ohio that he’s from?
$220 a month is quite high for a line worker I would have thought, 1000rmb is more than likely for a new trainee, he got a good deal!
It didnt say which town he was from, only a small town from Ohio. I cant figure out what the English name would be fro Ke Luo – any guesses from anyone who has better Chinese translation skillz?
Better than opting for Islam, growing a beard, and then going to a Pakistan based Al-Qaeda training camp (among other options for “lost” American youth).
ok ok…choose your own adventure:
a)Doing line work at an anonymous factory in Tianjin, and ending each day with a bottle of erguotou
B)Terrorist bootcamp in the Pakistani badlands, then fighting against special ops guys using old soviet kit
c)living in your parents basement, smoking pot all day and watching youporn
d) wearing a cape and a Lucha Libre mask everywhere you go and moonlighting as a Jehovah’s Witness.
option ‘c’ sounds like fun, but no youporn for me – i’ll take ESPN, the NFL network and Discovery instead!!
Damn………..too bad I already have a job, and my parents never had a basement!!
Does he have the work visa to work in China? I thought he was a language student? If he needed a job, teaching English would have paid much higher.
English teaching is always done among people who don’t want to speak Chinese. But in this situation, there’s pressure to communicate in Chinese on a daily basis,and that speeds the learning process. You can’t buy any Chinese lessons that will beat it.
It would be interesting to see what accent he has picked up.
I always wondered why I ever paid so much money to universities to give me a Chinese degree, nobody except the city folk speak decent Mandarin.
I spend my days talking to factory bosses that never went much further than middle school, and have far from perfect Chinese. I should have gone to a factory line, or become an Aiyi.
.
This young man has the right idea, learn from the manual workers, and he’ll make a million dollars when he can talk the talk with factory bosses in five years time, where as Tsinghua Zhong Wen Xue Yuan graduates are scratching their heads and consulting Xian Dai Hanyu Ci Dian.
I wonder if he got the idea from Ben Ross, and American college student who went to work as an apprentice hairdresser at a Chinese hair salon for a while. I think that was somewhere in Fujian.
(Still, I have to say, this story does seem a little fake to me. It’s be pretty easy to write this story and take the pictures as a prank.)
Ben Ross sat on his rear for three weeks playing with his cellphone, this kid is doing some real hard grafting (and drinking)
Yeah, the big question is whether they got him a proper work visa. I highly doubt it, due to the expense and hassle involved in getting one.
So no one cares if laws are broken in China or not, as long as you don’t get caught.
As in other countries visa laws in China are pretty strict and are usually adhered to. The ease or difficulty in getting them depends largely on location, local government and sometimes the employers relationship with those officials (smaller the town, more relationship needed). Not all businesses are allowed foriegn workers and the ones that do have certain critera to follow, again depending on location those requirements may be different. In a smaller town the Employer will usually need to provide accomodation but in a big city they may not need to although some still do (not as many now as before though). If this guy is legit then it would most likely be that he is hired by the factory as something more than a production worker for visa purposes.
Is this a joke?… US economy is not good now, but as this story tries to suggests, its not that bad that u would end up in a Chinese factory, working on e-bikes. Id say this is a set up injected to some blog communities. And there are better ways to learn Chinese without paying school fees…
Yo Insider; Rosetta Stone software. One month of his labors will buy him lesson (1)@ $197.00 US dollars.
*See advertisement in latest issue of National Geographic.
The advertisement I have seen says something like, no need for burdensome memorization. Sounds like poppycock to me.
Lame