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The Time magazine's announcement that "the Chinese Worker" was one of four runners-up for its Person of the Year award and its use of eight photographs of workers at a factory in Shenzhen have taken us by surprise. "Why does a US media outlet, which has not been so friendly to China, credit Chinese workers thus" must be the question on the mind of every Chinese. Time cited the economic growth of China during the past year and the role it has played in stimulating the recovery of the global economy for choosing the Chinese Worker. "Who deserves the credit," the magazine said, "above all, the tens of millions of workers who have left their homes, and often their families, to find work in the factories of China's booming coastal cities." This explanation prompts me to think: How many of us thought about the workers when we talked proudly about the feat of "maintaining an 8 percent growth rate"? And how long have we stopped the practice of focusing the spotlight on ordinary workers, who used to be lauded as "the leading class" and "the masters of the nation"? Though we have abandoned the political terminologies of yore, workers are still regarded - officially and theoretically - as the social group that deserve the most respect and best care in our bid to "let all Chinese people become wealthy". Reality, however, is different. Take the migrant workers in the "booming coastal cities". Some of my fellow villagers work there in garment or shoemaking factories or in restaurants or on construction sites. They have told me that they could earn about 2,000 yuan a month on average - quite a handsome amount compared with what they would otherwise make back home farming. But they have to pay a great price to earn that amount. | 
