Late on the evening of Feb. 5, 2004, television viewers in the U.K. were told that emergency services were trying to rescue a group of people trapped by the incoming tide in Morecombe Bay, an expanse of mudflats in the northwest of England.
By the following morning it was known that at least 23 men and women had perished; that they had gone into the bay because they were being paid to pick cockles from the mud; that all of them were from mainland China, and that all of them were working illegally after being smuggled into the country.
Media reports following up on the tragedy described a world of snakeheads and gangmasters. The former are criminal gangs who help people leave the Chinese mainland and reach other countries. The latter are labor agents who supply workers--often but not always undocumented aliens--to farms and factories.
One of the journalists covering the disaster and its aftermath was Hsiao-Hung Pai, a Taiwan-born London-based freelancer for The Guardian, a British daily newspaper. Just a few weeks earlier, Pai had co-written an article about an illegal mainland Chinese migrant worker who fell ill and died after a 24-hour shift in a microwave-oven factory in the northeast English town of Hartlepool.
After Morecombe Bay, Pai went undercover to better investigate the conditions in which mainland Chinese illegals live and work and the problems they face. Her experiences posing as an undocumented foreign worker, plus a longstanding interest in migration history, resulted in a number of front-page stories and, more recently, a book.
"Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labor," Pai's first book, was published by London-based Penguin Books April 23 this year.
"I witnessed an underground world of exploitation where migrant workers--especially those without documents--are systematically abused by their gangmasters or labor providers, and are subjected to [substandard] conditions and wages," Pai told the BBC's "Today" radio program on the day her book was published. "They enjoy no employment rights and have no protection at work."
On her first evening of undercover work, Pai found herself in a potentially dangerous situation. The labor recruiter had promised her a bed in a house with several other migrant workers, but when she arrived, "he pointed to the double bed he was sleeping on, and said I could sleep there with him. I continued to ask for a bed, but he insisted there was no room left in the house."
Pai eventually found a small space where she could sleep, for which the recruiter charged her US$59 per week.
"Things could have gone badly," she recalled. "It's unexpected situations like this that put an undercover reporter at risk. I stayed calm, although I was panicking inside."
Pai said she does not yet know how well her book is selling, but reviews have been very favorable.
Tom Boncza-Tomaszewski, writing in The Independent on Sunday, a British newspaper, described "Chinese Whispers" as an "extraordinary, gut-wrenching expose of the way that hundreds of thousands of people are forced to work in Britain today." He praised Pai for explaining the link between migration and mainland China's economic reforms, which have led to millions of workers losing their jobs, and for demonstrating how British consumers benefit from cheap mainland Chinese labor.
"Undercover reportage at its best, and bravest," is how Boyd Tonkin in The Independent, a British daily, received the book. "From a brothel in Cheam to a lettuce farm in Sussex and Soho kitchens, this brave and gripping book documents the harsh lives of the army of illegal mainland Chinese workers in the U.K. ... Everywhere she goes, Hsiao-Hung Pai finds that illegality itself multiplies the misery."
Pai, 39, has been gratified by the response to her book. "I think the British public is becoming more aware of these issues, which is of course a very good thing. But I feel that we need to encourage more reaction in the mainstream media. They are still reluctant to engage the public in a proper debate about immigration and migrant labor."
"Chinese Whispers" is now available in the United States, France, Germany, Japan and Australia, and from Internet bookstores.
Pai, who majored in Spanish at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei County, said in an e-mail interview June 6 that she never expected to become an investigative journalist. "I don't really see myself as one now. I'm not being modest, but I feel I'm a long way from that. I need to learn from more experienced journalists who have done similar work."
After moving to the U.K. in 1991 and obtaining a master's degree in critical and cultural theory at the University of Wales, Pai translated books for Taiwanese publishers.
In 1998, she began writing about migrant issues, initially for Chinese-language publications, then for English-language periodicals that focus on the ethnic Chinese population in the U.K. "At that time, I was interested in early migration history and wrote about that. I worked on an oral history project about the life of Chinese immigrants in East London between the end of the 19th century and the end of World War II."
Pai completed a second master's degree, this time in journalism, at the University of Westminster in 2003.
In addition to The Guardian, Pai writes for The Voice, Socialist Review, and two British Chinese-language periodicals. She commissions articles and writes book reviews for the Feminist Review, where she is a member of the editorial collective. She also contributes to a Taiwan-based online journal called Mass Age.
Pai did not initially expect that her interest in the estimated 200,000 mainland Chinese migrant workers in the U.K. would result in a book. "I began the research in 2003, but didn't think of getting it published until 2006, when someone suggested that I should put all my research together in English. By then, I had written a lot on the subject in Chinese," she recalled.
"Getting it published in English wasn't that easy--I relied on my agent to test the market. However, Juliet Annan, the publishing director at Penguin, made the decision to publish this book on the day she received my proposal, which included two chapters of the book. She was very keen."
Asked if she had to compromise on the theme or substance of "Chinese Whispers" for commercial or other reasons, Pai replied: "No, not at all, because the book was already written before I looked for a publisher. Annan loved it, and she never tried to change the structure or ideas of the book."
"The only alterations were legal ones. When I couldn't back up certain allegations against a company with complete evidence, the publisher's lawyer asked me to cut them out, to minimize the risk of being sued for libel."
Mainland Chinese outnumber Taiwanese expatriates in the U.K. When asked if being Taiwanese rather than mainland Chinese is an advantage when working as a journalist, Pai replied: "Yes and no. Yes, because it was easier to gain access as a Taiwanese rather than [mainland] Chinese. [Mainland] Chinese workers were much more relaxed with me because I don't come from the same country and they aren't too worried to talk to me. They can be more open with me. But being Taiwanese can be a problem, too. In the Chinese community in Britain, Taiwanese are quite excluded and it can be difficult to gain access among the employers and community sources as they are more aware of me being a Taiwanese and therefore 'different' from them. The Chinese community here is still predominantly Cantonese [originating from Hong Kong]. Their opinions are by and large pro-[mainland] China. It's very easy for them to see me as a 'troublemaker' simply because of my origin."
She added that living in the U.K. had made her realized that her nationality was insignificant.
"As a member of an ethnic minority community, you suffer from racial discrimination and social exclusion whether you come from Taiwan or [the Chinese mainland]. I'd like to think that my background has influenced me in a positive way. I was a witness of social oppression in Taiwan and had some understanding of the exploitation of migrant workers in Taiwan."
Having written one successful book, Pai faces expectations she will produce another. "I'm now working on a book about female migrant workers in the sex trade in Britain," she said. "It's only at the research stage. I'll be looking for a publisher in the coming months."
Copyright 2008 by Steven Crook
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