Educational Media Reviews Online

Mostly in Chinese with English subtitles China Blue is an enlightening and sad story about labor practices in modern day China. According to the film’s introductory statement “over 130 million Chinese peasants, mostly young women, have left their villages in search of jobs in the globalized economy.” They constitute a pool of cheap labor and are the main producers of clothes and other commodities for the Western consumer. This film documentary follows the plight of some of these young workers in a jeans factory in Shaxi, China. Akin to the child labor of the nineteenth century this film evokes images of sweat shops and exploitations of a different era. At the beginning of the film we hear from one of the managers that “we never miss a deadline even if our workers keep working all night.” And that is exactly what happens.

We follow Jasmine who has just arrived from her small farming village hoping to earn money to send home. Arriving at the factory she is assigned as a thread cutter. Her friends are Orchid a zipper installer and Li Peng a seamstress. The girls have to endure long hours—the workday is 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and is subject to mandatory overtime. The client is all that matters to the owner so when a new client signs a contract and sets a deadline all the workers are expected to work faster and longer to meet that deadline. He withholds their meager paychecks until the deadline is met. As the workload and fatigue set in Jasmine ponders, ‘maybe this is just a bad dream.’

A twenty-first century version of sweatshops, this is more than just the plight of three young women who work and live in the blue jeans factory. It is about the impact of the consumer market upon the lives of people across the globe. Recommended for high school students and other consumers who have a social conscience.

Awards

• Amnesty International, Hugo Silver Plaque Award