Landscape Empowerment: A Participatory Design Approach to Create Restorative Environments for Assembly Line Workers in the Foxconn Factory 9811520666, 9789811520662

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Bin Jiang  Editor

Landscape Empowerment

A Participatory Design Approach to Create Restorative Environments for Assembly Line Workers in the Foxconn Factory

Landscape Empowerment

Bin Jiang Editor

Landscape Empowerment A Participatory Design Approach to Create Restorative Environments for Assembly Line Workers in the Foxconn Factory

Editor Bin Jiang Faculty of Architecture The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Hong Kong S.A.R. China Virtual Reality Lab of Urban Environments and Human Health (UEHH), Faculty of Architecture HKU Hong Kong S.A.R. China Research & Method Track, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA, USA) Raleigh, NC, USA University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL, USA

ISBN 978-981-15-2066-2    ISBN 978-981-15-2067-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-15-2067-9 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021, corrected publication 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

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Preface

CONTENTS Foreword

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND RESEARCH The Foxconn Factory Site, Methods, and Procedure for Design Interventions    Bin Jiang

 nderstanding the Manufacturing Plant of Foxconn: Global Visions and Local Practices in the U Labor Regime of China   Ting Wang and Bin Jiang

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BETWEEN SPACE OF FACTORY AND COMMUNITY

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 RANSFORMATION OF PROTOTYPE: A Planter Design Based on the Behavioral T Characteristics of Residents   Xianwei Long

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LONELY PLANETS: Reorganize the Sequence of Effective Space in the Qinghu Community   Ming Yang

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 ERE – THERE: A Scenario-Based Restorative Landscape System   H Ting Wang

102

123

 ADE IN QINGHU: Integration of Landscape Design and Public Art  M Wing Tung Wong

INSIDE THE FACTORY

124

142

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 estorative Factory Intervention: Our Lens, Our Voice: A Deep Participatory Design R Approach for  Creating a  Restorative Working Environment for  Assembly Line Workers in a Foxconn Plant   Fengyu Bao 10′ 35′ And 90′: Multifunctional Landscapes in the Compact Manufacturing Plant  Shanshan Su

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RIVERFRONT URBAN SPACE

162 170

183

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RIVER GUIDE: Participatory Design of River Front Landscape Intervention in Qinghu  Leung Kong Chang

THE QINGHU COMMUNITY

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 OW END PLANT - PERSISTENT GROWTH: Spatial Vitalization of L Handshaking Houses  Danying Zheng

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 OY AROUND THE CORNER: Outdoor Event Space for Children  J Kitty (Ka Hei) Yuen

209

C1

 UTSIDE AND INSIDE: Mental Healing Waterfront Space for Qinghu Residents  O Qi Fan

VISIBLE-INVISIBLE FRAME: Discover the Aesthetic Moments Hiding in the Corner  Siu Man Kwok

Correction to: The Foxconn Factory Site, Methods, and Procedure for Design Interventions Bin Jiang

APPENDICES 

231

APPENDIX A – REVIEW OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS AND THE IMPACT OF THE PROJECT 231

244

APPENDIX B – A PUBLIC TALK: HEALING THE SOULS IN THE CITY  244

258

APPENDIX C – AUTHOR INFORMATION  258

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Good designs come from down-to-earth observation, thorough research, sincere interactions, and exchange with the Foxconn workers. In our minds, the workers are independent, highly regarded, and beloved individuals, but not a stereotyped social group. We believe the emphasis on one-to-one relationship between designers and workers and the follow-up researches on the life and mind of one another is the key to deliver a successful community-engaged design. —— Bin JIANG

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Springer Nature

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Preface Bin Jiang Associate Professor Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Hong Kong S.A.R. China Director Virtual Reality Lab of Urban Environments and Human Health (UEHH), Faculty of Architecture HKU, Hong Kong S.A.R. China Co-Chair Research & Method Track, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA, USA) Raleigh, NC, USA PhD University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL, USA

Urban Villages as the World Factory Workers’ Habitat

There is no doubt that the rise and fall of the Qinghu Village are closely related to the profound changes in the world industry pattern, especially from the manufacturing sector. In the past few decades, due to the international shift of manufacturing patterns, China’s reform and opening up, a large number of peasants have uprooted from their hometown to pursue their dreams in the hotspot of the Pearl River Delta. They trade in countless “world factories” for meager incomes through long hours at the expense of family life and physical health. More importantly, they are looking for opportunities to stay, take root, and prosper in the city. Therefore, the factory and the urban village formed an intricate, conflicted, yet relatively stable relationship. In this relationship, the forces of material space, multi-facial local culture, and social and economic structure are constantly driving the change of urban village and even the city.

The Division of Landscape Architecture of The University of Hong Kong built a long-term cooperative relationship with Shenzhen Longhua Foxconn Community in order to help the revitalization of the community and landscape improvement. Since December 2015, Dr. Bin Jiang from The University of Hong Kong has led the research and design team to conduct field research work for/with Longhua Community and the adjacent factories. In the past 3 years, Dr. Bin Jiang led young designers to Shenzhen Longhua Foxconn Community to conduct design workshop. This book records the investigation and the design process of the young designers from The University of Hong Kong. There are three major sections in this book, namely, (1) Investigation and Analysis of Qinghu Community in Global, Urban, and Community Scale, (2) Design for the Community Environment, and (3) The Deep and Systematic Reconstruction of the Community.

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Foreword by Mathew Pryor

Mathew Pryor Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning), Faculty of Architecture Head, Division of Landscape Architecture The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong S.A.R.

Balancing the demands of high-intensity factory production that underpins the country’s unparalleled economic growth with the environmental and social quality of daily life for the thousands of migrant workers and local residents within the factory communities of Southern China is an example of what Horst Rittel (in the 1960s) described as a “wicked problem” – complex and indeterminate, with obscure and often contradictory aspects, and one which cannot easily be resolved. The hypersensitive and operationally constrained conditions within and around the factories at Longhua, and the transitory nature of many of the communities involved, present huge challenges, even for mature professionals. Constructing a detailed understanding of local environment and society, defining meaningful objectives, and choosing optimum moments for intervention, and the generation of relevant and resilient design proposals, are only possible through extensive and patient ethnographic research, working alongside local representatives to get inside both the physical sites and the contextual issues.

stands testament to the insightful pedagogical design of the instructors and their very careful and detailed planning, through which these unique and comprehensively grounded experiential learning opportunities have been created for the students. These initiatives stand very much at the forefront of the work of the Division of Landscape Architecture and succinctly represent its mission to develop students’ landscape knowledge and design skills through projects and studies that address the severe environmental and societal (wicked) challenges that society faces in the twenty-first century. They also serve to expand the landscape architectural discipline within the region and to define a more critical and impactful role for the profession. My heartiest congratulations to both the student groups and their instructors on these highly impressive achievements.

 

These difficulties cannot be understated and underscore the incredible achievement and superior quality of the student work in the studios and workshops presented in this book. It also

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Foreword by Lunjing Wu

Lunjing Wu Director, QH Community Learning Centre Shenzhen, China

Thousands of scattered urban villages in Shenzhen are home to many young fresh white collars and countless industry workers. For these two groups of people, urban villages have two totally opposite meanings. For the former, urban villages are just the starting point of their striving lives and temporary residence. But for the latter, the urban village is the only place they are able to achieve; it is their permanent home, and it is the world to them.

much as every industry worker does. We have been advocating health and well-being for Foxconn workers. We safeguard the dignity of the workers. We are aware of every street corner that we passed by. We treasure the space we stayed in. We all long for a shelter in our life. Workers could hardly ever recover from the exhausting mind and body because of the poor sanitation and monotonous living, and the scarce rest space.

As a social organization focusing on providing public service to the industry workers, QH Community Learning Centre was rooted and found in 2012 at Qinghu. We live with millions of industry workers, experiencing their everyday life in Shenzhen urban village. Witnessing the change of Qinghu, we care about the food, the water sanitation, and their living environment as

Dr. Bin Jiang and his design team allowed us to see the light which could change our life. This is a generous and warm gift to us, with the detailed information, precise analysis, and sophisticated design. They have healed our exhausting mind and body. They have given us strength. If one day these works could be done, it would be the most remarkable life experience in our lives.

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I N T RO D U C T I O N A N D BAC KG RO U N D R E S E A RC H

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The Foxc onn Factory S it e , Me t hods, and P rocedure for Des i g n In te rve n ti o n s Bin Jiang

B ACKGRO UND The Pearl River Delta (PRD) is historically the manufacturing heartland of China and currently hosts some of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world. The resulting industrial structure, its related networks and physical space have a significant impact on the social, economic and ecological landscape of the region. The eventual post-industrialisation of the PRD  – especially in light of the current economic slowdown and efforts to shift to tertiary industries  – is particularly challenging and requires strategic urban restructuring of the region. However, conventional methods of urban planning often operate at urban or regional scale, overlooking the importance and agency of the individual in shaping their environments. Industrial parks, so-called sweatshops, are ubiquitous in developing and underdeveloped regions, and the working condition and environment in those industrial parks are often deplorable. Assembly line workers normally suffer from severe mental health problems in these high-pressure manufacturing plants. Under the context of industrial globalisation, all sectors with a fast working pace and tight working schedule are facing a critical problem. The suicide tragedies at Foxconn have caught the attention of the news media, social science scholars, policy makers and other enterprise administrators, who showed research interests in and concerns about this phenomenon. This book will explore potential ways to improve the current situation of industrial parks. The first part of the book investigates on the geographies of sweatshops, providing in-depth research on different aspects and understanding the working and living status of Foxconn workers and other related population. The second part of the book develops potential landscape planning and designs in different aspects and scales, which targets to promote environmental quality, health and the community by demonstrating how landscape and urban design can facilitate new regional visions for achieving a good ecological and social environment for people who work under stressful living and working conditions.

spate jumps at Foxconn is long-term exposure to high-stress working and living environments (Fig. 1). Mr. Hou, 19 years old, 18 Jun 2007[1] Sun Danyong, 25 years old, 16 Jul 2009[2] Ma Xiangqian, 19 years old, 23 Jan 2010[3] Mr. Li, 28 years old, 11 Mar 2010[3] Tian Yu, 17 years old, 17 Mar 2010[3] Mr. Lau, 23 years old, 29 Mar 2010[3] Rao Shuqin, 18 years old, 6 Apr 2010[3] Ms. Ning, 18 years old, 7 Apr 2010[3] Lu Xin, 24 years old, 6 May 2010[3] Zhu Chenming, 24 years old, 11 May 2010[3] Liang Chao, 21 years old, 14 May 2010[3] Nan Gang, 21 years old, 21 May 2010[3] Li Hai, 19 years old, 25 May 2010[3] Mr. He, 23 years old, 26 May 2010[3] Mr. Chen, 25 years old, 27 May 2010[3] Mr. Liu, 18 years old, 20 Jul 2010[3] Unknown, 23 years old, 5 Nov 2010[4] Wang Ling, 25 years old, 7 Jan 2011[5] Unknown, 20 years old, 26 May 2011[3] Mr. Cai, 21 years old, July 2011[6] Li Rongying, 20 years old, 23 Nov 2011[7] Unknown, 23 years old, 14 Jun 2012[8] Xu Lizhi, 24 years old, 24 Apr 2013[9] Unknown, 23 years old, 27 Apr 2013[9] Unknown, 31 years old, 18 Aug 2016[10]

An estimated 24 Foxconn employees have committed suicide to date, and there has been a minimum of 20 deaths so far[1] (Fig. 2).

Suicide Tragedy Between January 2010 and April 2013, 19 suicide attempts happened at the industrial parks of Foxconn, which is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer at the time. These accidents were described as the spate jumps. The victims were between 17 and 25 years old, which is a young age range. Recent researches and studies found that one of the reasons behind the Fig. 2  Tired workers are sitting on the curb and taking a short break after lunch

Fig. 1  Young workers walking in the monotonous and stressful factory environment in Foxconn

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[1] ‘[Blood debt] June 18, 2007 A female Foxconn worker hanged herself in the toilet’ ([血债二] 2007年6月18日 富士康一名女工在厕所上吊自杀). Finance.baidu.com. Retrieved 2018-05-30. [2] ‘Foxconn employee accidents frequently occur’ (富士康员工意外事件频发). News.xinmin.cn. Retrieved 2018-06-30. [3] East Week magazine. Vol 334. 6 June 2010 issue. pg 13. [4] ‘Foxconn Suicide Returns, Another Foxconn Employee Falls to Death’. micgadget.com. Retrieved 2018-4-20. [5] ‘New Suicide From Foxconn, Worker Jumped Because of Insult’. M.I.C. Gadget. Retrieved 2018-6-10. [6] ‘Cna English News’. Focustaiwan.tw. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 2018-08-05. [7] ‘Worker commits suicide at Foxconn plant’. China Daily. 25 November 2011. Retrieved 2017-11-25. [8] ‘Foxconn says plant worker jumps from apartment’. reuters.com Thompson Reuters. Retrieved 2018-7-15. [9] ‘Two more suicides at Foxconn’. english.sina.com 02 May 2013. Retrieved 2018-05-30. [10] Latest Foxconn Worker Deaths Build Case for Apple to Move Operations from China, Retrieved 2018-06-23. The original version of this chapter was inadvertently published with error in the description text of chapter 3, page 4, line 7 from top. This book has now been revised. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2067-9_14

SITE The Qinghu Community is adjacent to the Foxconn Longhua Industrial Park. It is an urban village in Longhua District. The community includes four main precincts: a high-density urban village building area, a low-rise historical village area, a public green park and a public riverfront. A significant number of Foxconn workers live there. Taking the Qinghu Community as a potential site, we will explore the relationship between Foxconn workers and this community: how is their living and working condition? What are their routine activities? What are their needs? How did they shape the space, and how did the space shape them? To what extent is it a healthy living environment and ecologically friendly urban area? How can our design promote human well-being and ecological resilience? Then we will develop potential strategies and methods to create a healthy living environment for highly stressed workers in the Foxconn factory (Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8).

Fig. 3  The location of Qinghu Community (1:32,000)

Fig. 4  Foxconn factory

Fig. 6  Historical old Qinghu Village

Fig. 5  ‘Handshaking’ crowded buildings

Fig. 7  Polluted river

Fig. 8  The map of Qinghu Community and surrounding context

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INTRODUCTION OF A DESIGN STUDIO The Division of Landscape Architecture of The University of Hong Kong built a long-term cooperative relationship with the Shenzhen Longhua Community in order to help with its revitalisation and landscape development. In December 2015, Dr. Bin JIANG from The University of Hong Kong, the director of the whole project, led a research and design team to conduct a field research work for/with the Qinghu Community and adjacent factories. Three design studios were supported by Qinghu School and many other scholars and professionals. Each year, around ten designers from the Division of Landscape Architecture traveled to the community to conduct various design workshops. Each designer had one to three workers who lived in the Qinghu Community as partners for their design. The group walked to the streets of the neighbourhood and buildings to search for information about the site and proposed ideas to local workers and residents.

Qinghu Design Workshop adopts a bottom-up design process. Each step, including research, investigation and design, was bonded with the users. This studio allows these vulnerable groups to speak up, and it provides opportunities for them to design their living environment (Figs. 9 and 10). In this studio, we will work together to identify four thematic problems and develop design interventions to address each problem. Designers will use the preliminary themes to start the process. Then they will create thematic design interventions taking into consideration four aspects: the water environment, vegetation systems, the industry/economy and living/residential environment. Each team will generate adaptable site-scale landscape design projects reflecting their theme.

Fig. 9  The photo of the first landscape upgrading and community creation workshop in the Shenzhen Longhua District

Fig. 10  Photos of the Qinghu residences and a young designer during the studio workshop

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DESIGN METHODOLOGY: DEEP PARTICIPATORY DESIGN This project emphasises a deep participatory design. It means that a designer will have to build a strong partnership with a worker for the whole semester. Traditional site investigation in the field of landscape architecture mainly includes interviews, surveys and observations, which often involve local people as passive subjects and potential clients. In this project, the workers played an equally active role as designers. Each designer teamed up with a partner worker, and the two had to do their daily activities together, such as eating, drinking, hanging out and even spending nights in the same apartment. They also participated in

night workshops as a team, and both actively engaged in brainstorm discussions, drawing sketches and making presentations. During the whole semester, the designer kept contact with the partner through the Internet and social apps using their smartphones. Every few weeks, the designer had to come back to the site and develop the design scheme with the partner worker. At the final stage, representatives of workers were invited to attend final reviews and exhibitions to participate in discussions and give feedback. The whole procedure can be summarised into six steps (Figs. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22):

Step 1 Precedent research and consultations with Qinghu residents (Figs. 11 and 12)

Fig. 11  Students presenting ideas to Qinghu residents

Fig. 12  Students presenting ideas to Qinghu residents

Step 2 Precedent research and consultations with Qinghu residents (Figs. 13 and 14)

Fig. 13  Consultations between students and Qinghu residents

Fig. 14  Consultations between students and Qinghu residents

Step 3 First site investigation and interview with Qinghu residents (Figs. 11 and 12)

Fig. 15  Students interviewing Qinghu residents

Fig. 16  Students interviewing Qinghu residents

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Step 4. Second field trip and discussion with Qinghu residents (Figs. 17 and 18)

Fig. 17  Discussion with Qinghu residents

Fig. 18  Discussion with Qinghu residents

Step 5 Design workshop with Qinghu residents (Figs. 19 and 20)

Fig. 19  Qinghu residents participating in the design workshop

Fig. 20  Qinghu residents participating in the design workshop

Step 6 Final designs and presentation (Figs. 21 and 22)

Fig. 21  22 Students presenting their final designs to visitors

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Fig. 22  Students presenting their final designs to visitors

WORK PLAN Individual Project 1: Geographies of Global Industrial Network, Sweatshop Factories and Adjacent Urban Villages Designers will first investigate the geographies of sweatshops, especially Foxconn industrial parks in China. While global supply chain management, financial risk and labour impact the movement of goods throughout the world, there are particular landscapes associated with the electronic device manufacture industry. With an investigation of global and regional electronic device industry and sweatshops and urban villages (where workers live), designers will identify key issues that significantly impact sweatshop workers from the material and spiritual aspects. Many factors, involving landscapes, politics, economics and labour, directly impact the built environment, which is evident in the case of housing, infrastructure and public spaces. Different themes will be investigated on during the research, with the following 11 questions as guide: 1. What is the evolution of the electronic device industry network at the global and national scale (China), and what will be its future trend?

2. What are the environmental and social justice problems caused by the uneven development of the electronic industry network at the global scale? 3. What is a sweatshop factory (in the electronic device industry), and what is its main environmental characteristics (Pearl River Delta)? 4. What is the impact of the electronic device industry on the local environment and public health (Pearl River Delta)? 5. What are sweatshop workers’ living conditions? (The Pearl River Delta, but not limited to electronic device industry)? 6. What is(are) the main model(s) of the buildings and public spaces in the urban village (Pearl River Delta, but not limited to the electronic device industry)? 7. What is the reformation history of the urban village? What are the typical modes of urban-village renewal and the modes’ strengths and weaknesses (Pearl River Delta, but not limited to the electronic device industry)? 8. What is the situation of public infrastructure in the urban village (transportation, domestic sewage, green landscape, open space and other factors)? 9. Who are the workers in the Shenzhen Foxconn factory? What are the main challenges in their daily life and career? What is their physical and mental health status? How can the complex social and economic factors that shaped their life be understood? 10. How can ‘inclusive renewal’ and ‘micro modification’ be defined in the case of the urban village? What are main challenges and opportunities involved in these two actions? 11. What are the characteristics of the urban village and its adjacent public spaces (location, landscape, water system and other factors)? Compared with other urban villages in Shenzhen, what are the main challenges and possibilities for its modification in the future?

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Individual Project 2: A Light Landscape Intervention Through intensive fieldwork and interviews, each designer will construct a survey report of the local environment. The report will answer the following four questions: 1. How did sweatshop workers shape the outdoor spaces, and how did the outdoor spaces shape the workers?

2. Who are the other stakeholders or individuals involved in this process besides the workers? 3. What are urban spaces most representative of this process? 4. A light intervention: what tactical intervention with low financial cost would you propose to promote outdoor space quality? Afterward, the designer will produce tactical landscape interventions that address the thematic problems through understanding worker residents’ daily life and the related urban spaces. The designer is required to conduct an in-depth interview of at least four individuals (at least two are Foxconn workers, and others could be landowners, business owners, non-governmental organisation (NGO) volunteers and community officers). The designer needs to understand and demonstrate the connections between the interviewees’ behaviours and psychology and the urban environments in the Qinghu Community and adjacent urban areas. Based on the findings to develop landscape planning/design as an intervention to promote quality of the environment, health and community. Reliability and practicability of the proposed design with low financial cost are encouraged. Each designer could develop a landscape design/planning from four themes.

 heme 1: Between Space of Factory and Community T There are more than 200 rental housing buildings (most are ten floors) in the Qinghu Community. Buildings with extremely narrow intervals are called ‘Handshaking Building’, forming a unique landscape. Public spaces in the ‘handshake Building’ district are crowded, dark, dirty, noisy and disorderly. The object of this theme is to activate neglected spaces in the handshake building area, such as alleys, through landscape design interventions.

 heme 2: Inside the Factory T The open space inside the factory might have a great impact on workers’ psychological and physiological status. So, it is necessary to conduct a series of onsite investigation and interview to understand the potential pathways for the outdoor environment to affect wokers’ activities and health. Specific interventions can be decided on the findings of field work.

 heme 3: Riverfront Urban Space T In riverfront areas adjacent to the community, the local government has set up a few cultural and recreational facilities serving certain users. However, those areas have development potential; more creative landscape design/planning ideas are needed.

 heme 4: Qinghu Community T A slice of historical and cultural district in Qinghu old village is mainly composed of small business and low-income family living. Even though the district has significant natural and cultural landscape like the ancestral hall, temple, ancient banyan trees and Qinghu schools, and it fails to reach its full potential as vital public spaces and cultural attractions.

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LEARNING OUTCOMES Project learning outcomes

Alignment with program learning outcomes

1. Generate tactical landscape interventions at a site scale from the material aspect, stemming from systemic investigations of the local context.

-  To exercise critical thinking in the identification and analysis of design problems and in the development of design solutions -  To understand landscape design as a means for improving human living conditions -  To extend the practice of sustainable design, environmentally, ecologically and economically

2. Understand complex forces (cultural, social, economic, political and ecological) that influence sweatshop industries at various scales and then develop landscape interventions with more essential implications.

-  To examine, appreciate and challenge traditional processes and thinking -  To find and explore opportunities in limitations and restrictions -  To investigate and understand complex issues from the perspective of basic social units: individuals and families

3. Design at the multiple scales simultaneously adopting an iterative, reflective and critical process.

-  To understand landscape design as an ongoing process, not as a product -  To learn environmental restoration skills -  To represent design ideas and concepts clearly and intelligently

4. Develop landscape research skills through data collection and analytical representation, specifically through the use of ethnographic methodologies.

-  To propose and develop new ways of presenting landscape design concepts verbally, textually and graphically -  To examine the implications of landscape design and their effects on natural and built environments at the site scale -  To understand the ways in which landscape and the built environment respond to and shape social sustainability and human well-being

EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT Project 1: Geographies of the global industrial network, sweatshop factories and adjacent urban villages

1. Understand complex forces (cultural, social, economic, political and ecological) that influence Foxconn workers living in the Qinghu Community and then develop landscape interventions with more essential implications. 2. Learn key onsite research methods: meet with workers, landowners, community officers and other stakeholders to understand those forces. Participating in people’s daily life and exploring their thoughts and behaviours are encouraged. 3. Learn how to observe and record the human behaviours. 4. Learn how to investigate human behaviours through examining material evidence on the site. 5. Develop landscape research skills through data collection and analytical representation, specifically through the use of ethnographic methodologies. 6. The intervention should be light, low cost, realistic and easy to be constructed on a specific, small site, such as a parking spot, an alley, a courtyard, an entry area etc. The intervention can be temporary or permanent.

Project 2: Light community intervention

1. Generate tactical landscape interventions based on systemic investigations of the local social, economic and spatial context. 2. Design at a site or urban district scale adopting an iterative, reflective and critical process. 3. Design to address humanity, ecology and social revitalisation issues. 9

BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY MATERIALS Research Reports • Foxconn Factory Survey http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iNioiPZ8PPUJ:mfiles.sohu.com/it/foxconn.doc +&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=hk

Public Media Reports • http://www.fairlabor.org/sites/default/files/documents/reports/foxconn_investigation_report_cn.pdf • technews.tw/2016/08/23/foxconn-says-two-employees-at-china-plant-died-cooperating-with-investigations/ • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0q0JEFLDXk • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk-xqPKOxl4 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMm-YMO5H7o • http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3610703/Rise-machines-started-iPhone-Samsung-assembler-Foxconn-replaces-60-000employees-ROBOTS.html • http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1222225/foxconn-suicide-survivor-says-no-job-worth-ending-your-life-over • http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9562073/2000-Foxconn-workers-involved-in-mass-brawl-at-China-factory.html • http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7763699/Protest-at-Chinese-iPad-maker-Foxconn-after-11th-suicide-attempt-thisyear.html • http://www.infzm.com/content/44881

Research Method Interview for Research • http://www.qualres.org/HomeInte-3595.html • http://www.public.asu.edu/~kroel/www500/Interview%20Fri.pdf • https://www.academia.edu/746649/Methods_of_data_collection_in_qualitative_research_interviews_and_focus_groups Video for Research • http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/2259/4/NCRM_workingpaper_0312.pdf Literature for Research • http://scenariojournal.com/article/the-performative-ground/

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U n de r s tanding the Manufac t u rin g Pla n t o f   Foxc o n n : G l obal Vi si ons and L ocal P ractices in   th e   L a b o r Re g i m e o f  C h i n a T in g Wang and Bin  J ia n g *

In 2010, 15 young migrant workers committed suicide in the Foxconn Technology Group factories in Shenzhen City, China (East Week Magazine 2010). This startling tragedy brought global attention not only to Foxconn but also to sweatshops throughout China. In response, a group of Chinese academics advocated for justice for young migrant workers in China’s sweatshops (Chan and Pun 2010). In 2012, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) launched a special investigation of Apple’s assembly supplier factories and found excessive overtime and unsafe conditions among workers (FLA 2012). Some argue that the poor factory conditions are caused by the emergence of China’s monopoly capitalism brought about by the economic transformation and decentralization of local government and business (Guo et al. 2012). However, the larger context that has given rise to the Foxconn phenomenon has been less well examined. This article examines the history of the development of Foxconn’s manufacturing system, not only from a dynamic local economy perspective, but also from the perspective of cross-scale investigations of the global industry transfer. We use mixed research methods in this investigation, including literature review, media review, field research, and projective drawing making. On site, observation and collaboration with workers through photo taking and interview have been made. We argue that the

Highlights 1. The global electronics industry is a complex chain with unequal distribution of profits. 2. China has been the primary region for the development of Foxconn’s industry in recent decades and will remain so in the near future. 3. The whole electronics industry, from upstream to downstream, should take more responsibility for improving working and living conditions for laborers. 4. The living environment of migrant workers significantly impacts their mental health and quality of life. 5. Future research should examine workers’ adaptive lifestyle in factories and urban villages. * Corresponding author

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impact of Foxconn on social, cultural, and environmental conditions at multiple scales is an inescapable consequence of global capital flow under local laissez-faire policies and will continuously diffuse to more developing and industrializing countries. Furthermore, we argue that the stressful working ethics and severe environmental conditions in Foxconn manufacturing plants have serious negative impact on workers’ mental health, physical health, and well-being. The following chapter serves as background research and ranges in scale from global to national, regional, and site levels. First, it shows how Foxconn evolved in parallel to the global evolution of the electronics industry, China’s modernization, and local government competition and alliance. Second, the spatial expansion strategies of Foxconn in China from coastal to inland cities also lead to severe environmental pollution and social injustices. As a result, migrant workers are becoming more vulnerable in China. They lack legal protection, do not enjoy welfare services, have no livable salaries, and suffer from stressful working environments. This research also elucidates possible resistance by migrant workers, which is usually neglected in previous literature. Migrant workers as an agency with high mobility usually adapt themselves into the urban environment through various self-empowerment acts.

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Fig. 2  The emergence of an electronics industry in the west coast regions of the US, Europe, and Japan (1970s)

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Fig. 3  The separation of upstream research and development headquarters and downstream manufacturing plants (1980s–1990s)

The evolution of the electronics industry (E-industry), as well as the manufacturing of electronic products, is strongly tied to global political, economic, and social shifts. The E-industry is projected to be worth $1,787 billion globally by 2024 (Research 2018). Though there are different characterizations of the E-industry, its evolution can be summarized in four stages, shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4. The first stage, the beginning of the electric power industry in the 1950s–1960s, consists of the birth of modern electronics. During this period, telegraphs, radios, and military technologies were introduced in northeast America by two leading companies: International Business Machines (IBM) and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). These technologies facilitated postwar recovery and the rise of business computing. In the 1970s, during the second phase, microelectronic devices loomed, and the chip industry became the core of the E-industry. Companies emerged around the globe as countries (the US, Japan, and Europe in particular) became eager to produce chips for their internal use. Changes in production led to massive restructuring of the E-industry in terms of high-tech electronic device manufacturing and subcontracting. As the globalization of the E-industry increased in the 1980s and 1990s (the third phase), downstream developers appeared in Asia, where labor was cheap and plentiful. New technologies, such as personal computers and the Internet, significantly sped up the life cycle of electronic products. A new division of labor, the production of electronic devices, was standardized. After the Chinese central government set the Special Economic Development Zone policy, Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing company Foxconn Technology Group decided to move into the Chinese market. During this time, upstream research and development (R&D) headquarters began to be separated from downstream manufacturing plants. Moving into the fourth phase, from the 2000s to the present, the decline of the traditional regional economy and the emergence of a global economy have prompted a more articulated division of labor in the E-industry supply chain. Small electronic firms are gradually shifting to low-wage production, while larger companies are promoting research and development. Mass production has become more globally oriented in China, as well as in developing countries in Africa and South Asia. It is worth noting that global environmental policies are also more concerned about the dangers of E-waste.

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Fig. 4  Many more manufacturing plants were established in developing and underdeveloped countries, but most R&D headquarters remain in developed countries—a global electronic network (2000s–2010s)

Source: Chan et al. 2013; MBASkool 2018; Smith et al. 2006; Ye 2015

13

LOW-COST REALITY OF GLOBAL E-INDUSTRY IN THE CASE OF APPLE AND ITS SUPPLIERS While the vast development and expansion of the global electronics industry has led to great wealth, there is a lack of standards for working conditions across the supply chain. Many assume that the main source of the extensive wealth of the E-industry is low labor costs rather than revenue from products. Low labor costs are primarily achieved through outsourcing production to cheaper manufacturers without regard for employees’ working conditions and their welfare. Poor working conditions include illegal overtime and low salaries, as well as an unpleasant physical environment, such as a small and cramped work environment and inadequate access to green, restorative spaces. At Apple, the largest company in the E-industry (China Labor Watch 2015), there are vast differences in working conditions across the supply chain (see Fig.  5). Workers at Apple’s upstream industries (design, development, and sourcing) have significantly better pay and working conditions than those at downstream industries (manufacturing and distribution). People working in upstream industries enjoy a more spacious work environment and greater access to green space, as measured by a green space per person ratio (green ratio). In contrast, workers in downstream industries, like the manufacturing plants in Foxconn Shenzhen, only have 7.7 m2 of working space per person with a 5% green ratio. These downstream industries are also more space and labor consuming, which might cause more environmental burden to the local cities. This increased awareness of labor rights in Foxconn has put pressure on Apple to improve working conditions. And indeed, in recent years, Apple has spent money improving the working conditions at some of the downstream industries in their supply chain, including Foxconn (Kan 2012), but largely because of media attention rather than an intrinsic desire to monitor and improve workers’ conditions. One result of this attention has been that Apple is shifting its production away from Foxconn, where there is intense media scrutiny, to cheaper manufacturers in China (Pegatron) and Southeast Asia.

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15

ESTABLISHMENT AND EXPANSION OF FOXCONN KINGDOM

Fig. 6  Expansion of the kingdom of Foxconn. (Myers 2011; drawing by Leung Kong Chang and Ting Wang)

Foxconn is a contracted manufacturer with headquarters in Taipei. Since the 2000s, it has established a presence in all major regions of China and in 28 countries on five continents (Fig. 6) (Pun et  al. 2016). Foxconn’s clients are from China, the US, France, Japan, and Canada, and its factories are located in third world or underdeveloped countries, mainly Brazil, Mexico, and countries in Asia and Europe. By producing high-demand and fast-moving consumer products like BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, and Nokia, Foxconn has accumulated a large amount of industrial capital. As of 2012, it had manufactured approximately 40% of consumer electronic products with a yearly profit of $3.15 billion (Fig. 7). In 2014, Foxconn employed more than 1.3 million people globally (Fig. 8). Foxconn continues to grow and expand its business and production line, from manufactures to distributors, covering almost every category of electronics, as Fig. 5 shows.

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Foxconn is the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, founded in Taipei in 1974. As its name seems to indicate, it specializes in producing electronics as fast as an agile fox can (Ngai and Chan 2012). The expansion of the Foxconn kingdom in terms of geographic locations, capital accumulation, and production chains is nothing short of a miracle, according to many economists (Culpan 2016).

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Fig. 10  Foxconn factory locations and investment scale in national scale 2006–2010. (Source: Chan et al. 2013; Fu 2011)



China is the nexus of Foxconn’s vast expansion. China has the greatest number of Foxconn factories, providing work for over one million laborers, more than the total workforce in all other countries (Ngai and Chan 2012). Foxconn’s development strategy in China can be divided into three phases, as shown in Figs. 9, 10, and 11. In phase 1 (1980s), Foxconn opened the Chinese market by establishing its first offshore factory in Shenzhen. This was made possible by the reform and opening-up policy, GaiGeKaiFang, proposed by the Chinese central government. This policy aimed to stimulate the economy by attracting foreign direct investments (FDIs) first in special economic zones (SEZ) such as Shenzhen and Zhuhai. After its success in Shenzhen, Foxconn further expanded its influence on the coastal metropolises of the Pearl River Delta (PRD), Yangtze River Delta YRD, and Bohai Rim (Beijing-­ Tianjin-­Hebei) (phase 2). As Fig. 10 shows, the majority of factories were located in coastal cities. During this stage, Foxconn flourished as labor and production became more specialized and diverse (Group 2010). Employees at factories consisted of assembly line workers and skilled staff, including three levels of leaders, one supervisor, three levels of managers, and a director. These factories became a way for local governments to attract foreign investors through cheap labor, preferential tax policies, cheap land and industry infrastructure, and a streamlined export process (Hsing). Soon, however, the low wages caught the attention of the media. Due to social pressure, Foxconn announced that workers with a monthly wage of CNY 900 ($131.77 at the time) would immediately receive a 30% increase, to CNY 1200. A spokesman stated: “It’s been a while since we increased wages.” The increased wages led Foxconn to shift its strategies (phase 3). Foxconn decided to relocate its factories to inland China, where labor costs and accommodation were significantly lower than those in coastal cities. This relocation helped the company expand its influence to the northern, central, and western regions, where environmental justice and labor laws were less visible and often neglected. Other manufacturing industries have mirrored Foxconn’s development strategy, moving factories from coastal cities to inner China while maintaining high-end R&D centers in the big coastal cities.

Fig. 11  Foxconn factory locations and investment scale in national scale 2011–2015. (Source: Chan et al. 2013; Fu 2011)

17

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF FOXCONN MANUFACTURING FACTORIES Spatial Reconfiguration The transformation of the global E-industry has brought massive changes to how the built environment is configured. Here, our research identifies four main stages, as Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 show, from the traditional location-based industry to the global-­oriented high-tech mass industry (Fig. 12). Before the E-industry emerged, most rural areas consisted of farmland and natural areas. In the 1950s, design and production companies emerged in rural areas because of cheap land prices, but they were still small in scale. People still lived in individual houses and commuted to work. In the 1970s, with the emergence of contractors, design and production became detached. More and more small producers emerged around core E-companies, forming a patchwork of factories in rural areas. In the 1980s, small producers were replaced by large producers like Foxconn, whose big manufacturing factories can produce every product in the production chain. These integrated producers usually create industrial parks in suburban areas instead of in traditional remote rural areas. In these industrial parks, working and living environments are being planned together. Moving into the twenty-first century, big E-companies like Apple and Dell, have shifted their focus away from production toward design, research, and development. Headquarters are often in suburban areas, such as Silicon Valley, with small but pleasant office buildings. Production is outsourced to more global-oriented factories through global logistics. These factories expand into urban areas, surrounded by dense urban villages. Workers are living either in dormitories inside factory campuses or in surrounding urban villages developed by factories. Therefore, the living and working conditions of migrant workers are controlled invisibly by the factories.

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Pollution of the Natural Environment

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Rapid industrialization and economic growth in the last 20 years have made cities in China some of the world’s most polluted cities. The electronics industry produces a huge amount of E-waste and chemical and heavy metal pollutants caused by the production and recycling of electronics (Fig. 13). Figure 14 highlights some of the ways that E-waste impacts human health. According to a global waste report done by Rucevska et al. (2015), there are more than 30 substances contained in a single mobile phone, and some of these substances are among the most harmful to humans and the environment. A government survey in 2014 shows that a fifth of the country’s farmland was contaminated to varying degrees by chemical waste and heavy metals like iron (Fe), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), copper (Cu), and cadmium (Cd) (Stanway 2019). Therefore, it is important to set up standardized collection and recycling systems in the global electronic industry. In China, electronics recycling is still in its infancy, with many informal recycling stations and import ports operating in coastal cities, as Fig. 14 shows. These small businesses are usually located in shabby plants or workshops, which disregard health and environmental and safety standards.

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Meanwhile, electronic industries such as Foxconn are experiencing transformation and are relocating to factories in eastern China. These transformations alter water, air, and soil quality on a national scale. For instance, half of the water in China cannot be used because of pollution (Gong and Liu 2013). Wastewater and waste gas from factories and recycling sites are continually degrading the local ecosystem, leading to chronic diseases such as heart diseases, respiratory diseases, and strokes.

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Fig. 12  Spatial impact on land. (Collaged drawing by Ting Wang)

Fig. 13  Electronic waste was illegally recycled in Guiyu, Guangdong province, China. (Photo by Bin Jiang)

19

Fig. 14  Distribution of Foxconn factories and environmental pollution in China. Drawing by Yuhan Li and Wang Ting. (Pun et al. 2016; Sohu 2018; Cao et al. 2018; Chi et al. 2011; Duan and He 2015; Li et al. 2006; Wang et al. 2008; Wang et al. 2013; Yegorov and Dehnavi 2014)

20

21

Water Crisis As shown in Fig. 14, the Guangdong province has a critical position in China’s electronic industry. It accounts for the largest proportion of vendors of used electronic products and recycling activities in China. However, the impact that this has on the environment is less well examined, especially regarding critical water resources. It is acknowledged that the E-industry has significantly stressed limited water resources, either surface or groundwater. Some research has concluded that groundwater supplies in 60% of major cities in China were categorized as “bad to very bad” in 2014 (Gong and Liu 2013). Feng (2017) stated that 39% of river waters in the Pearl River Delta were treated as “unfit for human touch” and Unsuitable drinking water after 2008, right at the time Foxconn began to develop in Guangdong. Therefore, Foxconn and other electronics industries bear some responsibility for the water crisis in Guangdong, especially in the Pearl River Delta region. It is worth noting, however, that the water stress level of Guangdong province is not that extreme, from a national perspective, when examining various factors at a regional scale (Fig. 15). The river system in this region is well developed with fresh lakes, canals, floodplain, and sediments. According to the report on water security and management in the Pearl River basin by Sadhwani et al. (2009), the downstream rivers, especially the Dongjiang River in the estuary, are major polluted rivers (grade V or more), according to the national surface water quality category. This is partially the result of the use of convenient water transportation. In the early stages of the E-industry, a large number of factories were located at the estuary of the great Pearl River bay area, such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Dongguan. With poor management practices and poor enforcement of environmental regulations, it was often the case that tons of industrial water or chemical waste were poured into the river, which produced toxic water pollutants (Fig. 17). As Fig. 16 shows, Dongjiang and other rivers in the Pearl River Delta, the first developed areas in the Guangdong province, experienced more severe water pollution compared with that experienced by rivers in the great Pearl River Delta in 2015 (Fig. 17). With tightening environmental regulations, increasing cost, and industry upgrades in developed area of this region, water pollution looks different than it once did and has transferred to less

developed areas, causing a regional imbalance within the Guangdong province. Due to the global attention to the water crisis in PRD, the government released strict environmental regulations after 2005, especially on water resource protection (Xu and Liang 2011). Most electronic factories are required to upgrade their production methods, and some highly polluted enterprises were forced to shut down or relocate to developed cities such as Dongguan and Shenzhen. According to Wei et al. (2019), the latest research about industry upgrades and pollution transfer in the Guangdong province indicates that industrial wastewater has not increased significantly, while industrial waste gas and solid waste have increased dramatically in the less developed areas of the Guangdong province in terms of volume and intensity. This reveals the side effects of the water crisis in this region: the water resource protection initiative risks neglecting other environmental pollution. (% of assessed river length)

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Fig. 17  Water pollution in the river of PRD. (Photo by Ting Wang)

Fig. 15  Industry upgrading and its impacts on the water, air, and soil in the Guangdong province. (Drawing by Wang Ting) (Wei et al. 2019) (Sadhwani et al. 2009) (Google Maps, 2019)

22

SOCIAL IMPACT OF FOXCONN FACTORIES The boom in industrial factories not only burdens the natural environment but also impacts the stability of society in China through transportation safety, unbalanced population structure, and housing speculation. The three aspects will be discussed in this section supported by our field research. In order to have a deep understanding of what workers are experiencing and feeling every day, this research collaborated with 100 workers in Foxconn. Workers are required to provide a series of photos and comments on their working and living conditions (Appendix). First, it is important to realize that the large number of factories moving to the urban periphery challenges spatial and transportation planning in surrounding districts where thousands of workers live and work in the same industry park. Though commuting issues are less severe in the case of Foxconn, congestion from workers walking to and from factories is an urgent problem found in the field investigation (Fig. 18). Lines at factory gates of workers going to or from work sometimes stretch for several kilometers. Several intersections around the Foxconn factories are crowded, and road traffic is blocked almost every day by workers, which poses safety issues. Second, a large amount of labor flow by migrant workers also widens the uneven distribution of urban and rural populations in China. It is reported that the population distribution of the majority of rural villages in China is very polarized. Children and the elderly form the major populations in rural villages as working-age adults move to factories on the urban periphery for work. This causes a “rural hollowing,” a lag in rural development (Chang et  al. 2011). Many young migrant workers leave their children in rural villages to search for more profitable jobs in faraway cities. This leads to left-behind children, uncared-for elderly, and unstable family structures in China, which triggers mental health problems. Third, urban villages (Fig.  19), a unique spatial topology of urban housing, are created because of the fast development of manufacturing plants. Electronic factories belong to land-consuming industries. Even though the government tends to lease vast lands to factories, increasing production pressure and the cost of production lead factories to use some rural lands on the urban periphery for housing workers. According to the site investigation, urban villages, formed by “hand-shaking buildings,” often have poor conditions: limited sunlight and a lack of open spaces (Fig.  20). They are heavily criticized (Wang et  al. 2009). While some economists point out that urban villages provide low-cost housing near expensive coastal cities such as Shenzhen (Wang et al. 2010), it is important to note that unbalanced industrial development is altering local housing costs, which affects the locals’ income level and quality of life, further increasing the disparity between the rich and the poor worldwide.

Fig. 18  Overcrowding of workers during peak hours. (Photo by an anonymous worker)

Fig. 19  Urban villages in Longhua Shenzhen. (Photo by Ting Wang)

Fig. 20  The stressful and monotonous living space in the urban village is often criticized. (Photo by an anonymous worker)

23

 orkers in Sweatshop Factories W National Movement of Workers in China While Foxconn recruits a large number of workers in China, most of them are migrant workers, often from rural areas. This phenomenon exists in every urban industry nowadays and can be traced back to the reform period of China, when the market reform and household registration system (Hukou) developed. On one hand, in post-reform China, urban entrepreneurialism sprang up in the 1980s, modernizing Chinese cities and leading to fierce city competition. Urban entrepreneurialism has deepened the urban-rural binary structure. Local governments lease cheap land to attract transnational capitalists to establish production factories and recruit workers as cheap laborers (Lucas et  al. 2013). On the other hand, due to the high demand for workers in urban areas and the promise of a decent life in coastal cities, a massive number of rural Hukou migrants have joined the urban workforce (Ho and van Aartsen 2005; Wu and Treiman 2004). Unfortunately, these migrant workers suffer from inequality in public services, such as educational and medical care because of the Hukou system, making them vulnerable subjects in society (Fig. 21).

There were an estimated 286 million rural migrant workers in China in 2017, making up more than one third of the entire working population (People’s Daily Online 2018). More than a third of them are employed by manufacturing industries like Foxconn. The provinces with the most massive population outflows are Sichuan, Anhui, Henan, Hunan, and Jiangxi. In contrast, coastal cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen have the highest inflows of migrant workers. Many manufacturing companies like Foxconn, Huawei, and BYD have been established in Shenzhen to enjoy its designation as a special economic zone, its comprehensive transportation and its infrastructure planning. Urban villages around Shenzhen provide cheap places for migrant workers to live. However, with the development of more factories in inland cities in China, it is increasingly common for migrants to stay inland rather than move to coastal cities.

Fig. 21  Overall labor flows in China and the Pearl River Delta region. (Bendibao 2016; Made-in-China 2015; Newspaper 2017; Shenzhen Planning and Natural Resources Bureau 2016; Wang and Lu 2007; Wen 2012; drawing by Leung Kong Chang and Ting Wang)

24

Two Types of Workers Foxconn and other industries have created not only a working class but also a class of migrant workers. Two types of migrant workers dominate Foxconn. The first is the traditional peasant-­ workers, the first-generation migrant workers, also known as NongMinGong in Chinese. They choose to work in city factories by themselves because of poor economic conditions in their homes. Most of them are from poor rural families without tertiary education. They have to work in these factories to support their families. They usually stay in the working cities for a whole year and only go back home during Chinese New Year. The second type is the less-examined student intern workers (Figs.  22 and 23). Factory work is packaged with school courses as part of a program by technical secondary schools or colleges, Foxconn, and local governments. In China, university students in their last year of study need to finish internship requirements. Colleges or technical schools with poor educational levels use the promise of an internship to attract students to the program, with the assurance that they will be able to find jobs after graduation. Once students are enrolled, they are sent to Shenzhen or other factories for an “internship” under the Foxconn group. Factories see these students as cheap labor to meet an increasing demand for production and maximize profits. The goal of the internships is not to educate but to utilize cheap labor. Since most student workers are ages 16–18, they are not defined as employees, so their rights are not protected by the Labor Law. According to a survey by Chan et al. (2015), this phenomenon has occurred in many cities, including in Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Kunshan, Langfang, and Taiyuan.

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25

The Origin of Sweatshops The working and living conditions in manufacture factories, called sweatshops, are often very poor. The term sweatshop was first used in the 1850s by Kingsley (1850) to describe the exploitation of garment workers in clothing factories in London, directed by a middleman (sweater). Since then, the term sweatshop has been widely used to describe the employment of low-­ wage workers in long-hour shifts and in high health-risk environments. More than a century ago, immigrants in sweatshops in New  York and London lived and worked in tiny, crowded spaces, which caused epidemic diseases and led to modern urban planning in the UK (Howard 1997). In the twenty-first century, these problems are still apparent in the downstream factories of every low-tech industry and famous brand, such as H&M, Nike, and so on (Greenberg and Knight 2004). In the case of Foxconn in China, 288,800 employees work in three factories: in Guanlan, Longhua, and Chengdu. According to the investigation of the Fair Labor Association, males with high school education are the primary labor force in Foxconn (FLA 2012). Two Foxconn factories in Shenzhen have more migrant workers compared with the factory in Chengdu (Fig. 24). With more factories relocating to inner China because of cheap labor cost, the number of migrant workers has decreased. Workers at these factories typically work more than the standard number of legal working hours (49 in China) and are compensated less (403 US$ per month compared to the 406 US$ average). China is on its way to becoming the leading manufacturer in the world. However, its labor protection laws are far from comprehensive. As Fig. 25 shows, the cost for hiring Chinese laborers is cheaper than that for hiring non-Chinese laborers. If we look at the gross value of its products, Foxconn’s profits generated from selling seldom go back to the input of Chinese labors. But the majority of the side effects of production and disposal are happening in China, while the majority of the profit is taken by

Apple for the maintenance of research and design development, the salaries of workers, support of the management, and marketing in the US. Similarly, other outsourcing places only share a small amount of profit with factory workers. The uneven distribution of revenue in global E-industry intensifies the social and environmental inequity at a global scale.

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As Fig. 28 shows, workers in sweatshops in the Pearl River Delta are like gears in an assembly line. A typical workday begins at 8  am and finishes at 8  pm. The same actions are repeated day after day, month after month. Sometimes workers work more than 10 hours a day because their salaries are calculated according to how many pieces they have produced. After work, they usually go back to the dormitory or urban villages surrounding the factories. Compared with the middle classes in the city, which have the ability to go outside and network with others, workers usually spend their free time alone in apartments or laying down on plaza benches. The Internet is the most popular place to relax and interact with people. Yang (2013) calls this behavior pattern “Aligned Urbanism.” Employees who work in the same city are usually isolated within this social environment and have difficulty integrating. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that serious psychological issues arise among migrant workers, including depression, commission of crime, suicide, violence, etc. (Figs. 26, 27, and 28).

Fig. 26  A Foxconn worker laying down in the plaza of the urban village. (Photo by Ting Wang)

Fig. 27  Collage of workers protesting to Foxconn. (Drawing by Ming Yang)

27

7:30

7:00

Leave for Work

Fig. 28  Daily timeline of a Foxconn worker. (Drawing by Fengyu Bao)

28

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12:00

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Begin Working

Lunch Time

12:30

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13:00

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20:00

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Off Work

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CONCLUDING REMARKS: MARGINALIZATION AND RESISTANCE OF CHINESE WORKERS

In assessing Foxconn’s development, the particular interface of capital flow from local, regional, and global scales has been framed in this research. It also helps to shed light on how the neoliberal capitals in the E-industry have been adapted and diffused in the labor regime of China and beyond. The purpose of this research is not to criticize Foxconn or other sweatshops but to uncover the complexity of labor issues in the electronic and manufacturing industries. The findings here are preliminary, meant to provoke further discussion. First, our research shows that the shape of the Foxconn “kingdom” in China is due to global electronic industry transformation, city competition, and local government alliances. The transformation of global chains causes the locational shift of manufacturing industries from developed coastal China to more developing areas. The distribution of profit in the electronic industry is uneven; a majority of the profit goes upstream, and little is left for downstream production. This results in the existing low-cost reality of labor. Second, the development of manufacturing industries has led to a full spectrum of environmental and social challenges for the holding cities, regions, and nations. Spatial reconfiguration happens not only at the factory site but also to the surrounding neighborhoods and districts. The unregulated discharge of industry water and wastes is degrading natural rivers and soil and air quality. The emergence of the electronic industry also causes social justice disputes, transportation crowding, unbalanced population structure, and land resource competition in China.

However, through field research and participatory investigation, we found that marginalization and automization are not the whole story of Chinese migrant workers. Resistance and intangible survival strategies cannot be neglected when we discuss the labor regime in China. Unlike the previous top-down research perspectives, we considered the voices of the workers, themselves an agency with high mobility and self-empowerment. When we asked how they feel about working and living in their working cities, some workers noted that they were grateful for higher salaries and more opportunities. The money they earned at Foxconn was often sent back to families to build a house or start a small business in their home towns. Moreover, intangible social networks also play an important role in supporting the workers and releasing their mental stress—people from the same home town often form close relationships with each other, which is called Laoxiao in Chinese. There are many restaurants that cook dishes from inland China, such as Sichuan and Hunan food, as evidence of strong Laoxiao connections. Some workers also enjoyed clubs or study groups, such as reading groups or Karaoke groups, during the weekend. It is surprising to find that they are also eager to improve themselves because of peer pressure in the factories and from the general society. It is important to examine migrant workers in further research. Rather than simply focusing on labor and factory regimes, it is urgently necessary to discover the extent to which physical factory environments impact workers’ well-being and how migrant workers develop resilience and resistance in these environments (Figs. 29 and 30).

Third, workers in electronic factories also experience marginalization and automization. Workers who migrate from inland China are suffering from long working hours, isolated living environments, and unequal welfare services in the factories.

Fig. 29  Playing music in their free time. (Photo by an anonymous worker)

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Fig. 30  Beautiful drawings made by talented workers in their free time. (Photo by Ting Wang)

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Acknowledgement Many thanks to Fengyu Bao, Leung Kong Chang, Siu Man Kwok, Yuhan Li, and Ming Yang for their help with data illustrations and drawings. Special thanks go to anonymous workers for their contribution on site investigation and data collection.

33

Appendix The appendix is a collection of comments on and photos of their working environments, which were written and taken, respectively, by the migrant workers of the Foxconn factory.

“Inside one of the assembly line in the factory, one worker is responsible for 30 machines at the same time; It is exhausting. The light is on day and night, too tense and depressive. We do not have our own time at all. It is so noisy and stinky.” – Foxconn worker

Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

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36

“There is no proper place to rest, and the only available place is so close to dangerous materials.” – Foxconn worker

Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

37

38

Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

“This place make me feel panic, everytime I walk pass this road, it make me scared.” – Foxconn worker

39

40

Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

41

“Useless containers are piling up at the corner for nothing, why can’t they clean them up and make this place more pleasant.” – Foxconn worker

Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

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44

“The lane behind the canteen is narrow and dirty, with tableware and vegetable piling up. It is disgusting.” – Foxconn worker

Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

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Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

46

“We often pass by this road on our way to the canteen, dangerous metal pieces are scattered on the ground, they might slit your feet if you are not careful enough. And the ambience is foggy due to the liquefied nitrogen in the factory.” – Foxconn worker

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48

“It is just irrational to smoke on the roadside, and it implies too narrow, crowded and dirty, with only one trash bin. And we are facing the noisy air vent. Smoking is for relaxation, but the environment is not relaxing at all.” – Foxconn worker

Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

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Photo by an anonymous Foxconn worker

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“It is darkness in daytime. I can feel the sorrow and hopelessness of us migrant workers. There is not a single chair for us to take a rest, and no proper ventilation, too.” – Foxconn worker

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B E T W E E N S PAC E O F FAC TO RY A N D C O M M U N I T Y

53

TRANSFORMATION OF PROTOTYPE: A PLANTER DESIGN BASED ON THE BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RESIDENTS Xianwei Long

Qinghu Community is located in the north of the Foxconn factory. The majority of the residents are assembly line workers from Foxconn and other factories. In the southern part of Qinghu Village, a series of pocket parks are open to the public. Residents spend time in the park during their leisure time; some of them come in groups, while some come alone. Planters are a crucial feature in the parks. The sittable edges of the planters and the canopy of trees create a comfortable space for resting and allow a wide variety of activities. However, the existing planters are far from providing satisfactory support to users’ needs. By creating a transformation prototype of planters, a series of planters can be designed to meet the different needs of the residents. Rethinking the parks as a whole system, this proposal strives to create a high-value public space and transform it into a more welcoming open space (Figs. 1, 2, and 3).

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Fig. 1  In between building alleys

54

Fig. 2  Project location map

Fig. 3  Map of Qinghu Community and pocket parks

Condition of Qinghu Community

Residents’ Activities in Pocket Parks

There are seven pocket parks in the southern part of Qinghu, where residents rest, chat, and play. This project focused on the four parks in the south that are the closest to residential areas.

The four sites are also located near the Foxconn factory. An investigation on park users and their activities in the park was carried out to have a better understanding of the local context and the people’s need of the space (Fig. 4).

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Record of Daily Activities in Different Sites (Fig. 5)

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