A FORMER Foxconn employee who survived a suicide attempt last year has attracted online shoppers after stories of making hand-made slippers to support herself were posted online.
Tian Yu, 18, was partially paralyzed after she jumped from her dormitory building in March last year. She was the third of 13 Foxconn employees who tried to kill themselves between January and May last year. Only Tian and another worker survived.
Tian returned to her hometown in Menglou Township, Laohekou City, Hubei Province, in October after medical treatment in Shenzhen. She has refused donations and started making slippers to make a living. Several Shenzhen reporters posted her stories on microblogs, triggering a rush by netizens to buy slippers made by Tian and her family. An e-commerce Web site selling shoes signed an agreement with her, promising to help sell the slippers made by the family in the next 12 months.
Tian came to Shenzhen in February last year and found a job at Foxconn. Although she could choose not to work overtime, assembly line workers all worked extra hours so she felt she had no choice and was working 12 hours a day. She was a newcomer, so she was slow and this affected the assembly line, causing her co-workers to criticize her.
When her mobile phone was stolen, she lost contact with her family. On March 16, 2010, she traveled to Foxconn s Guanlan complex by bus to collect her salary card so she could get her first salary. After the one-hour bus ride, she could not find the right office in a maze of buildings.
She had to walk back to her dorm because she had only one yuan (US$0.15) left a bus ride would have cost four yuan. Back in her dorm, no one spoke to her. Co-workers did not know each other even after living together for a month. She despaired that night and jumped from her dormitory building.
Many people went to see her in hospital. During her treatment in Shenzhen, she made a lot of friends. I thought no one cared about me. I was wrong, she was quoted as saying by the Daily Sunshine. It was wrong to try to kill myself.
Two reporters with Shenzhen Evening News bought two books on hand-made slippers for her and she and her family began making slippers. This seemed to be the only way she could earn a living. The reporters helped sell the slippers on their microblogs. A Daily Sunshine reporter then opened an online store on Taobao for her. The family is now overwhelmed by orders.
(Lin Min)
