Yang Gong, born in 1992, welds tin products at a factory in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. Photo: IC

Migrant workers, who leave rural areas to work in factories in big cities, are at the center of the labor-intensive mass production system on which the Chinese economic boom rests.

Though the low-skilled, low-paying jobs have hardly changed through the couple of decades of China's opening up, the new generation of migrant workers have grown different from their predecessors.

Besides the similarities they share, including the desire to work easier jobs and improve living standards, media reports on the younger generation of industrial workers, born during the 1990s, revealed they are less tolerant of poor working conditions than previous generations, tend to be more vigorous in protecting their labor interests, and express themselves more confidently.

This set of pictures, taken at a factory in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province on December 25, 2013, shows young people after nearly 10 hours at work.

Youth is what visually differentiates the workers of today from their predecessors. Many young workers sport uniquely eye-catching hairstyles, flaunting their youthfulness and offering a bit of color in the tedium of the production line.

These young workers, most of whom have not gone through higher education, are mostly paid around 3,000 yuan ($495) per month, working in highly repetitive and high-pressure positions in factories with grim prospects of boosting their careers.

Global Times

Long Chao, born in 1993 in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, tests power voltage. Photo: IC

Lao Chuchu, born in 1996 and from Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, didn't finish junior middle school. Photo: IC

An unnamed worker from Guizhou Province. Photo: IC

 

Yang Laoqing, born in 1992 in Liuzhou, glues together products. Photo: IC