Coming to Yellow Sheep River(6)

Talents Mobilization from West to East

It didn’t attract my attention when I first heard of Talents Mobilization from West to East. The project of Town and Talent is attractive as it plans not only to usher the west into IT era but also to foster 10,000 local IT software workers who will be retained in local places and employed from distant areas. That will be beneficial both to economy and western development, which is the charming part of the project. Western Talent for the East is to transfer western young people to enterprises in the east, which I regarded as not the patent of Town and Talent but the makeshift. However, in this trip, I have changed my opinion. I had a talk with Madam Gao, the manager of Town and Talent Gulang Digital Center, an executing office of Western Talent for the East and I though it was a wonderful plan.

Western Talent for the East does not jus act as an employment agency. It promotes western development by means of introducing western young people to the enterprises that Town and Talent knows well and meanwhile guarantees the quality and stability of the employees for them. In the situation of not being able to foster a large number of IT workers and fulfill distant employment, it is a real and serious problem that how to release the high pressure of western unemployment. This year Gansu Province suffered a terrible drought and gained little harvest. Working outside has become a main channel for income. The local farmers mainly have two ways of finding opportunities to work outside: government’s help and labor market. Local government has few sources in other places especially in the east. It is hard for it to find good enterprises. Currently, the local government mainly introduces the some farmers to pick up cotton for Xinjiang Construction Corps and plant melons and pollinating in neighboring counties. All of these are seasonal work lasting two months averagely with income of around 2,000. Some other farmers do odd jobs and labor work, like hamals in Lanzhou, constructing workers in Qinghai and railway between Lanzhou and Wuhan. They not only earn little sometimes even can’t get payment but also are in very poor working condition.

The enterprises that Western Talent for the East introduces are quite good human-oriented ones. Chengda Shoes in Dongguan is a Taiwan-invested company. The monthly average income is around 1,000RMB. The workers have four days for rest each month and have extra money for working overtime. The cost of board and lodging is 120RMB. From March this year, 400 employees have been transferred to Chengda and some to a chocolate factory in Tianjin. The estimated number is 800.

What are the traits of Talents Mobilization from West to East?

Changing their lives. Just like Town and Talent is changing the lives of the students in the western poor areas with internet, Western Talent for the East is also changing the lives of the young people there. Most of the young people desire for changing their lives, but have no opportunities. Traditionally, girls have no choice but to wait to be married to men who are chosen by their parents. Many boys working outside are cheated, so parents don’t dare to let girls work in other places. When the digital center began to promote Western Talent for the East even in every village of Gulang, few people were willing to join the project. It was the credibility of Town and Talent helped the center. Eventually, the first batch of distant employees was on their way t o Dongguan in March and the salary was remitted soon later. Videos of their lives in Dongguan were handed down to the parents. They watched the videos many times. Soon digital center became a busy place. Gulang Digital Center has become a government-authorized labor force output agency.

Furthermore, many touching stories took place.

A girl named Liu Yuping, wanted to work out of hometown through the platform of Western Talent for the East, her father did not allow her to work in such a far place until he knew it was organized by Town and Talent. There were 3 other young people, two boys and one girl, who had same interest of literature as Liu Yanping also wanted to go with Liu Yuping but did not have enough money for traveling. Later Liu Yuping and the other girl went to Dongguan first, and the two boys worked in places near hometown to earn money to join them later. However, the two boys didn’t get money and were cheated. Fortunately, the two boys went to Dongguan eventually with the help of Western Talent of the East. In the free time in Dongguan, Liu Yanping wrote essays about her thought and feeling. She sent the essays to Madam Gao who helped her to publicized them on the web. Now she can type and publicize wonderful essays on Gulang column in 17888.com. The four literature fans have established a literature society. It is clear that their lives have been changed.

Because of impoverishment, another girl, I don’t know her name, was to marry a man she disliked to exchange for wife to her brother. The same tragedy is repeating in the west. In the poor and backward countryside, girls can not get rid of the fate of being manipulated. However, this girl joined the Western Talent for the East without telling her parents and went to Dongguan and broke off the engagement. Her parents had to accept this, because she had been an independent person and had the ability to pursue her ideal life. A woman was reborn and liberated from the out-dated and rotting tradition and ideas. Many other stories alike are taking place. These stories are perfect source of touching novels. Although I am not a novelist, I can understand the significance of Western Talent for the East behind the stories.

In Mr. Sayling Wen’s design, the west can directly enter IT era via internet. In my opinion, as for the process of industry development, the west can skip the industrial phase, but in aspect of social development and idea transformation, the west can not avoid the phase without which IT era will lost the necessary social base. The significance of Western Talent for the East is not only to help the west to keep up with the pace of Chinese industrialization, but to change western people’s ideas and lives. Western people have stepped out of the west and earned money, and more important is that they have become industrial workers and will bring back new concepts. It is believed that some of them will become excellent talents and come back to the west as the main force of developing.

The establishment of employing channel has linked the west with the east in respect to industrialization. In the future, capital, new concepts, technology and talents will be returned. Just like that China has benefited from the trend of going abroad in 1980s in China. If it is difficult to foster 10,000 IT workers and retain them in the west, thousands of western people becoming industrial workers under the help of Western Talent for the East will be a reservoir of talents for the western development.

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