China's Migrant Workers (Essay Sample)

People in the contemporary world use a lot of approaches to tell their stories and paint a clear image of how the world looks and is set up. The issue of socio-economic status continues to hit the current world as the wealthy continue to determine numerous aspects of the world while the poor and the minorities continue to struggle. In China, visual art has been prominent in outlining different places or fighting for people. Visual arts primarily entail any primarily visual art forms, such as photography, painting, sculpture, drawing, and architecture, among many more. Migrant workers have been influential in how China is set up and can be credited for numerous activities that have led to the development and growth of China. However, they continue to receive little credit for their efforts, thereby underlining the continuous use of different visual art forms to tell their story and outline the socio-economic gap between them and the majority of the Chinese people.
Migrant workers have been in China since the mid-1980s, when rural-urban migration started gaining popularity. The number of rural-urban migration doubled as numerous opportunities were working in the urban areas, while the need for a constant supply of labor continually developed as the country continued to grow. By the 1990s, the number of migrant workers in China was extensively high, with China's 'Tidal Wave' of migrant labor taking place in the late 20th century.
Literature Review
Migrant workers are a vital source of labor in China's economy, but their efforts often go unnoticed and unappreciated as they lack credit for their actions. Migrant workers often feel that they have to continually prove themselves to acquire permanent migration status, while their position in society is continually under threat (Han, Shi, & Ling, 2014). Therefore, they do not push to get the credit they deserve and can at most times be disregarded. The situation outlined above suggests that, despite carrying out numerous duties and continually seeking to improve the Chinese economy, migrant workers are continually considered outsiders. They benefit from staying in the nation and having a source of income even if their names will not be mentioned when people talk about the individuals who supplied the labor that built different infrastructures. The condition that these social workers find themselves in continually necessitates enacting different approaches to represent these people and speak out for them, thereby underlining the use of art to pursue this fight.
Li (2010) argues that the rural situation of migrant workers in the rural areas cannot be described as ideal as they continually encounter numerous blocks to make it in the region. The article suggests that migrant workers were essential to developing a state that continues to thrive today. However, migrant workers have experienced numerous shortcomings, ranging from lack of written contracts, wage arrears, and long working hours, among others (Li, 2010). Over the years, the numerous challenges they have encountered have failed to showcase what they have achieved so far or their importance in developing the current economy. Migrant workers have been at the core of Chinese development from a third-world country to one of the major superpowers. Therefore, the situation should have stimulated the development of measures that continually help these workers get better representation and conditions. Different art forms have been one way to tell their story and let others know what they have been doing and achieving despite being regarded as minorities.
Other than the use of visual arts to tell the story of the Chine migrant workers, different organizations have stepped forward to represent these workers. Trade unions and welfare have been crucial in bridging the socio-economic gap that exists in China. Their primary focus is the need to improve the well-being of the workers by ensuring they are insured, acquire fringe benefits, and express their grievances (Booth, Freeman, & Meng, 2021). The plights of the migrant workers are unlikely to end completely, and thus they continually need different platforms and different approaches to fight for their rights. The presence of unions has been crucial in outlining the narrative that artists have used to represent them or tell their stories. Therefore, the growing attention on their interests has primarily been due to the continued focus on them and their needs.
Conversely, artists have been pivotal in helping offer hope to migrant workers in China through creative work to motivate them and fight for them. The enactment of an extremely creative work precarity has stimulated the use of a lens that primarily focuses on the hope to talk to migrant workers (Chen, 2021). Wall painters have, for instance, sought to tell their stories in walls within China by outlining the hopes they have had over the years while reminding people of their journey and struggles while in China. The wall painters have used different approaches. For starters, they have been key in looking at their initial hopes for the future while also creating artistic images that outline a utopian future (Chen, 2021). These artists have shown the people that they are still struggling, but they have achieved something with their efforts. Also, they have further let other people who may not understand the story of migrant workers better understand them and, if possible, empathize with them. The artists contribute to the political economy of hope for thousands of migrant workers within China.
Chinese migrant workers have long been considered peasants, which has necessitated individuals to criticize the lack of peasant art by the beginning of the 21st century. One notable critic came from Gu Chengfeng, a Chinese art critic, who in the early 2000s, lamented the lack of peasants in Chinese contemporary art (Yi, 2016). He understood that contemporary art is urban but still felt the need to represent peasants or show exhibitions that told their stories. Art can play a key role, such as telling a story, saving history, or fighting for a certain course, among others. Thus, Yi (2016) talks about how the eventual representation of peasants in the contemporary world has helped incorporate a crucial people in the history of the Chinese people. Chengfeng felt that art would help people relate with migrants while their stories would forever be engraved in different artistic forms, thereby underlining his take on the issue.
Artists can be described as storytellers who primarily seek to help people relate with their concepts or illustrations. Parke (2015) suggests that artists seek to reflect, recombine, and reimagine the life and figure of migrant workers. Other than the usual art forms, Chinese artists have used other approaches to outline the achievements of migrant workers in China and the Chinese economy. These artistic works entail scrawled phone numbers marketing numerous services for migrant workers. The use of these artistic forms seeks to remind people of the services of the migrant workers and some of the notable things that they helped develop while serving the state of China. Importantly, rather than talking about the socio-economic gap between the Chinese people and the migrant workers, the artists seek to show why the migrant workers should be appreciated for their efforts and role in developing the current nation.
The Representation of the Socio-Economic Gap through Visual Arts
Artists actualize visual arts to tell a story and leave the audience to interpret what they can learn from these representations. The use of wall painting to tell the story of migrant social workers or request for change, for instance, underlines the power of art where the people stepping forward aim to ensure their message remain engraved. Also, paintings on walls seek to remind the people who pass through them about their tales and ensure they remain true to their course. The socio-economic gap may hinder these artists from walking up in the streets, requesting a better way of life, or outlining their plights in the media due to fear. However, art ensures that people will see and understand what they are trying to achieve.
One of the most recent plights of the Chinese migrant workers entails the mass eviction, whereby many homes were demolished in Beijing last year. The approach saw ten thousand homes flattened and turned into a wasteland. The artist Yang Qian used this opportunity to tell the story of these migrant workers and outline their plight to the public. Therefore, he collected hundreds of objects he could find in the area, including stuffed animals and broken glasses, among others, and sealed them in crystal columns which he displayed at a gallery in Beijing, hoping to convey the message that the wealthier individuals treat the poor like garbage (Hernandez, 2018). The artist's choice of art seeks to outline the plights of migrant workers who come from poor rural areas. The installations pivotally told the story of the gap between the rich and the poor, mostly migrant workers.
Wang Jin developed a black and white photograph showing migrant workers posing in two rows under a supporting column beneath a highway. The photograph shows the migrant workers' input in the bridge's construction while outlining their role in ensuring it stood. The photograph outlines the notion that the people standing on their partners' shoulders are bearing the weight of the concrete above them (Eschenburg, 2017). The photograph outlines a piece of art that shows the achievements of migrant workers and one of the infrastructures they helped raise together. Importantly, they may lack the appreciation of acceptance that they deserved, but they were crucial to the growth of China. The socio-economic gap i...