Chapter 203 The embroidered piece might just be given a new lease on life.
That day, when Zhou Aodong saw his daughter take out a physics book again, he finally couldn't hold back and exploded: "Get out! I've been in the textile industry my whole life and I've never heard of this nonsense! Don't you love going to class? Go to the production team in the alley and go take your class!"
Qin Xiangxiang was as quiet as a chicken, but inwardly she was overjoyed. She sat on a small stool eating glutinous rice cake and felt genuinely happy.
Unexpectedly, one day she became her mother's nemesis.
Whistling softly.
“I told Director Wang of the neighborhood committee that you should go and visit him to learn from his experience.”
Director Wang of the neighborhood committee was an old friend of Zhou Aodong. The two had known each other for many years and were quite familiar with each other. Zhou Aodong said that his daughter loved attending classes and sent her to the neighborhood committee to help with training, which surprised Director Wang.
Director Wang had watched Qin Xiangxiang grow up from a troublesome child. Although he hadn't met her often, he often heard Zhou Aodong talk about this worrying girl and knew Qin Xiangxiang's past deeds like the back of his hand.
After Qin Xiangxiang joined the army, she became both a factory director and a model worker, which greatly surprised Director Wang.
Director Wang: "Is this what they call 'a promiscuous woman who turns back is more precious than gold'?"
In fact, Director Wang was still somewhat dismissive of Qin Xiangxiang. When it comes to light industry, no place in China can compare to Shanghai. The Northeast is the emperor of heavy industry, and since the Republic of China, Shanghai has been the queen of light industry. For Qin Xiangxiang, the daughter of a textile factory in a major Shanghai factory, to go to a remote island to become a factory director is like "not being the tail of a phoenix, but the head of a chicken," which is nothing more than a "lower dimension attack."
Even if you achieve some success, it's nothing to be proud of.
And their alleyway production groups under the management of the Shanghai Municipal Street Office may seem ordinary, but they are actually full of hidden talents and hidden dangers!
The history of alleyway production groups can be traced back to the 1950s, when Shanghai organized a large number of housewives to set up many small factories in alleyways, including handicraft production groups for toys, textiles, sewing, and so on. By the 1970s, the number of people engaged in these industries had grown significantly.
The production teams in the alleys were mostly paid by the day. At first, it was one or two cents a day, and now the highest can be seven or eight cents a day. If you worked full-time for a month, excluding Sundays when you had no production, you could get 26 days' wages, which is seven cents a day. A housewife who worked 26 days could earn 18.2 yuan a month, which could be used to supplement the family income. The hours were also very flexible. If there was an emergency, she could not come and only work for half a month and get half a month's wages. Even if she only worked for 15 days, she could still get 10 yuan. It was very suitable for women who needed to take care of their families.
Initially, the workers were mostly married housewives, with the aim of generating income for them. Later, as the scale of the alley factories grew, they were no longer limited to housewives.
Furthermore, after the 1970s, educated youth returned to the city in droves, making the neighborhood production teams the best reservoir for educated youth to find jobs.
When educated youth returned to the city to ask for work, they were all thrown into the neighborhood production teams. Even now, if you want to join a neighborhood production team, you have to "wait for a spot"!
The once inconspicuous alleyway production team has gradually become a hot commodity.
"The alleyway production team? Let's go take a look." Qin Xiangxiang had no interest in wasting any more time with her mother, Zhou Aodong. Going to the alleyway production team was fine; she could slack off, eat some street snacks, and just get through each day.
Li Jianzhi: "I'll go with you to take a look."
For Li Jianzhi, the alleyway production groups could be considered "historical sites." In the 1980s and 1990s, the alleyway production groups were transformed into registered enterprises and gradually became formalized. The small factories in the alleyways disappeared from people's sight.
Qin Xiangxiang: "Who will take care of the child?"
Li Jianzhi: "Let's bring the kids along, and the whole family can go sightseeing."
Qin Wutong: "I'll take care of the child!"
Li Jianzhi: "Father-in-law, I also enjoy taking care of children."
Zhou Aodong: "..." The man my daughter chose is similar to the man I chose.
Li Xiaopang, however, took the initiative to say, "I want to be with Grandpa!" He planned to trick Grandpa into going out to a restaurant so he could eat alone behind his parents' backs.
Sui Sui: "I want to be with my brother."
“Alright then.” Li Jianzhi put his arm around his wife’s shoulder and whispered, “We’ll have our own little world as a couple. If you’re teaching, I’ll hand you the pen; if you teach chemistry, I’ll teach math… We’re the best husband-and-wife team.”
Qin Xiangxiang pushed his hand away, thinking to herself, "Don't disturb my slacking off."
Qin Xiangxiang thought about the alleyway she was going to, which had several production groups. In addition to sewing, weaving, and yarn, there were even rubber and zipper groups. It seemed that the alleyway production groups had been doing very well in recent years.
The workplace of the alleyway production team was usually in a simple old house or a temporary shed. Most of the production team members were women, but now there are quite a few men as well.
Director Wang said, "Now, most of the unemployed youth and educated youth who returned to the city are assigned to production teams in the neighborhoods."
Speaking of this, Director Wang felt a headache coming on. The original purpose of setting up production teams here was to allow housewives to generate income in their spare time. They developed a system of charging by the day and by the piece, allowing housewives to earn more income each month, which was originally a great thing.
Married housewives are very satisfied with this model and don't mind that the ten-yuan wage is too low. They can earn ten yuan in fifteen days, so why not?
Later, as more educated youth retired due to illness, as well as only sons and only daughters of residents, became unemployed youth without jobs, they had to stay in the city because only children did not meet the policy of going to the countryside. Surely, these young people should be given a place?
The state-owned factories couldn't accommodate them all, so they were all moved to the production teams in the alleyways.
These young people, around twenty years old, were not satisfied with the conditions of the neighborhood production team. They complained about the low wages, only a dozen yuan for working 26 days a month, while regular workers could earn over thirty yuan, not to mention other employee benefits.
In today's dating market, people will frown when they hear that you work in a neighborhood production team.
Zhou Aodong once secured a job for his daughter as a textile worker in the fine yarn workshop of a state-owned factory. This was a coveted job that others would kill for, even though it was tiring, the salary and status were high.
Other neighborhood production teams and temporary piano teachers at the cultural center would be looked down upon in the marriage market; this is the difference between permanent and part-time workers.
But then again... women in the neighborhood production team before marriage are at a disadvantage in matchmaking, but after marriage, being a housewife in the neighborhood production team becomes a happy thing for everyone, which is strange indeed.
"Let me take you to the textile workshop. It's a place everyone wants to go." With that, Director Wang led Qin Xiangxiang and her husband to the old house where the textile workshop was located. "The textile workshop is quite large. Look, that production shed belongs to the textile workshop, and that main room over there is where we have group classes..."
Director Wang led the two to the door of the old house. A tall, thin woman wearing floral sleeves rushed out. It was Zhou Meilan, the head of the textile production group. As soon as she saw Qin Xiangxiang, her eyes went black: "Director Wang, I'm begging you, I'm kneeling down. Please arrange a few married older women for me, don't bring any young men and women."
“Meilan, you’ve misunderstood. This is Zhou Aodong’s daughter, Qin Xiangxiang. Come and have a look. She’s the director of a textile factory now. Her textile factory is called Feiyan Textile Factory.”
"Oh..." Zhou Meilan, who was in a complete panic, finally felt relieved. "Look how scared I was."
Director Wang: "Be prepared, all the young women want to come to the textile group."
Zhou Meilan sighed with worry.
Upon seeing this, Qin Xiangxiang said, "What? Am I that scary? I can scare the production team leader?"
Zhou Meilan: "Our group has a large backlog of embroidery pieces that are unsold and can't be sold. The young girls are crying out for their wages. What can we do if we can't sell them?"
"They already thought the wages of six or seven cents were too low. If these embroidered pieces don't sell, their wages will have to be reduced."
Zhou Meilan was a responsible production team leader. The difference between their neighborhood production team and the state-owned factory was that the state did not coordinate sales. If the goods could not be sold, they would be stuck in the warehouse. But the production team members still needed to be paid and produce! Day by day, the backlog of unsold goods increased.
Director Wang said nonchalantly, "If you don't want to stay, then leave. It'll save us from a bunch of people swarming in here, since we don't like doing the hard and dirty work."
Zhou Meilan knew that Director Wang was right, but she was very responsible and couldn't bring herself to say anything harsh, and she didn't want to see others looking disappointed.
Qin Xiangxiang: "Stockpiled embroidery pieces? What kind of embroidery pieces? Take me to see them."
Qin Xiangxiang knew that there were many "skilled craftsmen" in Shanghai. Embroidery, because of its complexity and labor, was easily labeled as "petty bourgeois". In addition, after the cheongsam was banned, young girls did not like embroidered clothes. Most of these embroidered pieces were sold abroad or to overseas remittance shops.
"You want to see it? Come and take a look. We have a huge backlog. I went to ask the Overseas Chinese Remittance Store, but they won't accept it."
Zhou Meilan took Qin Xiangxiang to see the backlog of embroidery pieces. A young man wearing a red star hat chimed in, "Team leader, we should have said earlier that we shouldn't have bothered with those old-fashioned embroidery things. Let's embroider tanks and tractors!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..." At this moment, she thought of the tractor-patterned silk and suddenly felt that it was understandable that the embroidered pieces were not selling well.
Zhou Meilan: "These young, mischievous educated youth, I'm so annoyed with them."
When the group arrived at the production team's warehouse, Qin Xiangxiang saw not tractor-embroidered embroidery, but some old-fashioned embroidery pieces with tacky colors that couldn't be sold.
Qin Xiangxiang picked up a piece and examined it closely. The embroidered pattern on the piece in her hand was quite pretty, but the colors were a bit tacky. At that moment, she suddenly thought of the bumper harvest of dyes in their textile factory.
After testing at the factory, they were able to mix a number of Morandi colors. By changing the colors of these embroidered pieces, they might be able to give them a new lease on life.
Other patterns that are quite ordinary can be combined in a random way to create unique shirt collars or cuffs.
Their factory had made poplin shirts before, but their embroidery skills couldn't compare to these. Shanghai's handicrafts were highly skilled, and even in the alleyway production groups, there were many talented people.
Zhou Meilan said, "Do you like it? Most young people think this pattern is tacky."
"The patterns and craftsmanship are beautiful, but the colors are a bit tacky." Qin Xiangxiang picked out a few embroidered pieces, feeling a little tempted. The embroidery was so pretty that she wanted to get herself a few embroidered clothes.
The colors and patterns aren't good? Go back and build it yourself.
How can we abduct a master embroidery artist?
"If our factory buys this batch of surplus embroidery pieces, what would the approximate price be?"
Could I buy some embroidered pieces as a gift for the master?
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