Interviewings at Tiehua Factories
The middle part of our time in China was almost exclusively spent going from firm to firm questioning owners and workers at Tiehua factories. Our first stop was at Chishi Tiehua, one of the prominent producers who provides the bulk of the higher end pieces of Tiehua. I was completely blown away by the complexity of the pieces in their studio, and at the skill it must take to create such art. I wish I had enough money to buy some of those iron paintings, because I would love to have some of them in my house right now.
The actual interview portion of our trip was very enlightening, and it was great to hear first hand how the privatization of the Tiehua market had impacted everything from workers pay and lifestyle, to production techniques and technologies, to the quality of the pieces being produced. It was also very interesting to see how some of the producers disagreed on how positive the shift to a private market had been…Some were unhappy because they didn’t like having to compete for profits and hated the lack of job security that they had. Those who felt that way were definitely in the minority, however. Most of the people we interviewed agreed that they themselves and the whole Tiehua market were better off in the years since the State stopped its control of the market. As an economics major, it was really validating to see some of the theories I’ve learned about in school actually carry out in the real world.