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September 23, 2005
Construction with Chinese Characteristics
Today’s “nap or no nap” question is decided: there is some major remodeling going on somewhere in our building. From the sound of it, somewhere very close to my room. The building I live in is five stories high and divided into two parts. In the western part are rooms and apartments for foreign teachers and exchange students; the eastern part consists of (or consisted of, apparently) dorms for grad students, a couple exercise rooms, and a large, round, windowed area used during inclement weather by the retired folks who do tai chi in the mornings.
The eastern side of the building isn’t accessible from where I am; there are doors leading to the old dorms at the end of my hallway, but they’re locked. Thus, I can’t really be sure what part of the building they’re tackling without a fairly heavy-duty investigation, requiring leaving my building and the “foreign experts” section of campus, walking around a little landscaped area and several apartment buildings, and coming in from the other side. I think the gate to the other side of the building is currently locked, so it seems a hopeless business.
This morning I was actually grateful that I have to teach early Friday morning: I was up and at ‘em long before 7:15, which was when the sledgehammering started. If I hadn’t been getting ready to teach, I might have been trying to catch up on sleep. Now lunch break must be over; there are a few hammers of various sizes pounding away at various speeds -- a Mines-of-Moria effect -- and now and then some glass shatters. My goldfish must be traumatized, poor little guy. I can see the water in his bowl vibrating.
Last year our half of the building was remodeled: the apartment I’m currently in was made from one and a half old dorm rooms. One room became my bedroom and bathroom, and half of the other became my kitchen. Four apartments like mine were made on each of the five floors, meaning Naomi and I were subjected to 6:00 am-6:00 pm sledgehammering for about three months. I hope this doesn’t last that long.
To do the sledgehammering – and for countless other construction and manufacturing projects in China – migrant workers are employed. These migrant workers are small farmers from the countryside (still called peasants) who arrive en masse in the “big cities” looking for more lucrative work, leaving wives or other relatives at home to care for the farm. They are often taken advantage of by their employers and, as they total somewhere around 100 million, their treatment and living conditions are considered one of the most challenging problems modernizing China is facing. Migrant workers, or 农民工 “nongmin gong”, are bringing China into the 21st century – carried on bamboo poles laid across their backs.
| By huzzlecoo | 02:40 PM
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