In the documentary film China Blue, success is depicted as relative to one’s situation. For the migrant worker Jasmine, success means she earns enough to send money back home to help support her family. For the garment factory owner, success is making enough profit to enable him to have a comfortable lifestyle and convince himself he is a progressive boss. For the representatives of large global retail organizations, success means being able to buy cheaply produced jeans to sell with large profit margins. These different meanings of success reflect the different cultural norms inherent in the three different groups of people, and also reflect the limitations of how many groups define success. This raises the question of whether there is a universal definition of success, and how success relates to the culture of humans as a species instead of humans as very different social groups.
In the article on culture, p'Bitek discusses the notion of culture as Western civilization has defined it, as things that people can see in museums or purchase (14). He describes this as “the mistaken and foreign view of culture as a commodity, distinct and separable from the way of life of a people” (16). In addition, he notes that in many areas, cultural artifacts that used to be naturally occurring byproducts of how people live, are now being produced artificially based on consumerism (16). That is, if a group of people at some time in the past created musical instruments as part of the natural process of wanting to play music, now some of these people make nonworking musical instruments simply to sell them to tourists as tokens of their “culture.” When considering this idea, it seems clear that in addition to defining culture as things, human society has also begun defining success as things. Based on p'Bitek’s comments, in the past many Africans achieved success and happiness by marrying several people and having many children. Success seemed to have depended on the quantity of familial relationships a person obtained. In contrast, in most developed nations today, people equate success with the quantity of material objects they can purchase. Fundamentally, many people today define success with things that are tangible and can be observed, instead of defining it as something intangible, such as a state of being satisfied with how one is leading one’s life. This definition of material success seems very limited, in that one could easily argue that success in life encompasses much more than simple acquisition of material goods. This limitation is manifest in the documentary China Blue, where most of the people who are shown lead very miserable lives, while contributing to the so-called success of their employers and the clients of those employers. .
China Blue focuses attention on young Chinese girls who leave rural provinces to work in garment factories in Chinese cities. The filmmaker chose to follow the experiences of a new girl, Jasmine, probably as a way to show the audience the expectations of someone entering the new environment and how they react to it. Also, showing the work from the perspective of a new employee allows the audience to experience the demands of the job and the surprises it brings. As explained by Jasmine, she is one of two daughters in a rural family. Because of Chinese restrictions on population, her parents were supposed to have only one child. She leaves home for the city so she can work and send money to her family; doing so will allow her sister to stay in school and her family’s finances to be better. Although she is initially a little nervous about leaving home, she also displays excitement and wonder at travelling on a train for the first time, and seeing the sights of a city. She shows relief at finding work right away at a factory that makes jeans, when are then sold to large retail clients.
However, the working conditions soon take their toll on Jasmine. She must eat food she doesn’t like, because there is no time to go elsewhere for meals, nor does she have money to buy meals at a restaurant. She does not get paid on a regular basis; it is only when the factory workers confront management that they are paid wages from the preceding month. As one worker comments, “They pay when they feel like” (China). Jasmine discovers then that her first month’s wages will be held as a deposit, in case she leaves. She works extremely long shifts, often 18 hours at a time with minimal breaks for meals. And yet, despite the sweatshop conditions, she feels happy when she does get paid, because after the various deductions for her room and board, she has enough money left over to send some to her family. She knows from discussions with others that she should be making more money than she is, and that she works longer hours than she should, but she feels successful because she has attained her original goal of being able to help support her family. To someone living in a more developed country, Jasmine would not seem successful at all, but in her situation she takes pride in her version of success. She has almost no material possessions, virtually no free time, limited social contacts, and an unfulfilling job. From her perspective, the lack of these things seems not to matter very much as long as she can assist her family.
The documentary frequently juxtaposes scenes of Jasmine and the other workers with contrasting scenes of the factory owner doing something similar. For example, the audience sees Jasmine eating a bowl of food that she describes as not good, and then sees the factory owner dining with clients in expensive restaurants with many types of food available. The film shows the factory owner driving a nice car and living in a roomy apartment that has a roof garden. These images seem designed specifically to point out the contrast between the way the factory owner lives and the way his employees live. The owner’s comments are also revealing, and often ironic when heard against the background of the working and living conditions of his employees. He describes himself as very progressive in his management style, and states that he and his employees are equals. However, he complains frequently that there is no point in trying to educate his workers, because they come from the provinces and in his view cannot learn anything. When they demand to be paid back wages that he owes them, he characterizes them as taking advantage of him. At the same time, he is also shown to be somewhat at the mercy of his clients. Because the factory was late with a shipment, a major client threatens to take their business elsewhere. The owner agrees to a low price and difficult deadline to keep the business. The owner obviously feels successful because he retains the client and gets a new order. He displays pride in his possessions and status as owner. He also feels successful because he believes he is treating his employees well. He remarks, "Usually I pay the workers all together about one dollar for a pair of jeans" (China) without any sense of shame; on the contrary, he seems to take pride in paying that amount. Again, to an audience in a developed country, the factory owner seems exploitative and self-delusional, but in his mind he has achieved success.
The film also shows various clients interacting with the owner and touring the factory. One group of clients notices the housing facility right across from the factory itself and comments how convenient it is for the workers to live that close to the factory. They do not remark on or appear to notice how crowded and outdated the living conditions are; they only care that workers do not waste time commuting to work. In another scene, the client negotiates with the owner on a price of roughly $4.00 for a set of a denim jacket and blue jeans; it seems likely the filmmakers knew the audience would be shocked at the specifics of the price. Audience members in the U.S., for example, would know that even at a discount retailer such as Walmart, one of the factory’s clients, a denim jacket would sell for at least $25.00, and the jeans would sell for at least $15.00. This way, the audience can calculate for themselves how much the prices on these goods are marked up when they are sold in retail stores. The various clients who appear in the film cannot be completely oblivious to the conditions in which the merchandise is produced, but they show great pleasure in making successful deals and getting the lowest prices possible in their contracts with the factory. They regard themselves as successful because they negotiate contracts that enable them to sell cheaply made clothes at huge profit margins to customers who would likely be horrified to know that the $16 pair of jeans they purchased cost roughly $1 to make, and that the $1 labor cost was spread out across roughly a dozen employees. In this case, the clients define success strictly as a financial quality. For the audience in a developed country, this definition of success may be familiar, but after watching the documentary, many would question if the definition is accurate.
In considering both the film and the article on culture, it is difficult to determine how different groups should define success. There does not seem to be a global definition of success. Even returning back to the example given in the article, of success in Africa being measured by how many wives a man has and how many children he produces, that definition also seems limited. For example, many women would not regard themselves as successful if they bore numerous children, because of the strain that overpopulation places on global resources. What does seem clear from the film, though, is that as humans we need to expand our definition of success to encompass more than just how much money we make and how many material possessions we acquire.
Works Cited
China Blue. Dir. Peled, Micha X. Teddy Bear Films. 2005. Film. p'Bitek, Otek. “What Is Culture?” Artist the Ruler. Nairobi: Heinemann Kenya, 1986. PDF file.
