Mardi Gras: Made in China was one of the films featured in the Humans Rights Watch International Film Fest at the Pacific Film Archive. it was certainly a very interesting and good documentary that raises several difficult/controversial questions... not that i'm sadistic or something, but in my opinion, the main question should be about globalization... rather than human rights issues; technically speaking, viewing it from US standards, yes, the living conditions aren't great.... but from what i've seen in China so far, the living conditions really aren't that bad. yes, they work really long hours, but as the documentary shows, these girls really do get more money working at the factories.... so i think sometimes it really boils down to whether those individuals themselves think it's really that intolerable.... sometimes i just feel... who are we to say what's good or what's bad for them?
a really cool thing the director did was this mini cultural exchange thingy. so he went to streets of New Orleans to interview partying ppl if they knew where the beads came from- many of them didn't know and didn't care; in China, many of the girls didn't even know what the beads/ Mardi Gras paraphernalia were used for, how much they could be sold for etc...and when shown pictures of American girls stripping for beads these Chinese girls felt totally embarrassed for them... i just thought it was interesting that alongside themes on globalization, stark differences in cultures were also highlighted...
2 comments:
There is definitely an element of hypocrisy about advocating the erection of trade barriers to prevent the import of goods that are apparently made by workers on 'too low' wages. I mean, one might think that this was helping the low-paid workers - but really it just deprives them of a job. And, of getting a low wage and getting no wage, I think the choice is a no-brainer.
I'm learning (and going to learn more) about the role of culture in international politics, and about whether all cultures are amenable to democratic values, and vice versa :) It's going to be very interesting, I think!
yes, that does sound interesting! Cultural differences can be really fascinating. (and more so when you're actually aware of them!)=P
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