CHINA: TV Soap Allays Migrant Workers' Woes

Migrant workers will hopefully learn how to lead better lives as entrepreneurs while watching a TV soap opera made just for them.

Behind every tearjerker is a lesson waiting to be uncovered. With soap opera dramas currently the rage in Asia, advocacy groups are learning that the best way to get their valuable message across is to tug at the heartstrings of their target viewers.

In Sichuan province in mainland China, a new TV drama series will debut Wednesday on Sichuan TV's Public Channel. ‘My Future is not a Dream,' taken from a popular Chinese song, is not your ordinary soap opera. It has a more important purpose - to encourage migrant workers to start their own businesses.

The programme, to be shown at 8:10 p.m. Beijing time, is the result of the collaboration between the TV network, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Start and Improve Your Own Business (SIYB) Programme, and China's Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MOLSS). This is the first time that SIYB is being used as the basis of a TV series.

The aim of the series is to catch the target audience's interest, encourage them to start their own businesses, and tell them about the training services available to help them make those important first steps. In a way, it is infotainment at its best - learning while watching a gripping drama filled with romance, love and action.

The story revolves around construction worker Zhao Dayong (Hai Dun) and his wife Xie Chunmei (Wang Qunying), who works in a restaurant in Chengdu City. A friend, Wang Defu, joins them and makes a living collecting empty cans and bottles, all along searching for his missing wife and daughter. Jian Hong, meanwhile, is another rural migrant worker who is infatuated with Zhao Dayong and tries to lure him away from his wife by loaning him money to open his own business.

Produced by Ouyang Fenqiang of the 1990s hit television series ‘A Dream of Red Mansions', the soap opera is directed by Liu Xuesong with script by Liang Dong, Liu Ji'an and He Jie. The series also prides itself for casting famous Sichuan comedians such as Liu Deyi, Shen Fa, Liao Jian, and Li Boqing.

According to Christoph David Weinmann, chief technical advisor of the SIYB China Project, the series was a result of a research on the migrant workers' situation in the Sichuan capital, Chengdu. They also did a study on migrants who opened their own businesses in Guangzhou and Zhaoqing in Guangdong province, Nanning in the Guangxi autonomous region, and Yuxi in Yunnan province in late 2005.

"From our research, we learned that both male and female migrants enjoy spending their free time watching soap operas, and concluded that this must be a powerful channel for reaching out to them," Weinmann told the Asia Media Forum, adding that this is a unique and new approach as far as Chinese television is concerned. "If it is successful, it may inspire other projects."

Though the TV series only constitutes a small part of the whole SIYB China Project activities, project officials expect it to make a strong impact among viewers nevertheless especially among rural migrant workers who came to the city to seek a better life.

"The project posed a special challenge because audience expectations are high despite our modest financial resources. We also needed to meet SIYB China's requirements," says Ouyang.

According to a survey conducted by the State Council's Research Office, there are about 120 migrant workers - 200 million in all if one includes rural labourers in towns and townships - found in major cities in China today. The survey, conducted over a period of 10 months in 2005, was done in 11 provinces and municipalities, including Sichuan and Beijing. Sichuan, western China's most heavily-populated province with more than 85 million people, is home to many migrant workers from other parts of China.

The project is meant to open up SIYB to specific vulnerable groups. "This project has been successful in including a new target group that has never had access to any type of promotion programs before. Destination city governments now have a mandate to organise services for migrant workers and we need to get this message out to the people," says Constance Thomas, ILO-China and Mongolia director.

The SIYB China project began in 2004 as a means to "contribute to poverty alleviation and employment creation," specifically of laid-off workers, and help them in becoming entrepreneurs. It is funded by Britain's Department for International Development and Japan's Ministry for Health, Labour and Social Welfare.

The income of rural migrant workers, according to the State Council report published in ‘China Labour Bulletin' last April, is quite low at 500 to 800 yuan (62 to 100 U.S. dollars) a month. About 60.37 percent of all migrants receive their salary on a monthly basis, and 28 percent on a yearly basis. Only 47.78 percent are paid on time, while 35.68 percent receive delayed payment, and 15.68 percent get late payment.

Weinmann says that construction jobs for male and catering or restaurant for females comprise 80 percent of total migrant employment. "Obviously, there are quite a number of people working in industrial sweatshops as well," he continues.

While migrants have the same rights as all other citizens in China, they are usually treated like second-class citizens in urban areas. "Migrants frequently work in unfavourable and often unacceptable working conditions. They know little about their rights," says Weinmann.

Since it was implemented, the SIYB China Programme has trained more than 120,000 laid-off workers, unemployed persons, small business owners, and migrants. This led to the creation of almost 200,000 new jobs in different locations in China.

In the State Council survey, 66.3 percent of rural migrant workers are men and 33.7 percent are women. Sixty-one percent are between the ages of 16 and 30, 23 percent are between 31 and 40, and 16 percent are over 40.

As for the migrants-turned-entrepreneurs, Weinmann says migrants constitute one-third of all business owners, including small ventures. "There are, however, no accurate statistics available," states Weinmann, adding that there are no special patterns as to what particular businesses the migrants go into.

According to Satoshi Sasaki, enterprise development and job creation specialist at ILO Beijing, the key to the success of this program is the adaptation of the training modules to the Chinese context and the implementation of a good quality management system. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MOLSS) has thus been able to use SIYB in implementing its nationwide employment policy.

Local labor offices will open telephone hotlines during the show to answer questions for migrants' queries about starting their own businesses and will be referred to appropriate training centers. A website-based raffle draw will also be set up to encourage viewers to send text messages via mobile phones, the major tool of communication of migrant workers in Sichuan. A roundtable discussion following the broadcast is also being considered.

All 12 45-minute episodes were recorded in standard Chinese and local dialect versions. A further revision will contain English subtitles. Weinmann informs AMF that Sichuan TV has formally handed over the series - and all of the respective rights - to the MOLSS last Monday in Chengdu. It is expected that MOLSS will take care of further broadcasts. (END/AMF/LC/150806)