Early in the Industrial Revolution people voluntarily moved from the countryside to the cities despite all that, so apparently a lot of them thought it was an improvement. Some of the cities were proud of the soot, since it showed that they were participating in Progress.
You can see some of this repeating in China. Migrant workers move to the cities because, while what they can earn is low, it is a lot higher than subsistence farming in the countryside. "The Last Train Home" (documentary) follows such a family, although to understand the tragedy in the documentary you need to understand that Mao created the hukou system to prevent exactly this, which means that their children can only receive state education in the countryside.
Yes, presumably they meant cruel as in merciless or unforgiving (which is acceptable usage). This is a constant in everything from documentaries like the last train home or the biggest chinese resturant in the world and even a theme in major movies like aftershock.
People say that China is 10 years in the future and 10 years in the past, but in many ways it's 50 years both ways.
Really recommend watching The Last Train Home. It's a documentary about a family that works in Guangzhou in order to pay for their children's education in their rural village. Deals with many of these same issues. And is a haunting and fantastic documentary.
Also it's available on netflix
>In China, it can be argued that this represents progress over the alternative, which would likely be rural poverty. The alternative might be 16-hour days, without anything resembling a dorm.
Well said. I would highly suggest that people watch the documentary "the last train home" (available on Netflix streaming), where it shows you the mentality of migrant workers who leave rural China for factory jobs in urban China.
> The effects of the Great Recession of 2008 may be felt in the United States for years, but they barely scratched China.
It barely scratched China in metropolitan areas, maybe, but certainly had a large effect in manufacturing hubs like GuangZhou (see documentaries like "The Last Train Home").
As an aside: my parents recently made this move after seeing their two sons live in Taiwan on Rotary Exchange (mid-50s, caucasian, from a podunk town in upstate New York) and are having the time of their lives, but the wealth disparity in mainland China is certainly stunning if not somewhat depressing.
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Early in the Industrial Revolution people voluntarily moved from the countryside to the cities despite all that, so apparently a lot of them thought it was an improvement. Some of the cities were proud of the soot, since it showed that they were participating in Progress.
You can see some of this repeating in China. Migrant workers move to the cities because, while what they can earn is low, it is a lot higher than subsistence farming in the countryside. "The Last Train Home" (documentary) follows such a family, although to understand the tragedy in the documentary you need to understand that Mao created the hukou system to prevent exactly this, which means that their children can only receive state education in the countryside.
Yes, presumably they meant cruel as in merciless or unforgiving (which is acceptable usage). This is a constant in everything from documentaries like the last train home or the biggest chinese resturant in the world and even a theme in major movies like aftershock.
People say that China is 10 years in the future and 10 years in the past, but in many ways it's 50 years both ways.
Really recommend watching The Last Train Home. It's a documentary about a family that works in Guangzhou in order to pay for their children's education in their rural village. Deals with many of these same issues. And is a haunting and fantastic documentary. Also it's available on netflix
>In China, it can be argued that this represents progress over the alternative, which would likely be rural poverty. The alternative might be 16-hour days, without anything resembling a dorm.
Well said. I would highly suggest that people watch the documentary "the last train home" (available on Netflix streaming), where it shows you the mentality of migrant workers who leave rural China for factory jobs in urban China.
> The effects of the Great Recession of 2008 may be felt in the United States for years, but they barely scratched China.
It barely scratched China in metropolitan areas, maybe, but certainly had a large effect in manufacturing hubs like GuangZhou (see documentaries like "The Last Train Home").
As an aside: my parents recently made this move after seeing their two sons live in Taiwan on Rotary Exchange (mid-50s, caucasian, from a podunk town in upstate New York) and are having the time of their lives, but the wealth disparity in mainland China is certainly stunning if not somewhat depressing.