For many years, Guangzhou’s urban villages have been gathering a large number of labor-intensive industries, especially the garment industry. In the Da Shi and Nan villages in the Panyu District of Guangzhou, there are many small and medium-sized garment factories directly connected to international e-commerce platforms like SHEIN. Most of the workers here reside in nearby urban villages, facing the dual pressure of urban village renovation and e-commerce, putting their future survival to the test.
According to a recent report by WhyNot, a subsidiary of Radio Free Asia, in these factories, workers typically operate on a “fast fashion” production model, producing small batches of orders quickly in response to market demand. This flexible and efficient production method allows factories to complete the entire process from design to production in a short period, ensuring products can quickly hit the market for sale.
However, this high-intensity work model demands long hours of labor from workers in harsh working conditions, often lacking social security benefits, leaving these workers in extremely difficult circumstances.
SHEIN has faced controversy due to allegations of poor labor conditions. For example, working hours can extend up to 12 hours with only one day off per month, and the lack of social security benefits is common.
The rapid expansion of international e-commerce platforms like SHEIN has brought in a large number of orders but has also led to a decrease in unit prices, putting pressure on the survival and development of local garment factories. Particularly, SHEIN’s demand for low-priced bulk orders has driven down the unit prices of garment products, forcing factories to attract orders at even lower prices, further deteriorating their profit margins.
Meanwhile, SHEIN’s competitors like ZARA, H&M, have started outsourcing orders to factories in countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, creating a price gap while adding greater competitive pressure on the local garment industry in Guangzhou.
Additionally, the renovation of Guangzhou’s urban villages has brought significant impact to these garment factories and their workers.
Urban village renovation plans usually involve demolition, land acquisition, resettlement, compensation, and a range of social issues. As the renovation progresses, many workers face the dilemma of forced relocation, with some residents choosing to leave after receiving compensation. However, many are dissatisfied with the renovation process, leading to clashes with the local government. More importantly, the renovation of urban villages is not just about physical space reconstruction but involves a massive and complex social restructuring, including the reconfiguration of the low-end labor market, exacerbating social inequality and sparking discussions on residents’ housing rights and social security.
Against this backdrop, garment industry workers in Guangzhou’s urban villages are facing multiple challenges from both internal and external factors. On one hand, demands from international e-commerce platforms keep these factories running, but issues such as lower unit prices, intense competition, poor labor conditions make the workers’ survival increasingly difficult. On the other hand, the urban village renovation further compresses the survival space for these workers, creating more uncertainty and anxiety. With changes in the industry structure, the younger generation’s waning interest in entering this industry has led to a shortage of manpower resources, and many veteran workers who have worked in the industry for decades are struggling to cope with the challenges of the new production landscape.
Garment industry workers in Guangzhou’s urban villages are confronted with structural adjustments in the industry, international competitive pressures, labor conditions issues, and urban village renovation challenges. The future survival conditions of these workers and factories will become more uncertain, potentially exacerbating social inequality issues.