China Blue By Micha Peled

China Blue is a documentary film directed by Micha Peled released in 2005. The film revolves around a young sixteen-year-old girl named Jasmine Li who is from a province named Sichuan. She works in a Chinese jeans factory named ‘Lifeng Clothes Co. Ltd.’ which is in Shaxi, Guangdong. This documentary talks about the poor and socially unacceptable working conditions in the factories of China. It shows how over 130 million Chinese peasants especially young women have left their villages in search of jobs due to globalization. One of these is Jasmine Lee who has left her village and family in search of a job so that she can support her family financially. The documentary begins with the sales manager of the factory saying

The workers are working like robots. The whole scene looks very mechanized. It seems as if they are not content with their job. She shares a room with 12 girls in a grim concrete dorm. They work for 18 hours a day, seven days a week without any overtime pay. This documentary also shows the viewers a glimpse of gender inequality as Jasmine’s parents did not want their second child to be a girl and they went through all the trouble of conceiving a second child just in the hopes that it would be a boy. It is very unfair when the owner calls the workers uneducated and way beyond the capacity to learn work ethics. That is not the case. They may be uneducated but they are definitely skilled workers. The documentary is a perfect example that portrays class struggle. The working class is being severely exploited and abused. They are treated as mere puppets. They have to pretend as if the factory job is perfect for them when consumers or inspectors visit them. They are being severely oppressed. Most of the workers are too young to be employed. Chinese factories do appoint child labourers. Various clients visit the factories just to ensure their products are of good quality. They are least bothered about the labour conditions. This film