Bittersweet Chinese Lunar New Year holiday: migrant workers sent home early as factories struggle with economic downturn

Migrant workers Liu Mei and her husband, Chu Yangjian, were told by their employers to start their holidays earlier this year in order to take the 12-hour journey to their hometown for the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

However, the offer was not such good news for the couple; they were allowed to head off to Hunan province only because the factory where they work for has seen a drop in orders and production.

Yet they were not alone. The shadow of an economic downturn was looming over many migrant workers waiting at Foshan city train station in Guangdong on Monday, one of the coldest days on record in the province.

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“Business wasn’t good this year,” said Liu, 38, who works with her husband at a furniture factory in Foshan. “There was an obvious drop in our workload and our salary payments got delayed by two months. Many of us were allowed to start our holidays early.”

Still, the couple are eager to see their children, whom they are able to see only once a year.

The couple’s children, aged 9 and 14, live in the family’s hometown in Xinhua county and are among the tens of millions of so-called “left behind children” in China.

“I miss them everyday but what can we do?” Liu said. “It’s difficult to find jobs in Xinhua.”

Another migrant workers couple in Foshan, Luo Cheng and his wife, also started their Lunar New Year holiday a week earlier than in previous years.