What if it turned out that the people who make your iPhone and laptop were having a
lot more fun than you?
Just not at work.
This is Dan Levin, reporting for the New York Times in China.
This summer, I traveled across the country to discover just what happens after quitting
time outside the massive electronics factories that churn out your favorite gadgets.
What I found was a vibrant youth culture thriving in the shadow of the factory gates, where
hobbies and hormones collide to a throbbing techno beat.
For hundreds of thousands of workers, their precious time off is a rare chance to enjoy
the present as they strive for a better future.
Not long after clocking out from his job at Foxconn, which manufactures many of Apple's
popular products, Zhang Zhentao is buying his girlfriend, Cai Meng, three stuffed animals
in the factory city outside Zhangzhou, the provincial capital of Henan Province.
A 24-7 factory means a 24-7 parade of distractions.
On the street, I bumped into a group of chain-smoking workers playing an outdoor arcade game.
The prize?
A pack of cigarettes.
After hours of silence on the assembly lines, dinner or breakfast is more than just an opportunity
to feed yourself.
It's a time for catching up with old friends or making new ones.
For most factory workers, a big table topped with grilled meat and warm beers is the definition
of nightlife.
It's a time for catching up with old friends or making new ones.
Just next door, the roller disco is packed with young factory workers, some gliding gracefully
on their own rollerblades and others just learning to balance on rented skates, or not.
Either way, it's a great way to de-stress after a long day on the factory line.
Wu Bin spends his days training Foxconn employees, but at night, he devotes himself to skating,
his newfound passion.
Most workers make too little to afford more refined entertainment.
Those with bigger salaries might end up at the factory city's hottest club, which is
called Through the Summer.
It has everything.
Plastic clappers, a spring-loaded dance floor, beer-guzzling entertainers, and the opportunity
to play a round of rock, paper, scissors on stage with a trio of scantily clad women.
Then the dance floor erupts, but it's only a matter of time before the party's over,
and then it's back to the factory floor.
