When watching the film China Blue, there are two different subjects that are being discussed in this documentary. The first major theme of this film is globalization and how it affects different economies in different countries around the world. Even though this is set in China, it does show how others are affected by globalization such as the United Kingdom. Second, there is a major analysis of how working in sweatshop conditions affects the lives of the workers as well as others down the line including the consumer.

Some of the main characters include Jasmine who leaves her home village to take a job in a factory making blue jeans and is not used to the hard working conditions in the factory. She meets two girls, Li Ping and Orchid, who are 14 and 17 years old and already experienced seamstresses. Mr. Lam, the factory’s manager, has to agree to low prices and high quantities to gain a new British client and stretches the endurance of the factory seamstresses to the absolute breaking point. These conditions are typical not only in China, but in other countries where big manufacturing companies set up these sweatshops so they can pay as little as possible for the assembly of products to make a huge profit.

The choices that are made in this movie by the characters are understandable in some ways, yet are horrifying to those in the Western world who reap the benefits of this type of globalization. For Jasmine, the decision to leave her small village to get a job to help her family is extremely difficult, yet it is one made by countless boys and girls in this country. In the end her choice affects her when she has to work long hours around the clock to meet deadlines set by Mr. Lam and other workers suffer the same fate. Chinese New Year is the only time the workers are allowed to have time off from work, and many are unable to afford the trip home to visit with family, but Orchid is the exception to this rule. She is able to make the visit home for the holiday and introduce her boyfriend to her family, which is a choice she makes despite the question of whether or not they will accept him. Everyone’s lives are changed by working in this factory, and not for the better. There is the possibility of the workers going on strike to protest the harsh working conditions, but this too is also illegal in China and carries its own set of negative consequences.

This writer’s personal reaction to the film is complicated because there are several thoughts that were experienced during and immediately after the film. First, it is shocking and sad that young people have to make choices such as the ones Jasmine and her co-workers made to work in such terrible conditions. Globalization is discussed by many people as being a positive economic and political tool to unite the world, but there are victims of this process, and they are the workers that have to put up with such terrible conditions. As far as changing the situation, that can be a very complicated question to answer. Yes, morally and ethically these sweatshops need to be improved or shut down entirely, but economically and politically this is not possible. There will always be companies that want to cut down costs as much as possible and sweat shops are a necessary evil in order to accomplish this. The Western consumers can claim to want to change these working conditions, yet complain bitterly when the cost of goods is increased to match the rising production costs. There is no easy answer to how this problem can be fixed or if it even is possible to fix it.

There is a great deal of information that could be expounded upon from the film. For example, it would be fascinating to understand more about how this topic is connected with specific companies so there is a tie between the East and West when it comes to manufacturing goods with these types of factories. By understanding which companies specifically use the labor from sweatshops, it might become a little easier to come up with a way to have other alternative available so these working conditions can be corrected. Additionally, it would be beneficial to remember such events as the Industrial Revolution where people began leaving farms to work in factories in the West and the same type of awful working conditions existed for these people as well in history. By understanding the past, it gives the present as well as future generations the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of their ancestors and not repeat them. In summary, history sometimes is a predictor to how the present and future generations will act; human nature unfortunately in most cases cannot be changed.