China’s migrant workers challenging the status quo by chasing their dreams, bucking stereotypes
- Social media enthralled by story of 31-year-old migrant who taught himself English, translated a philosophy book and found he could make a living without manual labour
- New generation of migrant workers is no longer tasked with lifting their families out of poverty, and many are looking to carve out their own lives in big cities
In the past couple of months, a 31-year-old migrant worker has gained notoriety in China for teaching himself English and immersing himself in philosophical studies while doing blue-collar work for more than a decade.
When he was not toiling away in garment factories, warehouses and printing houses, Chen Zhi translated a version of American academic Richard Polt’s Heidegger: An Introduction – considered one of the most authoritative explorations of German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s work – into Chinese.
His effort drew widespread attention online when he asked for suggestions on how to publish his work, and this ignited public discussions across various social classes – from white-collar workers and university students to his peers on the factory assembly line.
I hope people can see that working-class people who live at the foot of the social ladder also have opportunities and the determination to do things
Chen Zhi’s story has also led some people to re-evaluate how they perceive China’s migrant workers.
Translating the notoriously difficult text has also opened new doors for Chen Zhi, professionally. Last month, a vocational college offered him a job translating philosophy books and writing articles for an academic publication.
Chen Zhi said he was happy to hear that his efforts and achievements have challenged the preconceived stereotypes that many people believe about migrant workers.
“I hope people can see that working-class people who live at the foot of the social ladder also have opportunities and the determination to do things … I also hope that Chinese society will be more tolerant of migrant workers at the grass-roots level,” he told the Post.
Over the past 40 years, China has grown into the world’s second-largest economy, and it achieved this with the help of its army of migrant workers, as an urbanisation push brought hundreds of millions of people from the countryside to major cities.
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The vast majority of China’s first generation of migrant workers, who are now in their fifties and sixties, have returned to their hometowns after accomplishing their goal of earning more money to support their families.
They left behind their hometowns and families, not to elevate their social status or revel in the city life, but to afford better homes for their families and better educations for their children, according to a 2019 report released published in the academic journal China Rural Survey: Peasant Migration.
Nowadays, however, the new generation of migrant workers in China are no longer tasked with lifting their families out of poverty, according to the report. For them, migrating to urban cities for work is not only about earning a higher salary, it is also about securing a job that makes them happy while enhancing their quality of life.
And that does not always involve having a family or raising kids.
It goes to show that there is a shift in our perception of young migrant workers, and people want to see us have more individual success and pursuits
“I’m especially excited to see Chen succeed,” said Chen Yi, a Guangdong-based migrant worker who loves writing poems.
“It goes to show that there is a shift in our perception of young migrant workers, and people want to see us have more individual success and pursuits.”
Chen Zhi said the income from his new job is actually not much higher than that of working in a factory, but it has allowed him to break free from the constraints of heavy manual labour while chasing his dream.
Moving forward, he said he is seeking additional “recognition in philosophical research” and the chance to do more meaningful and valued work.
Meanwhile, this shift in thinking among and about migrant workers comes as their workforce is not only ageing, but is also getting smaller, mirroring a broader trend in China’s labour market.
In 2020, the total number of migrant workers nationwide was 285.6 million, or 5.17 million less than the previous year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
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The average age of migrant workers increased from 40.2 years old in 2018 to 41.4 years old in 2020, with the proportion of migrant workers aged over 50 rising from 19.1 per cent in 2016 to 26.4 per cent in 2020. Conversely, the proportion of young migrant workers aged 16 to 30 decreased from 31.9 to 22.7 per cent during the same five-year period.
Among migrant workers, in 2020, 41.4 per cent considered themselves “locals” of the city they lived in – 1.4 percentage points higher than in 2019.
Furthermore, the proportion of migrant workers with a college degree or higher is constantly rising.
“The new generation of migrant workers, especially Generation Z, has a much better understanding of, and adaptability to, urban lifestyles,” said Liu Kaiming, founder of the Institute of Contemporary Observation, which has partnered with many global brands and institutes to supervise supply chains and working conditions at hundreds of factories across the mainland.
“They have a stronger awareness of equal social participation, equal employment rights, and equal access to public services.”
