38 CultureShock! China
take the toughest ‘no one else wants them’ factory jobs in
China’s boomtowns.
If, like most businesspeople assigned to China, you have
an ayi (cleaning lady and/or nanny), live in an apartment
complex with tended grounds and gardens, and work in an
office building where cleaning crews scrub the bathrooms and
sweep the halls, you will see some of the floating population
around you every day. If you speak a little Chinese, you
may find their stories fascinating. Many are, for instance,
more educated than meets the eye. They may have been
schoolteachers or nurses in their home villages, but may earn
more for their families scrubbing toilets for ten months in
Shanghai than they could for several years at home.
Interestingly, there is also a slowly growing awareness
among the floating population of their rights as workers;
some of the most notorious sweatshops in Guangzhou have
had to start cleaning up their acts to be able to keep attracting
workers. Of course, some of them have also started closing
their doors in China, and setting up shop in countries like
Bangladesh, where there are poorer and more desperate