Mardi Gras: Made in China
"My God, they love my beads!" -- Roger, Chinese Factory Owner
In Mardi Gras: Made in China, David Redmon follows the bead trail -- from the libertine streets of New Orleans, where revellers bump-and-grind and strip, exhibiting the worst of western consumer and sexual excesses -- to the factory compound of China, where teenage girls work 14-16 hours per day under wretched conditions for $60/month to produce the beads proffered for a glimpse of flesh. The movie juxtaposes culture, economy and the lives of girls, in context of context of globalization. The result is a stark contrast that depicts dramatic realities of Chinese factory workers with western consumer excesses.
Redmon travelled twice to China and New Orleans to make this documentary. He was allowed open access to the largest bead factory in China and its owner. The factory is powered mostly by the labour of teenage girls, who work for meager wages, under harsh conditions, to make money to send home -- and hopefully get a better life, even though they have come to accept that the dreams they harbour will never materialize. The factory compound is home for the girls for most of the year -- the factory only closes for two weeks during the Chinese New Year, when the girls return home to their families. The girls sleep ten in a room, with two sharing a cot. On Sundays, they're allowed to leave the compound. The compound is rigged with barbed wire fences, that the factory owner says is to keep people from getting in. The girls have quotas to reach, and as the factory owner repeatedly stressed -- if they don't achieve their quotas, they are punished by losing their wages.
Redmond documents the stories of the factory workers in China and returns to New Orleans during carnival. At the Mardi Gras parade, he introduces some of the partygoers to the girls from the bead factory in China via video. The reaction is mixed -- from befuddlement to inconsideration. Thankfully, some wake from their inebriated state, with disgust. In his second trip to China, Redmon introduces the factory workers to licentious use of their beads at Mardi Gras via photographs. The Chinese girls can't understand it -- just as most people won't. The beads are ugly, people scream for them -- strip for them -- and then discard them on the streets when the night is over. The girls are glad however for the jobs. Glad that the crazy Americans would pay for their labour. They are upset however at how much they are paid when compared to the cost of the beads in the US. They seem resigned to their fate, to their lives. They just want better treatment from the factory owner. They don't want to be punished. They want better wages.
That is the ultimate lesson of globalization. The world doesn't have to return to the time of the East India Company. Labour will be a commodity somewhere in the world, and wherever it is, that's where factories will pop up -- until the world gets to the point where automated manufacturing is cheaper than general labour. Humanity however, doesn't need to be a commodity. Our dreams and hopes are just as important as the hopes and dreams of others. We don't need to binge at the expense of those in the third world. Their lives, their hopes, their dreams, should be respected.
I saw this film with my wife at the Bloor Cinema, tonight.
Related:
In Mardi Gras: Made in China, David Redmon follows the bead trail -- from the libertine streets of New Orleans, where revellers bump-and-grind and strip, exhibiting the worst of western consumer and sexual excesses -- to the factory compound of China, where teenage girls work 14-16 hours per day under wretched conditions for $60/month to produce the beads proffered for a glimpse of flesh. The movie juxtaposes culture, economy and the lives of girls, in context of context of globalization. The result is a stark contrast that depicts dramatic realities of Chinese factory workers with western consumer excesses.
Redmon travelled twice to China and New Orleans to make this documentary. He was allowed open access to the largest bead factory in China and its owner. The factory is powered mostly by the labour of teenage girls, who work for meager wages, under harsh conditions, to make money to send home -- and hopefully get a better life, even though they have come to accept that the dreams they harbour will never materialize. The factory compound is home for the girls for most of the year -- the factory only closes for two weeks during the Chinese New Year, when the girls return home to their families. The girls sleep ten in a room, with two sharing a cot. On Sundays, they're allowed to leave the compound. The compound is rigged with barbed wire fences, that the factory owner says is to keep people from getting in. The girls have quotas to reach, and as the factory owner repeatedly stressed -- if they don't achieve their quotas, they are punished by losing their wages.
Redmond documents the stories of the factory workers in China and returns to New Orleans during carnival. At the Mardi Gras parade, he introduces some of the partygoers to the girls from the bead factory in China via video. The reaction is mixed -- from befuddlement to inconsideration. Thankfully, some wake from their inebriated state, with disgust. In his second trip to China, Redmon introduces the factory workers to licentious use of their beads at Mardi Gras via photographs. The Chinese girls can't understand it -- just as most people won't. The beads are ugly, people scream for them -- strip for them -- and then discard them on the streets when the night is over. The girls are glad however for the jobs. Glad that the crazy Americans would pay for their labour. They are upset however at how much they are paid when compared to the cost of the beads in the US. They seem resigned to their fate, to their lives. They just want better treatment from the factory owner. They don't want to be punished. They want better wages.
That is the ultimate lesson of globalization. The world doesn't have to return to the time of the East India Company. Labour will be a commodity somewhere in the world, and wherever it is, that's where factories will pop up -- until the world gets to the point where automated manufacturing is cheaper than general labour. Humanity however, doesn't need to be a commodity. Our dreams and hopes are just as important as the hopes and dreams of others. We don't need to binge at the expense of those in the third world. Their lives, their hopes, their dreams, should be respected.
I saw this film with my wife at the Bloor Cinema, tonight.
Related:
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