Little brother sees life through red-tinted glasses
Having lived the privileged life of an American expat in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, Ben Ross wanted to know what life was like on the other side. So, the 27-year-old from Kansas City, Missouri, took an entry-level job at a local barbershop last month.
"When you're a foreigner in China, you live a pretty easy life," Ross says. "We can work about 12 hours a week and make four times as much as a Chinese worker makes in one month of the same job. I wanted to see what it was like from the Chinese working-class side."
He said that he hoped this one-month "project", which ended on June 8, would help him truly understand, "what it meant to be a foreigner living in China" and, "what it meant to be an American living in America". Ross also documented his experiences on his blog, www.benross.net/wordpages.
Ross said that most foreigners were curious about his behind-the-scenes experiences at the barbershop, while most Chinese appreciated what he was doing.
"A lot of Chinese people respected it and thought it was a good idea, because they know most foreigners have a pretty cushy life here," Ross said.
During his unpaid training period at Red Sun Barber's Shop in downtown Fuzhou as one of the shop's "little brothers", Ross swept clippings and cleaned toilets until he graduated to washing hair.
"Most people thought I was crazy, because they think I could be teaching English and making 10 times as much," he says. "If I could sit down and talk with them for 5 or 10 minutes, they might still think I was crazy, but most people would get it."
He said it took time for his manager and coworkers to take him seriously.
"They thought, 'OK, he's here today but not tomorrow'," Ross said. "As I kept showing up each day, they were reassured. And after about a week, people started opening up."
Ross asked to be treated just like any other employee and said his boss was, "in on it more than anybody else". "I wanted it so that if I screwed up, he'd make a big fuss rather than let it slide," he said. "Sometimes, I'd be sweeping the floor, and I'd miss a spot, so he'd yell at me and make me do it all over again."
The biggest adjustment for Ross was going from working 10 to 12 hours a week to 70 hours.
Ross was not paid because he was a trainee, but said he spent less during that period than the wage for a little brother. This was because he was at the shop for 11 hours most days. A little brother earns between 600 yuan ($78.73) and 800 yuan ($104.97) per month. The lowest monthly income is about 500 yuan ($66) in Fujian.
The friendships Ross formed with coworkers seemed to shorten the long workdays until, before he knew it, Ross was dreading his last day. But his newfound friends, whom he described as "trapped" by a lack of education, told him: "If you work here for a year, you'd probably hate it."
(China Daily 07/06/2007 page19)
