Mill Workers of China

In the past the peasantry, the farmers, were seen as the backbone of China, but in this new age of industry that would change. In the cotton mills of Shanghai the “machines were kept running twenty-four hours a day, twelve months a year.” (Honig 3). The working class would support upper class and the general public by creating manufactured goods and textiles to be sold on the markets. As a result those who made up the working class in China were able to mass produce products which would allow for an economic boost to the urban areas of China. However, not all of the workers were originally from urban regions. Often time laborers coming from rural areas would come to the cities in search of labor as the need for agrarian labor declined. Also, because rural families were poor a child to the city to relieve the financial burden at home and send money home to further support their family who remained outside of the cities. Most workers operating machinery came from China’s lower classes who sought positions that did not require skilled labor, though this was not always the case. Typically, positions of unskilled labor were awarded to children, especially during the 1920’s, until it proved to be unprofitable and unnecessary (Hershatter 53). In the cotton mills of Shanghai there was great diversity in the age of workers. There were many young children as young as seven, young women (who would bring their newborn children to the mills), working alongside men and women many years their senior (Honig 54).
Laborers were not only divided by age, but also by gender and geographic location. In Shanghai most workers hired at the cotton mills were female, while in Tianjin male workers were predominant in factories until World War II. Approxima...

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