Paper cuts

Migrant worker Hu Meili taking a small break with her son.

Huge bundles of reed line the southern banks of Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake located in northeastern Hunan Province, every year between January and June to feed the hundreds of paper mills nearby.

South Dongting Lake is an important international marsh and its abundant supplies of reed are harvested between January and June every year by special groups of migrant workers called "Qiaomin" who come mostly from Hunan, Guizhou and Hubei provinces. They are mostly aged around 40. And like the reed they carry, these workers bend but do not break under the tough life they lead.

At the Yuanjiang Paper Mill, for example, Xu Yun, 43, is up at the crack of dawn. He shares his 20-square-meter room with at least four others and sometimes the group comprises up to eight people.

They work from 7 am to 6 pm, carrying heavy bundles of reed often weighing between 35 and 75 kilograms from the lakeside to the tractors, from where they are taken to the storehouses of the paper mill. They run to the tractors taking just 20 seconds to deliver each bundle.

 

 

They work in 16-member teams and Xu is the leader of one such, by virtue of having completed schooling up to third grade.

The wages for carrying one tractor load is 40 yuan ($5) And with one team managing the load from 10 tractors, every worker makes on average 40 to 50 yuan ($5-$6) per day.

Mao Jumei, whose daughter is already working in the city, watches over her son as he does his homework.

Workers loading the reed bundles that weigh anywhere between 35 and 75 kilograms.

 

 

The back -breaking work leaves the workers easily thirsty but they themselves have to take turns to bring the water in discarded diesel oil containers.

Each load for a tractor is delivered by the carrier from the lakeside. Photos by Zhou Chao

Newcomers suffer the most and often come down with sore shoulders and backs. Many leave after just a day.

Rain and snow pose a particular challenge as the workers are prone to slip while loading the reeds.

The "Qiaomin" include many women who equal the men in carrying the heavy loads. Their children often play by the lake, watching their parents at work. Despite the hard work and meagre earnings, some workers manage to put their children through school.

South Dongting Lake is an important international marsh and its abundant supplies of reed feed the paper mills of Hunan Province.

For example, You Qiansen and Mao Jumei, a couple who have been working for eight years as carriers, talk proudly of their daughter who has graduated from a beauty training school.

To save money, Xu and some other workers grow vegetables on the nearby barren fields in their free time. By cooking their own vegetables they manage a meal for just 0.7 yuan ($0.09)

The calloused hands of Xu Yun, a 43-year-old veteran carrier, testify to the harsh life of the "Qiaomin" who make on average 40 to 50 yuan ($5-$6) per day.

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But mechanization is threatening their livelihood.

The manager of the Yuanjiang Paper Mill has said plans are underway to introduce tower cranes to carry the reeds. Although priced between 70,000 yuan ($8,974) for new ones and 30,000 yuan ($3,846) for second-hand ones, these cranes will cut labor use by 80 percent.

With increasing mechanization, the "Qiaomin", like many other aspects of China, are also likely to become a thing of the past.

(China Daily 04/06/2007 page18)