Tendaysafterthesmallsurgeryonmyinjuredleg，IreturntoChina.Atthe weekend I would like a ride by bicycle again to the football pitch and just watch，for once. On Saturday， about an hour before the scheduled kick-off， the rain deteriorates into a terrible storm， an artillery of drops of centimetres size descends on ShenZhen，even the lightning is hardly to be seen in this dense torrent， the thunder is hardly to be heard in the loud crackle of the warm (sub)tropical downpour.
A circular text message to everybody updates me – the game is cancelled. So I hope for Sunday to bring better weather. On time in the early afternoon I drive by bicycle， in spite of a few small showers， and remember near the pharmacy on half the distance that I was asked to tell craftsman Wang at the earliest opportunity what’s news about my leg. And sure enough， there he sits outside his shop， drinking tea with a neighbour and his own wife who has finished providing the passers-by with snacks for the lunchtime hunger and is now waiting for the afternoon and evening hunger.
I brake， he invites me to sit down， LuLu gets a tiny cup， I get every few minutes freshly brewed tea： hot water on the leaves and let stand for 15 seconds， then pour. Like that I also use to drink my green tea. I show him the leg， tell (as far as my Chinese permits) what has happened since that night six weeks ago. And that I plan on next weekend for the first time to play football again. Not today， today I will just go watching and eating with the friends.
After my story and my involvement with my words of thanks (refused with much force) for their help I want to ride on， but craftsman Wang is hemmed and hawed， he wants to tell me something else. He asks me if I understood “duan jian”， 短见. Accidentally， I know the words for reasons of topicality – they mean “suicide”， but the literal first meaning is “myopic view”， or “myopic”， but only in a figurative sense， not in the language of the optician. Isn’t it remarkable how “suicide” is expressed in Chinese？ There is yet another Chinese word that literally means “self-killing”， but craftsman Wang uses “myopic” – the one who is in a valley cannot look afar， he has to get up on a hill to look ahead and see that one must not kill himself.
But this was not what craftsman Wang wanted to tell me， he first wanted to make sure that I would understand (which I did) if he would now tell me the following story： Previously he had received a call of his former neighbours from his home-town (they call each other every few weeks)， her son has moved about a year ago to ShenZhen and works in LongHua (龙华， a district of ShenZhen) at Foxconn. Do I know Foxconn？ Of course， I was there several times already. There is a huge company， a city within a city.
300，000 people live and work there， only for Foxconn， in any of the Foxconn divisions. It does not look there (for me at first glance) any different from many other places in ShenZhen， It is not the district where I would urgently like to move to， but it is not repulsively ugly， either. There are uglier ones.
The neighbour’s son has taken his life the day before by jumping from the roof of the residential building. His parents are desperate， they do not know why. There is no suicide note. Their son had sent each month “a lot of money”， he was very frugal， supporting his parents. Last time he had been home for New Year. This young man is the eleventh in a series of suicides in the course of a few months. This was known to me even from German media， and in China as well it was hotly debated when I came back a few days ago.
Craftsman Wang claims that he had offered to the parents at the time to employ their son in his workshop， but he could not pay as much as Foxconn offered.“I think he killed himself because he had no girlfriend.” Says LuLu. Her husband disagrees， because of that you don’t kill yourself， and besides， there are enough young girls at Foxconn in LongHua， anyone can choose among them very easily.
I agree， because there and in other mill villages there are always many young boys to be seen， at the arm a girl， walking around after work， and there is certainly more than cuddling to it. Those people do not look unhappy. “I think he had problems at work.” Craftsman Wang suggests. Foxconn is Taiwanese， and the language of the Taiwanese managers can be very rough.
I cannot oppose that. Some of our customers are Taiwanese companies， too， and some of the local managers certainly have not attended to any staff management seminar. Even in my presence， Chinese employees have already been dismissed， I cannot imagine that it was that pleasant. The famous “saving face”， which supposedly is in China a sacred and important principle， is no topic here at times. And the thought passes through my head that as well the American factory manager at the Italian-American joint venture is a very rude man who has also mercilessly (and even unjustified) criticised an employee in my presence who suffered this stoically， without response. A couple of minutes later I clarified the facts via a long linguistic detour， earning a secret grateful smile from the unjustly criticised fellow.
But do you kill yourself because of such a thing？ The reason for the series of suicides in the media was seen at Foxconn， in the working conditions there， that I cannot evaluate. It is one of the first topics I share with the Chinese colleagues at dinner. They think it is on the one hand a reflection of problems in Chinese society， no wonder with all the upheaval， the growth， the gaps or rather abysses between city and country， rich and poor. And the greed for money.
On the other hand， we should not overrate it， because Foxconn is a gigantic enterprise， and the suicide rate was below the average rate in China. While still at dinner we research with our mobile online laptops. By using Wikipedia we quickly find out that the suicide rate in China is 13 per 100，000 inhabitants per year. This is somewhere in the global centre-field， with Germany rating slightly higher (18)， the ranking is topped by Russia (58)， Japan (35)， Finland (31) and France (26). At the lower end are Peru (1)， Philippines (2.5) and Greece (6). Extrapolating the Foxconn suicides per year and 100，000 people， these are also about 6 cases.