I was making my rounds in the workshop today and stopped to chat face-to-face with a female worker.
She is on the slip casting production line. Hailing from Northeast China, she has been in Tangshan for over seven years. Dressed in a pale blue shirt and a pair of grey trousers, her hair is neatly coiled high on her head. With big bright eyes, she looks to be under forty. Deft and highly experienced, she lifts ceramic toilet bowls with effortless ease despite her slender frame, placing each one with pinpoint accuracy-too close would block the aisle, too far would be a waste of space. Her movements are smooth and seamless. After positioning a toilet, she picks up a soft cloth to carefully touch up and wipe the surface. Her face, glistening with either moisture from the workshop or beads of sweat, radiates a healthy, ruddy glow that looks lovely.
I asked her what time she started work that morning. "I got here at six," she replied, looking up and smiling at me. "And I'll finish by two in the afternoon. It's quite hard work, but I'm over the moon every day after my shift ends-my two kids have moved here from my hometown and are now going to school locally. Just getting to see them every day fills my heart with contentment. Besides, my husband works on another production line here.
We both arrive early and leave late, and together we earn a handsome monthly income. Hard work always pays off," she said, grinning from ear to ear, a smile that came straight from the bottom of her heart. "Life like this feels solid and full of hope." I patted her on the back of her hand and walked on, as she bowed her head again to get on with the next task.
I glanced around. Every worker was bustling about in a tense yet orderly rhythm. In the distance, a container truck's reversing lights were flashing, as it slowly adjusted its position under a worker's guidance. Batch after batch of ceramic products are being shipped out of the factory, sent abroad, and making their way into countless homes across the globe. It is precisely from those countless families that our workers' grins and sense of happiness are born.
