Abusive working conditions? Or just cultural differences?

My mom works for the Austin-based Foxconn (the company that gets your iPhones to you).  I don't really know what her work environment is like; she doesn't really talk about it.  She probably doesn't talk about it because it's nothing out of the ordinary, and probably identical to any other company building in America.  Her work conditions are, undoubtedly, comparably better than the Foxconn factory's working conditions in Shenzhen, China where 11 workers committed suicide at the factory's dormitories.

After the suicides occurred, netting was installed around the
dorm buildings in case anyone else tried to jump.

I recently came across an article online about the living conditions of the Foxconn factory workers (you can access it here).  The first time I looked through the pictures and their captions, I thought, "Wow.  This looks horrific."  I mean, who would want to live with seven other people in a dorm the size of a two-car garage?  Gross.  But while I was gawking at the photos, I felt a strange bit of...(dare I say it?) familiarity and nostalgia.  Wait a moment, these rooms look like many of my relatives' homes in China!  Given that my relatives don't exactly live with eight people to one large bedroom, the atmosphere and condition of the rooms are incredibly similar.  I felt like the article was not only (subtly) bashing how Foxconn treats its workers, but also how most families (including my own) live in China.

Though the big company really could stand to provide its workers with higher living conditions, the dingy lifestyle is really just a reflection of the mainland Chinese lifestyle in general.  The standards of living in China are simply not as high as the standards of living in America - and I think the native Chinese are all used to that.  There are more modern living conditions equally comparable to the U.S., though, particularly in the big cities like Beijing where much of my family lives.  The more recent generations, like my aunts and uncles, live in the contemporary city apartments.  But even when I stay there during my visits back, I still feel like I'm not as comfortable.  Like they don't use central air conditioning and their mattresses are not nearly as thick and firm as ours in the U.S.  Not to mention, you can't drink straight tap water - your choice is either bottled water or boiled water that you leave sitting until all these particles form a layer at the bottom so you can pour the water from the top.  But it's not like they're necessarily poor or anything - heck, our family and friends in China are better off economically than most Americans come close to.  And as we all know, China is our number one competitor.  I think the dreary setting that the articles' photos captured aren't as much of a matter of worker mistreatment as it is a matter of cultural differences.  Living as a Westerner definitely has its blissfully sweet luxuries.

"Well, what about the 11 suicides?"  What about them?  Haha, just kidding.  Well, there's a simple answer to that - yet another cultural difference.  Chinese people are mentally screwed up.  Yes, I just said that.  There's not nearly as much of an emphasis on mental health as there is in America and sometimes I feel like the only two things that Chinese people know are suffering and hard work.  There isn't a remedy for the consequences from the trials that they put themselves through.  And I wouldn't even doubt that the majority of Foxconn workers' are now dwelling in better living conditions than they would have been in the homes that they left behind to make money for their families.

A few decades ago, when my parents were still kids, China was especially deficient in living standards (though it wasn't as impoverished as the earlier famine, it was still, at best, dreadfully modest).  My parents would tell me stories from their childhood and I would feel guilty for being able to indulge in modern Western conveniences.  My dad actually grew up as a farmer boy, with an extended farmer family.  Even today, when we go back to visit his hometown, outhouses, muddied dirt roads, and chicken eggs as luxury items are the norm (man, were they proud to have raised their own hens who hatched the eggs!).  He was one of the exceptionally rare few who were able to traverse past the almost-impossible-to-reach-success barrier of his environment, while still partaking in it by breaking tons of farming sweat.  He's now able to claim one bachelor's degree, two master's degrees, and a doctoral degree (from three different countries, too) -oh, and a well-paid job at one of America's top public universities.  I don't really know exactly what it was like for him to travel that path but surely it was anything but merciful.

That is the life of a Chinese person.  You'll find extremely few who don't work as hard as the Foxconn workers do, or as my dad does (he was just lucky to have gotten this far).