Jenny Chan (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), Mark Selden (Columbia University Weatherhead East Asian Institute)

This book talk focuses on the life and death struggles of a new generation of Chinese workers who produce our iPhones, Kindles, and Xboxes. Between the rash of employee suicides in 2010 and the outbreak of coronavirus at the end of 2019, the authors engaged with Foxconn workers through interviews as well as their shared poems, songs, open letters, photos, and videos, supplemented with meetings with managers and government officials.
During the period of rapid business growth in the wake of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Foxconn workers and interning students were transferred between factories to reach ever-higher productivity and profit goals. This reflects an emergent pattern of massive, corporate-led forced migration. In key nodes of globalized electronics production, large-scale labor strikes can send important messages to the Chinese state, to Foxconn, and to global brands.