Museum Dedicated to Migrant Workers to Shut Its Doors

On Might 18, a social media submit (archived right here) introduced the approaching closure and demolition of a widely known museum devoted to documenting the lives and bettering the welfare of China’s migrant employees. The Museum of Working Folks’s Tradition and Artwork (打工文化艺术博物馆, Dǎgōng Wénhuà Yìshù Bówùguǎn) was established in 2008 in Pi Village, a working-class neighborhood within the far northeastern nook of Beijing, close to the airport. Its exhibitions usually concerned shows of the artifacts of employees’ lives—their private images, letters, non permanent residence permits, employment certificates, pay slips, IOUs, labor contracts, work harm certificates, clothes, instruments, and different possessions. The museum was additionally affiliated with a non-profit that supplied numerous companies similar to a studying room, a cinema, a secondhand retailer, and even a college for the kids of migrant employees.

The Museum of Working Folks’s Tradition and Artwork, lauded even by Chinese language state media, helped to rework many employees’ lives, create a way of shared group, and elevate the contributions of all employees. It is going to be deeply missed. CDT has translated the total textual content of the museum’s shifting farewell letter, penned by Yuan Changwu:

Within the means of China’s industrialization and urbanization, a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of migrant employees from rural areas have made indelible contributions, but the cultural historical past of this group hardly ever enters the general public eye. On the Museum of Working Folks’s Tradition and Artwork, we goal to file the vicissitudes and cultural historical past of latest employees, and to advocate respect for and recognition of the worth of their labor.

The Museum of Working Folks’s Tradition and Artwork is the one non-profit museum in China based by grassroots migrant employees. Since its official public opening on Might 1, 2008, it has been open every day to the general public freed from cost, and has obtained greater than 50,000 guests.

The Museum of Working Folks’s Tradition and Artwork is scheduled to be demolished. There will likely be a farewell ceremony on Saturday [May 20, 2023]. All associates are welcome to come back and take part!

A Farewell to the Museum of Working Folks’s Tradition and Artwork!

I humbly bid you farewell,
Museum of Working Folks’s Tradition and Artwork.
The nation’s first museum devoted to migrant employees
will likely be closed indefinitely,
forming the final stroke of the character for “demolition” (拆, chāi).
This occasion, too, will likely be written into the historical past of the migrant employees’ museum.
Permit me to additionally bid farewell to—
Solar Zhigang, who lacked a brief residence allow
Zhang Haichao, who had his chest minimize open to biopsy his lungs
Cui Yingjie, who arrange a road stall
and the 31 migrant employees within the “black brick kiln incident.”

Let me additionally say goodbye to—
Migrant employees who demand their again wages
All those that defend the rights of employees
My brother-workers pedaling three-wheeled carts within the rain
My sister-workers toiling on the meeting line.

Let me additionally bid farewell to—
These kids often known as “migrant youngsters”
Xiao Cui, host of the “Migrant Staff’ Spring Pageant Gala“
The aunties making scallion pancakes from their streetside carts
The development employees of their laborious hats.

Given this passage within the annals of time,
why would we depart it clean?
On condition that historical past is written by the Folks,
why overlook our existence?
The historical past of migrant employees
coincides with the historical past of an period.
The Museum of Working Folks’s Tradition and Artwork
makes it clear—
With out our tradition there isn’t any historical past.
With out our historical past there isn’t any future.

–Written in Picun (Pi Village), Beijing, on Might 13, 2023 [Chinese]