A Study On The Status Of Workers In Qingdao,1897-1937

In the year 1897, Germany leased in Qingdao, and then started the urban and industrial construction. During the following 40 years, the modern industry in Qingdao had achieved the leap-type development from nothing under the intervention of Chinese and foreign capital. Workers, as a newly-emerged group generated along with industry, play an important role in the development progress of modern Qingdao.As an immigrant city, the original sources of workers in Qingdao mostly originates from the farmers of suburbs and the whole Shandong area in the early time, and there is also a small number of local residents and skilled workers from other places. While with the constant change of Qingdao industrial structure, the occupations that workers are engaged also gradually developed from the original construction of pier and railway to textile, machinery, ports and so on. At the same time, in consideration of the reduction of cost and the strength of management, women and children workers increasingly replace the adult men workers, thus becoming the major part of workers in modern Qingdao.Compared with farmers, the workers of modern Qingdao did get a higher salary, but their work environment and condition were quite bad:they had not only a long working time, labor intensity, strict management system, but also lacked adequate protection in such aspects as industrial injury and unemployment. In order to maintain their own interests, workers usually took sabotage, strike and steal goods against the capitalists, and formed workers groups which were divided according to native place, industry, and so on. Although this struggle cannot fully achieve their purpose, in a certain degree, it does improve the treatment and situation of workers. And the worker union which grew from worker groups has increasingly become the stage on which the two parties, KMT and the CPC fought each other for the realization of their own political purpose.In family life after work, although a relatively higher income makes Qingdao workers maintain a higher living level in food, clothing and shelter, it still cannot afford the expensive cost of movies, dancing and other new entertainment. Occasionally, listening to the story, going to the theatre and park are still the leisure and entertainment style which the workers has been accustomed to. The workers slowly fade out from festivals, rituals and customs and increasingly focus on education, financial and other new things, marking that the workers and their families in the process of constantly adapting to the city life, gradually completed the identity changed from farmer to citizen.In modern China, the workers are an important force that cannot be ignored while Qingdao workers are no exception. In the modern Qingdao, workers group has made an indispensible significant contribution to urban development and industrial progress.