Here, the barrier work is far more than just Chen Hongjun and Zhou Xiaomin sisters. In September 2021, a microblog that read, "355 of Tan Carpenter's 720 workers are disabled," brought the company and its employees with disabilities into the public eye. For various reasons, some parts of their body have defects, and confrontation with defects is a necessary practice in their lives.
Wen | Road Fir
Edit | Zhou Wei
Operation | Painted Firefly
barrier
Wanzhou, a city located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, in the northeast of Chongqing, deep into the heart of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. "Wan" is the Wanchuan Bihui Wan, but also the Wanshang gathered wan - located in the southwest corner of Wanzhou tens of thousands of square meters, is one of the most well-known local enterprises.
In front of you are stone arch bridges, pavilions, large pools of water, and bushes of trees. Chunks of green shrouded, garden-like places. Only a faint roar from not far away reminded me that it was a factory.
The further you go, the louder and louder the roar becomes more and more real and harsh. The source of the sound is the workshop that processes the wood, and under the rapid operation of the cutting machine, the log becomes a piece of wood, and the piece of wood is cut into the shape of a comb.
Only one part of the factory is slightly quiet. At 10 o'clock in the morning, the incandescent lamp was brightly lit, and Chen Hongjun under the lamp picked up a brush and carefully filled the paint dipped in the tip of the pen onto the pattern on the comb.
She is a female worker in the C3 workshop of Tan Carpenter's Chongqing Wanzhou factory. This workshop is responsible for the process of finishing the comb painting and painting, which is far from the noise. As a half-deaf person, Chen Hongjun was farther away, and the sounds of the outside world had to pass through a thick barrier before reaching her.
In a way, Chen Hongjun is still lucky, she can receive the voice, but also try to speak, although the expression is not so smooth. But in the case of Zhou Xiaomin and Zhou Xiaorong's sisters, the barrier became almost completely isolated. Sister Zhou Xiaomin was born deaf, and sister Zhou Xiaorong was naturally deaf, and she could only hear a little voice and say a little simple word.
The sisters' workstations are very close together, and like Chen Hongjun, they are also painters who color and describe combs. It is not easy to paint on a wooden comb with a limited blank area. One of the most important features of factory assembly line production is standardization, which must control the error of a single product while taking into account the shape and details, and the power is reflected in the end.
In the beginning, in order not to waste the finished comb, the painters had to practice on the waste wood chips of the scrap material. But Zhou Xiaomin and Zhou Xiaorong can do the next pen without stopping, as long as you look at the drawings, you can hardly know how much paint to mix with how much water to use without trying.
Behind the proficiency is more than ten years as a day, in a square meter of painting table to pay. From adolescence to adulthood, they have spent half of their lives in this factory in their early thirties.
The matter of painting gave the sisters a kind of shelter to some extent. In the few hours of work every day, they only have to face the row of wooden combs waiting to be dressed, it doesn't matter if they can't hear, most of the time they don't need to speak, and the pressure caused by the barrier temporarily disappears.
▲ Female workers assembling combs. Figure / Courtesy of the interviewee
Defect
Chen Hongjun's face looked white and young, and he smiled and tilted his head slightly, revealing a girlish demeanor. In her narration, she has a 12-year-old son in her 30s, a stable job income, a warm and happy family, and a good life.
Only when talking about the past, cramps and tension will suddenly emerge.
Her life was dragged into a rough passage by an illness when she was a child. Because she took the wrong medicine, her hearing was severely damaged, and unlike many people with hearing impairments, she did not go to special education schools, but attended ordinary primary schools.
In order to hear more clearly what the teacher was saying, she sat in the first row of the class. Although it is still very difficult to learn, she strives to absorb and digest knowledge, and the parts that cannot be heard will be recorded, repeatedly pondered after class, and then dare to ask the teacher.
Chen Hongjun, who was accustomed to being alone, also began to observe the beautiful things and things in life. She fell in love with drawing and writing, and became her best friend with a pen and paper in her hand. The primary school teacher also noticed this somewhat special classmate and encouraged her to take on the task of helping the class produce a blackboard newspaper.
The bitterness brought about by the hearing impairment was once almost dissolved by Chen Hongjun, and she felt that she also had self-confidence. But when everything seems to be moving in a better direction, change suddenly comes.
The family conditions were poor, and Chen Hongjun knew it. When she was in elementary school, her tuition fees were always uneven, and she struggled to get to junior high school, and once the school issued a report of achievement, there was a line written on it: The school is not a charity, if there is difficulty, find a charity to fund.
"I understand this thing too well, when I was a child, I really didn't understand things, and I often asked my father for money... He also didn't have any money. She said in a trembling voice. Her parents were illiterate, it was really difficult to find a job that could continue to provide her with education, and when her father was sick and had to use money, the family decided to let Chen Hongjun drop out of school.
Chen Hongjun once felt that God was too unfair to her, since he let her come to this world, why did he let her fate be so desolate?
In Zhou Xiaomin's view, her congenital deafness is an inevitable fate, but her sister Zhou Xiaorong's becoming a "deaf and mute person" is the biggest regret, she could not have worked so hard and lived an easier life.
From the beginning of understanding, Zhou Xiaomin is facing a silent world. Her parents have been working outside the home for many years, she can't hear their voices, she can't see each other, and her two-year-younger sister Xiaorong was brought up by her grandparents.
At the age of 5, the thin Zhou Xiaomin had begun to help her grandmother with farm work, and it was not until she was 10 years old that she entered a special education school for enlightenment education. She also entered the school with Zhou Xiaorong, because her sister was born deaf, and the family did not think about it and sent her sister in.
No one knew that At that time, Zhou Xiaorong could actually have the opportunity to speak, she was originally a sound person, but after staying in the deaf school for a long time, her hearing and language skills had deteriorated.
In this way, they were thrown into the torrent of society. In 2004, after being introduced by his cousin who worked at Tan Carpenter, Chen Hongjun walked into the factory and became a machine operator. Two years later, Zhou Xiaomin, who graduated from a special education school, also came to Tan Carpenter to do the work of polishing combs, and it did not take long to bring in his sister Zhou Xiaorong.
▲ Tan Carpenter's store. Photo / Visual China
In 2007, a recruitment at the factory attracted the attention of Zhou Xiaomin and Chen Hongjun at the same time, and the deep processing workshop recruited painters with a foundation in fine arts, and the salary was higher than that of the basic position. Zhou Xiaomin successfully passed the examination, and personally taught her sister to draw, helping her to enter the factory.
Chen Hongjun had some drumming in her heart, and she was worried that her previous painting skills in small fights were too shallow, but she couldn't press the impulse in her heart. In order to successfully pass the examination, she picked up the enthusiasm for learning, prepared enough homework in advance, not only used the rest time to participate in a short-term training class, insisted on painting practice in the quiet dormitory at night, and often took time to go to the library to read the materials on art.
This time, fate did not fail to be diligent, and she got her wish, "very excited, because I got the first place." The river of destiny of three women of similar ages converges in one place.
Break the cocoon
In 2008, when Ran Liling came to Tan Carpenter, she was 28 years old. As her son grew up, the family's expenses grew day by day, and she squeezed her energy from her role as a mother and wanted to get back into the workplace and find a job.
She is a native of Wanzhou, and she had heard before she came in that the Tan Carpenter Factory had accepted many disabled people, and "the management was very humane." But when she really came to the post, Ran Liling gradually realized that as a healthy person, she had to integrate into another world, which was also very challenging.
There are more than 80 workers in the lacquer and painting workshop, half of whom have to live with unchangeable shortcomings, and more than 20 colleagues have their own communication system. Watching them play sign language every day, Ran Liling felt separated by a transparent cocoon, and the people inside only needed a look or a gesture to understand each other, and their joys and sorrows were not known to outsiders.
▲ In the workshop, women workers are working. Figure / Courtesy of the interviewee
Ran Liling soon realized that it was a little unrealistic to really understand them and become "their own people" with them, waiting for the other party to take the initiative. She decided to be the one who broke through the cocoon, and while buying the first and second volumes of the "Sign Language Encyclopedia" to study, she seized every opportunity to communicate with them.
She started out with a series of guesses, and she asked her sign language colleagues to teach her the simplest words, including "hello," "whether you're going to eat," and "Are you uncomfortable?", which are the most common greetings. Later, I learned that in their expression habits, the most important information of a sentence will be placed at the beginning, not to eat but to "eat", and "where today" has become "where to go today".
Change is happening quietly. Ran Noticed that disabled employees who had been more willing to close themselves off began to communicate with themselves in sign language they were familiar with. She was also surprised to find that sign language has been changing generations, and sometimes they have some new words that she can't understand, "I just learned a little, how to say it, that is, the first and second grades (level)".
The kindness thrown by Ran Liling has been passed on to many people, and Chen Hongjun is one of them. After lunch, they walked to the pavilion in the factory area and introduced themselves to each other: This is my good friend.
Chen Hongjun had a hidden pain buried in her heart, even though it had been more than ten years since this incident, it was still difficult for her to forgive herself. Her son, who was born more than 5 months ago, threw up as soon as she ate, and she did not perceive the danger at all, and as a result, the child suffered from intestinal obstruction, had to undergo major surgery, and once waited for a critical illness notice.
Speaking of this, Chen Hongjun crouched down on Ran Liling's right shoulder and buried his face deeply. Her friend rubbed her back while explaining to us: "She is a new mother, and the child is so young that she will not tell you that he is uncomfortable... Now her children are very tall and handsome, and they are not easy. ”
There are also many vulnerable moments of disabled female workers in the factory, and Ran Liling has seen them. Most of them have found another half in the factory, some are also disabled, there are also able-bodied people, but not everyone can receive respect and love. For the colleagues who come to her with the triviality of married life, Ran Liling encourages them every time, what is uncomfortable in life, take the initiative to say it, and don't hold it in your heart.
Obviously, the power to break the cocoon from the inside is stronger. Sister Zhou Xiaomin may be the best example of this.
Director Zhang of the C3 workshop remembers that Zhou Xiaomin was very restrained when she first came to work as a painter, timidly shrunk in the corner and obscurity, but now she has been able to represent the company to promote the culture of painted wooden combs all over the country, "basically always very cheerful and confident, doing everything has her own ideas." Regardless of working hours, she works out, dances, shoots short videos, and plays everything.
Zhou Xiaorong has grown into a lively girl. She was thin, and her mask covered most of her palm-sized face, leaving behind a pair of large, energetic eyes. When the meaning of her sign language is guessed correctly, a smile will come out of the corner of her eye. If she encounters something that makes her laugh, she will even burst into a laugh that lasts for a long time.
Although taking care of her two children is very tiring, her spare time is always reserved for herself, playing mobile games to the fullest, although she can't hear the horn of "all-out attack", but it is also completely happy to see the moment when the tower is victorious.
In the process, women workers also see the larger world.
In April 2018, before the epidemic arrived, more than 350 disabled employees in Tan Carpenter's entire factory formed a spring tour team of Haohao Tangtang. They set off from Wanzhou, Chongqing, to Jiangsu, more than 1,000 kilometers away, and walked onto the university campus at the invitation of Nanjing University of the Arts.
On that trip, the Zhou Xiaomin sisters went out for the first time, and together with several other female workers in the factory and Nanyi students, they collaborated on a dance called "Happy Bossa". The training time is very tense, only less than a day, but the difficulty of rehearsal is very large, deaf and dumb people can not hear the guidance, step on the beat is not accurate, etc. are all problems.
Not wanting to disappoint the dance teacher became the strongest desire at that time. From 11:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., in the somewhat messy hotel rooms and narrow aisles, the girls rehearsed the movements over and over again without making a sound.
The teacher found that three scars appeared on Zhou Xiaorong's arm, which were scratched during the bouquet dance of the props. "The others also had their arms on them, and when they wanted to bring some medicine, they all waved their hands and pointed to their wrists to make a clock movement, indicating that time was running out." I practiced rolling and kneeling over and over again, and some of my elbows and knees were red and swollen on the ground, but no one cried out in pain and did not stop.
The final effect wowed everyone, and they made a really good show in extreme time.
see
In addition to painters such as Chen Hongjun and Zhou Xiaomin, Tan Carpenter also has many disabled female workers in other positions, who are also working hard for their careers and lives.
On February 28, in the live broadcast room of Pinduoduo's "2022 Duoduo New National Tide", Liu Kejia, vice president of Tan Carpenter, explained the process of the birth of the wooden comb: a small comb from wood chips to wooden combs needs to go through dozens of processes to complete, and each process has strict standards, injecting a large number of craftsmen's efforts and time.
Behind this, there is Zhou Chunlin, a female worker responsible for tooth inlay. She has a disability in her legs and feet, but this does not prevent her from doing her craft very skillfully, gluing and embedding comb teeth, each comb is stable and neat, and the pass rate can reach 100% at the highest.
There is also Chen Xiaolan, who has worked in the lacquer art workshop for more than ten years. It's not very convenient for her to walk, but she is a master of lacquer, and when she brushes gold leaf on a wooden comb, she can control the thickness and width just right.
▲ A female worker is teething a comb. Figure / Courtesy of the interviewee
There is also Liu Zhili, who was paraplegic due to a car accident. At one point, she was very concerned about the label of "disabled", her first job was at the mall desk, and she could feel the strange eyes of strangers every day. Later, tan carpenter, she became a data entry clerk, and every day her colleagues would give her a record of her work reports, and the numbers written into the computer were directly linked to the salary. In this job, Liu Zhili feels that he has gained trust and tolerance.
The power of the Internet has made the stories of female workers more visible. On January 15th, Pinduoduo officially launched the "2022 Duoduo New National Tide" action, uniting more than 100 domestic brands such as Tan Carpenter, Midea, Shanghai Jahwa, Libai, Junlebao, Galanz, Gujia Home, Hongxing Erke, Elai, Winona, etc., to jointly launch the first season of "New National Tide Consumption Season".
Pinduoduo hopes to further exert the advantages of the majority of consumers and digital technology on the platform, continue to promote new domestic products and new national tides to connect with new consumption, and help brands like Tan Carpenter who have been deeply cultivating traditional national tides for more than 20 years to be seen by more people.
The data shows that in the past year, Pinduoduo has become a new highland for the strong growth of long-established brands and new national tide brands, and more than 50 long-established brands with more than 100 million yuan and more than 30 new national tide brands with more than 100 million have emerged on the platform. Among them, the sales of Baijiling ranked first among the long-established brands, Shanghai Jahwa ranked among the top three of the old domestic goods group, and Tan Carpenter, Zhang Xiaoquan, Huili, and Seagull watches all showed explosive growth.
Tan Carpenter and other enterprises ushered in new growth, but also let employees full of new expectations and motivation for the future.
In daily work, the factory building is gray, the uniforms are also gray, and the female workers have been circling with gray. The only colors are the paint on the palette and the painting on the comb.
Chen Hongjun's favorite paintings are the landscapes that can be seen everywhere in Chongqing and Wanzhou. She likes to see magnificent scenery and also likes Li Bai's poems. In a public speech, she chanted the "I am born to be useful" of "Will Enter the Wine" to tell her experience from inferiority to self-confidence, and also quoted "The peach blossom pond is thousands of feet deep, not as deep as Wang Lun sent me", thanking the people who helped her.
And Zhou Xiaomin painted watermelons that were eaten cold in the summer, jade rabbits and mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and when it snowed heavily in the cold winter, the children who appeared on the comb were children playing with snow... Just give her a basket of white, untied wooden combs, and she'll give you back all the patterns you want.
Fate gave them a cruel side, but it also tempered the hearts of those who found beauty one by one and wanted to bring beauty to more people.
The article is the original of the daily people, and the infringement must be investigated.