The Workshop of the World, Unraveled | Sixth Tone
Wu Huiyuan—Sixth Tone
In Guangzhou, China’s cloth production and trading hub, one third of garment workers come from Hubei, the province hit hardest by COVID-19. In late March and early April, as the pandemic came under control in China and domestic travel restrictions eased, garment workers from Hubei rushed back to Guangzhou, only to find business had shrunk as both demand and prices have dramatically dropped. This video series presents three stories of people whose lives and businesses were hit hard. Factory owner Jiang Jiashun struggled to find enough orders to keep his business afloat. Zhang Yayun and Tang Dongdong, a couple, both garment workers, had to work longer hours for lower wages in order to make ends meet. Liu Shihua has run a garment workshop in Guangzhou for 10 years and made the hard decision to shut down his business and leave town. The heyday of Guangzhou’s garment industry had already passed when the pandemic hit—a victim of disruption by e-commerce and cheaper labor overseas—but COVID brought the industry to an unexpected halt, and, thus far, recovery has been slow and painful.
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In Guangzhou, China’s cloth production and trading hub, one third of garment workers come from Hubei, the province hit hardest by COVID-19. In late March and early April, as the pandemic came under control in China and domestic travel restrictions eased, garment workers from Hubei rushed back to Guangzhou, only to find business had shrunk as both demand and prices have dramatically dropped. This video series presents three stories of people whose lives and businesses were hit hard. Factory owner Jiang Jiashun struggled to find enough orders to keep his business afloat. Zhang Yayun and Tang Dongdong, a couple, both garment workers, had to work longer hours for lower wages in order to make ends meet. Liu Shihua has run a garment workshop in Guangzhou for 10 years and made the hard decision to shut down his business and leave town. The heyday of Guangzhou’s garment industry had already passed when the pandemic hit—a victim of disruption by e-commerce and cheaper labor overseas—but COVID brought the industry to an unexpected halt, and, thus far, recovery has been slow and painful.