Have you heard of Karoshi, the Japanese term for "death from overwork", or occupational sudden death? While Japanese workers have been known for working long hours, the Chinese are definitely catching up if not overtaking them. The long hours, coupled with poor work environment, is resulting in a growing number of sudden deaths in the workplace in cases where employees previously did not show signs of illness.
A recent case in point occurred in a plastics factory in Guangzhou. In the afternoon of August 17, 45-year-old female worker Xian Xiaoqiong passed out next to a molding machine. The factory owner drove her to a nearby community hospital, where Xian was soon pronounced dead from "respiratory failure" in the emergency room. After the incident, reporters from the Guangzhou Daily went to check out the factory, but the building was shut down with no company name on the outside.Xian worked for 12 hours straight on the night shift, and started working again at 3:30 p.m. the next day. Her husband told the newspaper that his wife was in good shape. Her coworkers said it was very hot in the factory."There used to be a large electric fan at Xian's station, but it was replaced by a smaller one before the tragedy happened," the newspaper reported.Along the line of Karoshi is the Chinese phrase "pin ming", which literally means to put your life at stake. Many times when I ask Chinese factory owners about China's unique advantage that other emerging countries don't have, they proudly claim: "We Chinese have a pin-ming attitude when it comes to work." In other words, they work to death.But how much is life worth? How do Chinese people justify risking their lives for a job, especially one that doesn't pay much? Many work with neither proper safety protection nor medical/life insurance at illegal coal mines, toxic battery factories, dangerous construction sites and primitive waste recycling workshops. What are they thinking? Well, the sad truth is, they don't have much of a choice. They are at the bottom of a society that features an enormous rich-poor gap and a minimal safety network. They risk their lives for the basics - food, clothes, children's tuition and parents' medical expenses, while more and more Chinese enterprises and individuals make those "world's richest" lists.It's one thing to work to death by preference. It's utterly different when people have to risk their lives just to sustain their lives - and their families'. I wish China gave its citizens an option to not "pin ming."SEARCH
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The Chinese' "work to death" attitude
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COMMENTS (7)
Shuang Zhao:
Hi Nina, I like the article very much. “拼命精神”is obviously not a good thing. Will surely come here often. Shuang from EMG
(Mr.) Carmie Thompson:
Good Day Ms. Ying Sun,
The only way to change is by protest. If the protest is ignored, revolt or unionization must be considered and attempted. The people must stand up for themselves like the automobile workers at the FORD Motor plant in the early 20th century.
The Mexican people must stand up for themselves instead of running away to the USA.
Big business and apathetic governments will need to change or forced to change. That must happen from the people. Freedom(and respect for life)is not free.
Best Wishes.
Arthur:
When times are tough, even in the US you will see employers forcing employees to work longer and longer hours without much choice. The difference is there is minimal legal protection for workers in China and people are afraid of resorting to legal measures for such abuses because they are not legally literate. The recession is forcing the civilization to go back to the beginning of industrialization period when capitalists exploit and squeeze as much as they can from workers.
Hoque:
Having read the article and the comments that followed, I would like to add mine ....
I've been to China many times on business trips. I've studied and lived in India for 4 years, UK for 2 years and USA for 9 years; now I'm living in Bangladesh for the last 17 years and during this time I've had the good fortune of traveling extensively through a lot of countries including South Africa.
One of the comments stated that this recession is making us return to the "industrialization period when capitalists exploited ... workers".
Injustice and exploitation is everywhere around us; they have always been there and will always be there; we see them, sometimes ignore them or just talk about them, but most often, eventually forget about them.
The strong will always rule over and exploit the weak (US-Israel over the Palestenians, Iraqis, etc) ... or you can say Darwin's theory of survival .... "the fittest will survive".
One of the comments mentioned unionization at Ford; look where that has taken Ford (and all the other US auto makers) today!
And why blame the Mexicans for "running away to the USA"? The "grass is always greener on the other side". Isn't that human nature?
There is no right or worng solution to such prolems. However, I would still like to venture out and say that the root cause of such problems is basic Economics, i.e., "Supply and Demand" .... Demand in developed countries for material goods (where one shirt may suffice, we buy two) and the abundant Supply of manpower (and its unchecked increase) in developing countries.
Then of course there are the Wal*Mart's of the World who, because of their shere size and buying power, squeeze the manufacturers to bid lower and lower each and every year ... thereby satisfying their customers who are happy to get their shirts cheaper and cheaper, but never question where they come from and under what conditions they are made. That is the source or birth place of all injustice!
In any case, we certainly need to see and read more of these articles and circulate them to make people aware of what is going on. Thank you, Nina!
Joe Black:
I’m not sharing the view of the author. It’s true that the Japanese are famous for working very hard and cases happened that worker collapsed during the work. In most of the cases the workers are worker for months even years without having holiday and contributing everyday over time, which is more or less the workers free choice. The tragic story above was a result of horrible work conditions and a factory owner who was not caring about his workers who was probably focused only on his own pocket.
Since several years I’m visiting Chinese companies and I would say that Chinese office workers are more famous for surfing the Internet, playing online games or having a nap. The only chance that these office workers might die during work is if they forget to eat or drink during chatting QQ for days.
Joe Black
Nina Ying Sun 
:
:
Joe Black raised an interesting sub-topic: Chinese office workers. As far as I know, they do spend a lot of time surfing the Internet and chatting on QQ. But most privately owned firms closely monitor the company's Internet activities and block irrelevant Web sites. And, chatting on QQ usually is part of their work, because QQ (a Chinese instant messaging program similar to AOL's ICQ) is the most popular online/mobile communication tool in China. "Surfing the Internet, playing online games or having a nap" without fear for punishment probably only exists in state-owned companies and government agencies. In the private sector, office workers suffer from long hours without overtime pay. At foreign-invested firms, it's common to have conference calls with their U.S. headquarters from 9pm to midnight China time (9am to noon EST). It's rarely the other way around. Why not protest or bargain with the employer? Because millions of unemployed and underemployed college graduates are waiting to take your position, for a much lower salary. To summarize my opinion, no private business owners in China would tolerate real slackers in the office, and no private sector employees would dare to be a slacker. That's just how capitalism works, which doesn't apply in the same way at government-owned entities.
Posted by Nina Ying Sun |
August 26, 2009 11:34 AM
jo:
Anyone given an edge will ultimately take it - that's as old as time and what we're seeing in China, India and Mexico. Where do you think the labor unions came into play in the USA? Until these workers stand together and demand decent living conditions, decent pay and working conditions, these types of atrocities will continue. We let our labor unions get out of control, that's all. The USA cannot and should not be the only beacon of freedom in the world. I for one am sick of hearing about Europe's wonderful programs because they don't spend their monies on bombs and military. HELLO?! Who saved them from Hitler and then went back in and built them back up and offer them the protection that they can have these wonderful things without a military? Because they know the USA will step in to protect them if they are threatened! If we stepped off the world stage - took our monies from developing countries and used it purely for ourselves as Europe does, our lives would be tremendous! Most of our internal problems could be solved quickly - should we do this??? Would europe then need to cancel some of their wonderful programs to attain the defenses they should have had all along???