James Fallows

Our new issue is out. (Say it with me: give the best gift of all, a combined print-and-online subscription!). Although I've worked for the magazine for a very long time, I make a point of not looking at in-process versions of the articles or the ever-shifting story lineup but instead reading each new issue as it arrives. That lets me react in real time as other readers would -- and to be freshly enthusiastic (most of the time) rather than jaded about what it contains.

This new issue contains a lot in the freshly enthusiastic category, but if you're looking for a guiltily easy way in, I will suggest James Parker's column on the alarming end-times genius that is Daniel Tosh. Parker's reaction to the tosh.o spectacle is very similar to mine, so naturally I think his column makes good sense. You should look for it on page 36 of the print issue. OK, I'll add a link down below. I'll point out some other stories as the month goes on.

I also have an article in this issue, describing a set of simultaneous complex changes (a) in China's economic, workplace, and social situation, (b) in America's economic, workplace, and social situation, and (c) in the manufacturing, design, and distribution technology that connects the U.S. and the international (especially Chinese). The surprising upshot is that after decades in which "new phase in the globalized economy" essentially meant "new problems for American workers," several of the trends are moving in favor of US-based manufacturing. Charles Fishman has an accompanying article on some of the larger international forces pushing in the same direction.

We've also put up a video, based on photos I've taken in Chinese factories starting six-plus years ago and as recently as last month, plus "real" photos by professional photographers. It gives you a brief look-and-feel introduction to the trends I'm talking about -- and the man, Liam Casey, whom I jokingly gave the title of "Mr. China" in a cover story five years ago and who is directly involved in many of these changes. He's just now opening an office in San Francisco as an aid to US-based manufacturing startups. ("Mr. China," by the way, is a longstanding, informal, usually half-jokey honorific, similar to People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" title. Jokes aside, right now Casey is as good a contender as any for the title.) 
 

 

In a few days, the new issue of the magazine will be out (subscribe!), including my article on some economic and technical trends that are brightening prospects for new manufacturing jobs in .... America itself.

It also discusses my visit to Foxconn, in southern China, early last month. Foxconn is of course the biggest electronics manufacturer in the world. In the past few years it has become famous and infamous for its role as subcontractor for nearly all Apple products, as well as those sold under most other famous North American, European, or Japanese brand names. If you own any kind of electronic device, odds are that some or all of it passed through some Foxconn factory somewhere in China.

When the new issue comes out, TheAtlantic.com will carry a narrated photo gallery of scenes from Foxconn and elsewhere in the vicinity. As a warm-up for that, here is another set of snapshots from Foxconn's Longhua campus in Shenzhen, where some 220,000 people work and more than 50,000 live, as it appeared on a weekday about last month. For past photo visits to Foxconn, check the items collected here. There are all in the mode of quick snapshots rather than a systematic video assessment of the campus. Still, I think cumulatively they are interesting.

Surveillance cameras. The very first stop on my tour was the surveillance room, where the cameras were trained on different parts of the enormous main-cafeteria structure. In the last photo you'll see some cameras trained on the "suicide nets," place outside windows, balconies, and other openings after a rash of jumping-suicides in 2010.







Two scenes from the food-prep hall. First, a few of the multitude of stir-fry pots used to prepare the day's meals. Then, the biodiesel factory, where (I was told) the left-over cooking oil is made into diesel fuel for use in the factory's boilers. Across China, the handling of left-over cooking oil is a major challenge and occasional scandal -- for instance, when it's collected from gutters or sewers and re-sold. Foxconn made a point of the proper handling of its oil refuse.





Now, four scenes from the pharmacy and health center. First, the main drug-dispensing area; then, two shots from the acupuncture and 'traditional-medicine" zone; then a dental-hygiene chart. There were people waiting and getting treatment in the clinic, but I didn't think I should take pictures of them.









Hoops. A view out a dormitory window to one of the sports fields.



More to come.

Previously in the series, #1, #2, #3, #4.

Here's the context, as a reminder: These are snapshots from a day last week that I spent inside the (notorious) Foxconn Longhua campus, in Shenzhen, China. That is where some 220,000 workers produce many of the electronic goods you have around you right now.

Lunchtime in the main "canteen" at Longhua. This is a blurry shot, but you'll see what interested me: No uniforms on the employees. These are assembly-line workers on lunch break. They are eating in a sort of "multi-purpose room," as in public high school: the stage, in the background, was set up for a band concert.




Lunch line in the same building. A company official told me, "Our priorities for the food are: Number 1 Safety, Number 2 Cleanliness, Number 3 Nutrition, and Number 4 Taste. Sometimes the employees really care only about Taste." 

I don't know the story about the mark on this guy's head.

For previous Foxconn entries, see #1, #2, and #3. All these are offered as looks at a generally closed place that looms large in the American imagination about working conditions in China.

Screening job applicants. A room on the main Foxconn site where applicants fill out forms, take tests, and so on.




Applicants. People filling out those forms.




New worker indoctrination. People who have just been hired listen to lectures about pay and overtime policies, vacation schedules, seniority rules, and so on.



'Foxconn University' The sign outside this building. In Chinese it says "IE [Innovation Entrepreneur] Institute Welcomes You."




Shopping. This is not directly connected to recruiting, but it was in the same general area of the site. It's an outlet for eFeihu, or "Flying Tiger," a Foxconn-run e-commerce company. The people inside, Foxconn workers on break, were checking out various phones and cameras. Weirdo touch: the orange and black decorations are cut-paper images of jack-o-lanterns, and the white things hanging from the ceiling are cut-paper Halloween skeletons. 

The current workforce at Foxconn's Longhua site is around 220,000, of whom about one-quarter stay on-site in dormitories. Obviously I didn't see all the dormitories, but I saw some, from inside and out. Here's a look. Previous Foxconn installments here and here. For context, remember: this is the hyper-secretive, highly controversial company that makes so many of the smartphones, computers, tablets, and other devices that you use.

From above. From the roof of one dorm, looking out to several others. They're the angled buildings.

Rushing for a plane at the Hong Kong SF airport, so here is a modest additional installment.

First two further points of context:

- Since some people have asked, the arrangement for me to go into Foxconn happened at very short notice. It was my idea. I made an "I'm sure there's no chance this could work, but I figure I might as well ask ... " request, through someone I knew, in Shenzhen on a Wednesday afternoon. We worked out the ground rules about not photographing brand-name logos on the production lines or shipping docks; they said OK; and I left for the factory at 9am on Thursday morning.
 
Of course there was incalculably more that I didn't see than I did. But -- having been on a number of cherry-picked tours over the years -- I didn't get the sense that very much of this could have been Potemkinized, just for reasons of scale. Take the biggest football stadium in North America or Europe, fill it to capacity -- then double it, and you have the on-site workforce at this Foxconn site. It would be hard to get everyone on message overnight.
 
- I present these as plain quick snapshots. The very banality of the scenes, in this the most famed workhouse in the world, is generally what I found interesting. Although the Foxconn representatives showing me around said I could take any picture I wanted (other than of brand-name logos on the assembly line), and stepped out of my way whenever I wanted to take a shot, the reality was that we were walking among people doing their ordinary business. I didn't feel like asking them to stop and arrange themselves. Thus the snapshot look and blur. There was no time to line up a real photographer, and even if there had been I think it would have changed the situation.

So here we go. Most of these next scenes were at lunch time when workers were walking to the cafeterias or otherwise were away from the assembly lines. This main street has banks, shops, and so on along along the sides. For instance, that's a branch of the Shenzhen Development Bank with the blue sign over on the right.




Other people outside that same bank. This looked like smokers' corner.

And:



A group of people walking in the main cafeteria area at lunch time. The guy with the plaid shirt has a bandage on his face; I don't know why. I assumed that the woman in the short red dress is pregnant, but I didn't ask. I just saw them walk by.