It may be a question of how the new generation looks at things. Facing her potential competitors – millions of college graduates who want to find employment in Beijing, Zhang Qianru is fearless. She learned to communicate well, an important means of survival, at the age of 15 -– when she was exposed to city life for the first time as a boarding student in Shenyang. She commented that her academically superior colleagues were awkward in handling social matters. “In this respect they are inferior to me.” Her lodgings, the 30-square-meter room her parents rent on the edge of the city proper, was too far from work, so her researcher-boss recommended that Qianru and another girl rent a room from her colleague that was closer to their workplace. No longer spending hours to commute, she had the time to dedicate to obtaining her undergraduate diploma. “To learn, one must be flexible. I take continuing education courses to obtain a diploma on the one hand, and to widen my vision and expand my interpersonal and social skills on the other. Before reaching 30, my main task is to absorb what the world has to offer. I am not anxious to set specific goals for myself.”

If we can say that first-generation migrant workers primarily aimed to improve their livelihood, then second-generation migrant workers seem to have their sights set on experiencing life’s richness and realizing a dream. The federation’s survey also indicated that 76.2 percent of migrant workers born in the 1960s and 34.9 percent born in the 1970s claim they left home “to earn money.” Only 18.2 percent of migrant workers born in the 1980s made the same claim. A whopping 71.4 percent cited motives such as: “I want to develop myself after graduation,” “I want to have fun,” “I want to learn a skill,” and “Village life is dull.”

Since they have never experienced poverty, and have no heavy family burdens, lower incomes don’t seem to bother this generation of migrant workers. They do their best to improve their diet, wardrobe and lodgings… and fit in some travel. Beyond material gain, they pursue cultural activities and entertainment. Their consumption style is similar to other urban youth: at the end of every month they are broke. Meanwhile, the Chinese economy is shifting from dependence on exports to expansion of domestic demand. If we are looking to new-generation migrant workers to be one of the pillars of domestic demand, realizing their consumption potential looks like it should be a priority.

Picking and Choosing

Zhang Qianru was soon accompanying her boss on business trips, and one of these was to the now notorious Foxconn Company in Jincheng City, Shanxi Province. Seeing so many workers of her age on the production line, mechanically repeating simple operations, she felt very lucky. “Whether you’re at Panasonic of Dalian or in Foxconn, certain arrangements prevail to keep technical secrets secret: workers are confined to one post. Having few, if any, opportunities to transfer to other positions means it is difficult to understand their own tasks in the production context or to get any overview of the process. The mind-numbing tasks deaden their interest in the outside world. “I would never do such a job even if were offered a high salary,” asserts Zhang Qianru.