Laborfest: "World Factory” & Chinese Workers From Theater To Music

World Factory” And Chinese Workers In The Global Economy From Theater To Music
And Honoring the Chinese Workers Who Built the Transcontinental Railway
Chinese workers are the largest working-class in the world and 260 million of these workers are migrant workers from throughout the many regions of China. They play a central role in the world economy because China has become the central link in the “World Factory”.
Grass Stage is the production company that helped develop this play about the role of the migrant Chinese worker in this global production chain.
Playwright Zhao Chuan visited Manchester, England and from this visit developed the play reflecting the experience and lives of the Chinese workers who make the many products we use in the United States and throughout the world.
Joining Chuan to perform the segments of this play will be:
Wu Meng, theatre artist, freelance writer, founding member of Grass Stage.
Yu Kai, artist, freelance writer and teacher. Since 2006, she was the main creator and performer in many Grass Stage productions.
Wu Jiamin, the main creator, performer and executive producer of “World Factory”.
There will also be musical performance by Xu Guojian, who is with the Beijing Migrant Workers Home. Head of New Worker’s Art Troupe and Chairman of Trade Union in Pi Village Community, Leader of Workers’ Museum, and Director of Spring Festival Gala for and by Migrant workers.
Also Dong Jun, leader of Zhongdiyin Cultural Center for Workers, initiator, leader, vocalist, and percussionist of Zhongdiyin Worker’s Band, will perform.
The lives and artistic expression of this new young working class is a growing development in China, and their songs tell the story of the lives and their struggles in the new China.

There will also be a presentation by Stanford lecturer
Hilton Obenzinger who is Associate Director, Stanford Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project about the building of the Transcontinental Railway on the 150th anniversary of its construction by the 50,000 Chinese workers who came to America to build it. These Chinese workers played an important and critical role in building America and also led the first and largest strike at that time in California history starting on June 25, 1867. We honor them for the work they did in building America.
For more information contact: (415) 642-8066
Sponsored by LaborFest
See also:
http://www.artsnetworkasia.org/directory_detail.php?id=2419 (Grass Stage of Shanghai)
http://web.stanford.edu/group/chineserailroad/cgi-bin/wordpress/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-strike/
http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Maps/ (Railroad Maps)
Work of Giants: The Chinese and the Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad-SF Chinese Historical Society Exhibit at
http://chsa.org/exhibits/online-exhibits/work-of-giants-the-chinese-and-the-building-of-the-first-transcontinental-railroad/
http://www.laborfest.net/2015/2015schedule.htm