My overall experience
Concluding on my cultural experience with China, I have this to say” America’s society is totally different from China’s society.” My cultural encounter with China has been an informative and transformative experience. In my cultural encounter, I wanted to find out information on child labor in China. Before searching for information, what I been doing was relating China’s norms to America’s norms and trying to make sense of it, I now know that was not an effective and correct way to go about it. I understand China have their own cultural relativistic norms. As stated in my first blog, I first thought that because America and China shared the same ideology with children working at a young age, any other way would seem wrong. This was false, I feel as though now I understand China’s situation and how it is different from the society I was raised. I now know that one of the main reasons why children work early is because their families are poor and cannot afford to go to school, unlike the United States where public schooling is available for children in similar conditions. Then, just like the two interviewees, I thought it was the government fault because in the United States, such lack of action would not be tolerated and go unrecognized. Unlike the United States, China makes up a large portion of the world population. It is going to be more difficult for China to enforce rules upon their citizens, than if the United States tried to. A great number of children were reported using counterfeit ID to do labor. Most of these children were under 16 years old. In the United States, this is not allowed. It is to my understanding that one has to be 16 years old to work; otherwise, one has to do side jobs like wash a car, rake leaves, ect. Those who are 16 or older in America who attains a job, is most likely going to spend the money earned on him or herself because American are known to be very individualistic. However, in China, children work mainly in order to help provide for their families because they are more giving towards family. This is how I see the difference in society in China from the United States. Besides contrasting the differences, I learned a lot of interesting information I would not have if I did not choose to do this cultural encounter. I learned that some children in China are not always chosen to work because they are poor, but rather some children are abducted and fooled into working. Also, I learned that some American companies just want to benefit off products made from child labor, instead of get rid of the issue. Also, one of the major things that I notice while I was doing the cultural encounter is the effect of the media has on an individual. Prior to doing this research the media played a major role in me deciding what China’s way of living was like. The interview with the Wheaton and Curry college students only farther supported my point about the media influencing people’s perceptions. Even though this cultural blog was only about 4 months long and I have not explored everything there is know about China’s child labor, I feel as though now I can tell fact from fiction when questions regarding about China’s child labor is raised.
3 comments:
Thank you for your heartfelt comment that you left me on my blog. I believe that China is one of the main countries that we have to stop. In my next post, I am writing about how England is following the ways of China. I would like to hear about what you think about it.
Marcus, I like how you addressed this issue as it is one that I have always been interested in but have never actually tried to analyze or take much time to look at. I was intrigued by a lot of the information that you provided in your blog such as the part about the child labor used by schools. The fact that schools are essentially promoting child labor by calling it a class or a work and study program is quite surprising to us but as you said, it is not our culture and they have different beliefs. This could be looked at as beneficial in their culture because at a young age they are learning how to provide for their families and work, although I personally do not agree with it by any means. I was shocked at the part with the children getting tricked into getting into the van with the other children and being forced to work. You also addressed an issue that is always prevalent in anything that has to do with child labor. The poor working conditions are abundant with child labor, like how you said 1 of 13 factories abided by the 44 hours a week rule. I believe this topic was a good choice because it requires an in depth analysis to truly understand what you are viewing. In order to understand the way of life of the people in China, it seemed to take you a while to find a conclusion you were comfortable with. I like how you kept an open mind like this, because when a person is looking at a culture different from their own, it is impossible to understand the other culture without first clearing their thoughts and opinions. The many different factors that you learned of, which contribute to the child labor in China are all ways in which you used this blog to further your knowledge of a culture which we are confused and appalled by. I was disturbed to hear about the U.S making profits from trade and being one of the reasons behind China not wanting to put child labor laws into place. I was also not completely surprised because just means we want to by goods at a cheap price as Americans. You blog provided me with new information and different perspectives to better my understanding of the child labor in China.
I was drawn to reading your blog because I wanted to learn more about child labor in China myself because we, as American's, rely heavily on China for our clothing industry as well as for many products that we sell here in the U.S. I was fascinated to learn about our own American companies’ involvement with the lack of child labor laws that exist in China. After reading your entry, I learned that the reason for there being a lack of labor laws was because American companies’ want to wreak the benefits of having low wage workers. This made me realize the impact our own culture has upon others, how our industry can affect another country and the lives of its people significantly. The fact that children have to work at such a young age in China made me reflect upon the rights that children here in the U.S. have. Children have worked in America’s history, but today child labor is illegal and for good reason. I believe it isn’t right for a child to have to work, however, as I learned form your blogs, many people in China do not agree with it either but it is necessary in order for families to feed themselves. I was also appalled by the labor conditions in China that the children are subjected to. However, I think you did a great job by adding the entry on suggestions for China. However, I think you could have also compared the problems America faced with child labor in our history and how we overcame it and how maybe that could be applied to abolishing child labor in China as well. After reading your blogs I gained a better understanding of why child labor exists in China and the conditions that children must work in. I also learned about the perceptions the people of China have on child labor and what possibilities have been proposed to solve the issue of child labor. I feel that you did an excellent job in relating your information and informing your readers about the issue of child labor in China.
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