My Future Lies in China
A German Businessman in Shanghai
A Film by Ghafoor Zamani / 45 min. / 30 min.
On the outskirts of Shanghai, embedded in the mosaic of rice fields stand the factories. In the tightest of spaces, Chinese employees work here seven days a week like machines, to satisfy the demand for consumer goods. The well-oiled machinery in Europe has been replaced by the nimble hands of Chinese work troupes here. Efficient and cheap. After a long shift, the workers return almost in step, back to their barracks which are directly on the factory premises. This saves both time and money. Once a year they can take a couple of days holiday - most of them travel back to their home areas in the country. Over 200 factories produce suitcases, rucksacks and sport bags as well as original brandname articles and copies of the same which are totally assimilated to the steadily growing outlets in Europe and America. Europe and this enormously developing country are becoming more and more strongly interwoven with each other economically - they are sitting, so to speak, in the same boat. These developments, which started with a sledgehammer tempo, are now just blinking lights on the tops of the high-rise buildings there. In China, the capital market has won without democracy. The skyline of Shanghai signalises that the communist paradise here has become much more down to earth. Western businessmen are also profiting from this. The largest chambers of trade and commerce in Europe have established branches in Shanghai. "Businesses who avoid involving themselves with China are already losers", says Bernd Reitmeier, the vice-president of the German Chamber of Trade and Commerce in Shanghai. 15 years ago, the German businessman Joe Wickert saw his future lying in the district of Pudong in Shanghai. At that time the land was being used for growing vegetables, and the economic success of China was just a distant vision. Nowadays the only things growing there are high-rises. Perhaps the tall towers are making investors dizzy by suggesting that endlessly high profits can be made there. The film tells the story of a German businessman in Shanghai. It looks at production in the factories and the daily life of the workers there, as well as following Chinese and European businessmen to the places where they carry out their business transactions.
