Nicholas SmithUpdated Aug 24, 2019I just watched American Factory on Netflix. This is a documentary about a massive Chin

Nicholas Smith

Updated Aug 24, 2019

I just watched American Factory on Netflix. This is a documentary about a massive Chinese corporation (the Fuyao Group) which in 2016 built a $1 billion car glass factory in Dayton, Ohio, and hired 5,000 Americans.

我剛在Netflix上看過《美國工廠》。這是一部記錄片，講述的是一家規模龐大的中國公司（福耀集團）2016年在俄亥俄州代頓市建造了一家價值10億美元的汽車玻璃廠，并雇傭了5000名美國人的故事。

Since most of the Americans were new to glass, and all were new to Chinese organisational culture, each American was paired to a Chinese supervisor/mentor. The Chinese quickly realised that most of the Americans lacked the work ethic that was expected in China. In the words of one manager, “Most of our workers are here to make money, not make glass.”

由于大多數美國人對玻璃都不熟悉，對中國的組織文化也都不熟悉，所以每個美國人都有一個中國師傅。中國人很快意識到，大多數美國人缺乏中國人所期望的職業精神。用一位經理的話說，“我們大多數工人來這里是為了賺錢，而不是制造玻璃?！?

In 2017, Fuyao invited the American floor managers to one of its factories in China so they could witness the productivity and ethos of its workers back home.

2017年，福耀邀請美國基層經理到福耀在中國的一家工廠參觀，讓他們見證家鄉工人的生產力和風氣。

At the Chinese plant, workers had 12-hour, not 8-hour, shifts. They spent those 12 hours working as rapidly and flawlessly as machines, with no apparent breaks. One worker ate some Twinkie rolls while he was working and called them his lunch. A Fuyao manager explained, “Here we believe you have to be worth your salary.” Workers had no weekends — just one or two, maximum three days off, per month. Their holidays were also a few days a year, and those of them whose families were in other towns were only able to see their families every six months or so. Workers who had to sort mountains of broken glass into recycling categories spent all day doing this by hand, without safety goggles or cut-resistant gloves. One man who worked in the furnace showed the burn scars on his arms.(I do not agree with or condone those working conditions, and believe Fuyao employees deserve better, but I am showing the Chinese cultural standard of “hard work.”)

在中國工廠，工人們輪班12小時，而不是8小時。他們花了12個小時像機器一樣快速、完美地工作，沒有明顯的中斷。一個工人在工作時吃了一些面包卷，并把它們稱為他的午餐。福耀的一位經理解釋道：“在這里，我們認為你得對得起你的工資。”工人們沒有周末——每個月只有一兩天，最多休息三天。他們一年中只有幾天年假，他們中那些家庭在其他城鎮的人只能每六個月左右見一次家人。工人們不得不把堆積如山的碎玻璃分類成可回收的類別，他們整天都是用手來做這件事，沒有戴護目鏡，也沒有戴防割手套。一個在鍋爐邊工作的人手臂上有燒傷的疤痕。（我不同意或縱容這種工作條件，我相信福耀的員工應該得到更好的待遇，但我要在展示“努力工作”的中國文化標準。）

In the morning, workers had prep meetings and they were exactly like a roll call in the military. No joking around or idle chitchat. The supervisor chanted out company mottoes, and the workers repeated in enthusiastic unison. Each section of workers (there were 19 men in the section I saw), all dressed in Fuyao’s navy blue uniform, stood at attention, shoulder to shoulder, eyes up straight. Each worker turned his head to his side as he cried out his number, and then the 19th said, “19! 19 people are supposed to be here, and there are 19 people here!” Then the supervisor dismissed them, to begin their duties.

早上，工人們開預備會，他們就像軍隊里的點名一樣。不允許開玩笑或閑聊。主管高呼公司的口號，工人們熱情地齊聲重復。每個工段（我看到的工段里有19個男人），都穿著福耀的海軍藍制服，站在那里目不轉睛，肩并肩，目不轉睛。每個工人一邊喊著自己的號碼一邊把頭轉向一邊，然后第19個工人說：“19！應到19個人，實到19個人！“然后主管解散了他們，開始他們的工作。

Beyond this, Fuyao dedicated considerable resources to keeping employee morale very high (without changing compensation or working conditions). The company has its own anthem and many “patriotic” songs, frequently sung at parties. For me it was so weird to hear a song about the virtues of lean manufacturing! And there were a lot of parties and events like any concert, full of lights, music and entertainment, to celebrate the factory accomplishing this or that milestone. Some employees worked as dance or singing groups. There were performances staffed by employees’ children. At one event, eight Fuyao employees brought their partners and had a mass wedding right there.

除此之外，福耀還投入了大量資源來保持員工的士氣（不改變薪酬或工作條件）。該公司有自己的廠歌和許多“愛國”歌曲，經常在聚會上演唱。對我來說，聽到一首關于精益制造優點的歌真是太奇怪了！有很多派對和活動，任何音樂會都充滿燈光，音樂和娛樂，以慶祝工廠完成這個或那個里程碑。一些員工擔任舞蹈或歌唱團體。有員工的孩子參加演出。在一次活動中，八名福耀員工帶來了他們的伴侶，并在那里舉行了一場集體婚禮。

When the American managers returned to Dayton, one of them had to calm down an angry employee loudly complaining that he had been waiting two weeks for three busted microwave ovens to be replaced, and that the large lunchroom was going to be converted into more production space.

當美國經理們回到代頓時，其中一位經理不得不讓一位憤怒的員工冷靜下來，他大聲抱怨說，他已經等了兩周，等著誰來把三臺壞了的微波爐被換掉，而這間大餐廳將被改造成更大的生產車間。

Efforts to replicate Fuyao’s prep meetings and company events failed miserably at the Dayton plant. The American employees just rolled their eyes. Instead, they complained about their low wages (starting at $12.84/hr) and unsafe working conditions. Some of their concerns, like the high rate of workplace injuries, were legitimate. The company raised the starting wage by two dollars and managed to get its act together on the safety issue. However, the essential problem remained unresolved: Americans just weren’t used to the expectations of their Chinese supervisors, and found them unrealistic and often unbelievable. A factory with 5,000 workers had a turnover of 3,000 workers in two years.

在代頓工廠，復制福耀籌備會議和公司活動的努力慘遭失敗。美國雇員翻著白眼，他們抱怨自己的工資低（起薪12.84美元/小時）、工作條件不安全。他們的一些擔憂，如工傷率高，是合理的。這家公司把起薪提高了兩美元，并設法在安全問題上采取行動。然而，根本問題仍未解決：美國人無法適應中國監管機構的期望，覺得他們定的目標不切實際，而且常常令人難以置信。兩年內，一家5000名工人的工廠的營業額只達到3000人的程度。

Watching this documentary made me understand what Chinese people are used to in terms of hard work. Their bar is way above that of most people in the Western world. For a worker in China, it is normal to have to give almost all of their time, energy and freedom to their company. They’re not an army, but they do have the discipline, organisation, propaganda, focus, efficiency, and productivity of any US Marine infantry platoon.

看了這部紀錄片，我明白了中國人在努力工作方面的傳統。他們的抗壓能力比西方世界大多數人都高。對于一個在中國工作的人來說，幾乎把所有的時間、精力和自由都交給公司，這看起來是很正常的。他們不是軍隊，但他們有紀律，組織，宣傳，重點，效率，有和任何美國海軍陸戰隊步兵排一樣的生產力。

The Chinese company is like a stern, demanding father. In China there is no culture of supervisors or managers giving positive reinforcement to their workers. When a Chinese supervisor yelled at an American worker in the Dayton plant, she cried; in China you’d just have to swallow your pride, keep a straight face and improve your game immediately.

這家中國公司就像一個嚴厲、苛刻的父親。在中國，主管或管理者沒有對員工進行積極激勵的文化。當一名中國主管對代頓工廠的一名美國工人大喊大叫時，她哭了；在中國，你只能收起你的傲氣，保持一張嚴肅的臉，立刻改進你的工作。

In China overtime is mandatory, whenever you’re asked. The Dayton factory’s Chinese supervisors were incredulous to discover that they couldn’t force overtime on anybody.

在中國，只要你被要求，加班都是強制性的。代頓工廠的中國主管們無語的發現他們不能強迫任何人加班。

Oh, and there are no unions in China. There’s no such thing as labour relations or collective bargaining. Fuyao struggled to prevent its American workers in Dayton from forming a union. In the end, it hired a “union avoidance consultancy” to convince most of its workers to vote against forming a union (and succeeded), while the workers who were the loudest in campaigning for a union were fired.

哦，而且中國沒有工會。不存在勞資關系或集體談判。福耀努力阻止在代頓的美國工人成立工會。最后，它聘請了一家“工會回避咨詢公司”，說服大多數工人投票反對組建工會（并獲得成功），而在爭取工會的活動中呼聲最高的工人則被解雇。

”At the end of the documentary the chairman of Fuyao said, “The point of living is to work.”

在紀錄片的結尾，福耀董事長說：“生活的意義在于工作。

I realised that at 30, I have never worked a single day like a Chinese employee, even one much younger than me. If I had a factory job in China, if I didn’t radically change, I would be fired on my first day.

我意識到，30歲的時候，我從來沒有像中國員工那樣工作過一天，哪怕我年輕的時候。如果我在中國有一份工廠工作，如果我不徹底改變，我第一天就會被解雇。

I also realised that if the Fuyao factory I saw is typical of a Chinese operation, then there is simply no way that any Western company can outproduce or outperform a Chinese rival, unless it was 100% automated or something. American and Chinese workers are as different as night and day. The Chinese worker puts his company above himself and gives it so much for so little. We say we work hard, but in China hard work means something entirely different.

我還意識到，如果我看到的福耀工廠是典型的中國企業，那么任何西方企業都不可能生產出超過中國競爭對手的產品，除非它是100%自動化的或是別的什么。美國工人和中國工人的一天是不一樣的。這位中國工人把公司凌駕于自己之上，只賺很少的錢就付出那么多。我們說我們努力工作，但在中國，努力工作意味著完全不同的東西。

This also helps us understand tiger parenting. No wonder Chinese factory workers, most of whom probably weren’t able to get into China’s horrifically competitive university system, make the education of their children a fanatical priority.

這也有助于我們理解中國嚴厲的教育方式。中國工廠工人，他們中的大多數可能無法考上競爭激烈的中國大學，所以把孩子的教育作為一個狂熱的優先事項。

——————回復——————

Megan Cox

Sep 19, 2019 · 28 upvotes including Nicholas Smith

After living in China for 3 years and working with/in factories on behalf of my company and others, I returned to the US to open my own factory. When my employees didn’t immediately carry the same sense of duty and attention to work as the Chinese workers in the factories I just spent the past 3 years in, I have to admit that I felt a little lost. Where was their sense of pride in their work? Where was their work ethic?

It’s been a long, slow road, and we’ll never look like Fuyao (nor should we, really) but there is a happy medium between the current state of affairs in US manufacturing and the Chinese way of getting stuff done. We can’t force Chinese values and culture onto our staff, but I think we can meet in the middle somewhere to engage our employees and re-instill a sense of pride and duty to their work.

在中國生活了3年后，我代表我的公司和其他人在工廠工作了3年后，我回到美國開辦了自己的工廠。當我的員工沒有像我中國工人那樣對工作有責任感和關注時，我不得不承認我感到有點失落。他們對工作的自豪感到哪里去了?他們的職業道德在哪里?這是一條漫長而緩慢的道路，我們永遠不會看起來像福耀(我們也不應該看起來像福耀，真的)，但在美國制造業的現狀和中國的做事方式之間有一個折中的辦法。我們不能把中國的價值觀和文化強加給我們的員工，但我認為我們可以找到一個折中的辦法，讓我們的員工參與進來，并重新灌輸他們對工作的自豪感和責任感。

Dale Coder

Aug 30, 2019 · 86 upvotes including Nicholas Smith

The Chinese had this same work ethic in the nineteenth century. When Americans realized that Chinese immigrants who worked like this were going to compete for their jobs, they simply banned Chinese immigrants. See the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Perhaps the tariffs are a 21st century equivalent of that.

中國人在19世紀也有同樣的職業道德。當美國人意識到像這樣工作的中國移民將會搶走他們的工作時，他們干脆禁止了中國移民。看看1882年的排華法案?；蛟S關稅是21世紀的排除競爭的手段。

George Géal-Killy

Sep 19, 2019 · 7 upvotes

There is nothing to learn from China here for that's what the others were doing a century ago. And guess who tops the productivity rankings nowadays?

When the Chinese will shift to a productive society, you can be sure they would have changed their methods. And with the side effects of the one child policy, it might happen sooner than expected.

這里沒有什么可以向中國學習的，因為一個世紀前其他國家就是這么做的。猜猜現在誰的生產率排名第一?當中國變成一個有生產力發達的社會時，你可以肯定他們會改變他們的方法。由于獨生子女政策的副作用，它可能會比預期來得更早。

Thomas Brown

Sep 19, 2019 · 1 upvote

As wages rise, labor and manufacturing is outsourced to ASEAN and African nations, automation increases, and the middle class grows expect the 996 idea to end. (For those who don’t know, it’s the idea that you should work from 9am-9pm, 6 days a week.) There will be increasing pressure on the NPC to legislate and enforce shorter work days, safer working conditions, and generally humane treatment of workers.

People like Jack Ma can praise the 996 ideal and espouse nonsense like “working harder brings more rewards” but that is transparently wrong for the vast majority of laborers. You don’t get more rewards, just less time with your family. And more and more Chinese are realizing this, especially the young.

隨著工資上漲，勞動力和制造業外包給東盟和非洲國家，自動化程度提高，中產階級增長，預計996的工作方式將結束。(對于那些不知道996的人來說，996就是你從早上9點上班到晚上9點，一周工作6天。)人大將面臨越來越大的壓力，要求立法和實施更短的工作時間、更安全的工作條件，以及普遍的工人人道待遇。

MaYun贊揚996，公開支持“更努力的工作帶來更多的福報”這樣的無稽之談，但這對絕大多數勞動者來說顯然是錯誤的。你不會得到更多的獎勵，但和家人在一起的時間變少了。越來越多的中國人意識到了這一點，尤其是年輕人。

Chris Mackay

Sep 22, 2019

“The Chinese worker puts his company above himself and gives it so much for so little. We say we work hard, but in China hard work means something entirely different.”

I think this is jumping to conclusions. We’re all human. It’s all about face really. I suppose you did not encounter the regular nap taking at the office or ‘pretending’ to do work whilst waiting for your team leader to go home.

中國工人把公司看得比自己重要，付出得多，得到的卻少。我們說我們努力工作，但在中國，努力工作意味著完全不同的東西。”我認為這太草率下結論了。我們都是人類。一切都是為了面子。我想你沒有遇到過在辦公室打盹或者在等著你的組長回家的時候“假裝”工作的情況。

Lance Crayon

Nov 20

Not every factory in China is like Fuyao. Perhaps a documentary about Foxconn would balance the scales? Furthermore, I would never trust a documentary produced by a politician.

不是所有的中國工廠都像福耀一樣。也許一部關于富士康的紀錄片能匹配這種印象?此外，我從不相信由政客制作的紀錄片。

Kate Zir

Sep 20, 2019

I have to say that at least in nursing 12 hour shifts are nothing unusual in the US. And that’s just the official length and does not include off the clock time. And while theoretically you get a lunch break there frequently isn’t time to go to the bathroom, let alone take a break.

我不得不說，至少在護理工作方面，12小時輪班在美國并不罕見。這只是官方規定的長度，不包括下班時間。雖然理論上你有午休時間，但你經常沒有時間去洗手間，更別說休息了。

Poppy Cotzee

Sep 19, 2019 · 2 upvotes

What I got from this is that the workers are exploited. Yes, it's good to have a work ethic, but don't the kids need their parents too? Help with homework, teacher-parent conference day, sudden high fever, visit to the dentist/doctor etc?

And as for the lack of safety, all that dedication and no compensation in return will mean nothing when a worker gets seriously injured and can never provide for their family again. Their companies view them as expandable and replacable.

我從中看到的是工人們被剝削了。是的，有職業道德很好，但是孩子們難道不需要他們的父母嗎?輔導家庭作業、家長會、突然發高燒、看牙醫/醫生等等?至于缺乏安全，所有的奉獻和沒有回報的補償將毫無意義，當一個工人嚴重受傷，再也不能養活他們的家人。他們的公司卻認為他們是可替代的。

更多外網時政評論敬請關注公眾號：【外網視角】