China Shipping Holding, Inc. fired me on 3/13/08 for signing my name as "Free Tibet" on the company sign-in sheet.
While I was not very attached to a temp job of gratuitous filing and stapling, I was an ideal low-level worker, always on time, never out sick, non-chatty and efficient. China Shipping’s final report to the temp agency after firing me acknowledged that I was a great worker, but had committed the unforgivable offense of writing ‘Free Tibet’. I don’t know why I chose that specific morning to sign "Free Tibet" instead of my name on the daily sign-in sheet. I can only say that my views are sincere and that I’ve struggled since the initial job interview on how to best be a voice for human rights. I do not claim that my simple statement was particularly brave. I certainly was not risking much in taking this stance in a manner that I felt was subtle and non-distractive to my fellow coworkers. Still, I am greatly concerned that as an American working at a New Jersey office of China Shipping, I was penalized in such a fashion for politely expressing an opinion. If the Chinese government is so concerned about the beliefs of a poor girl from New Jersey, one can only imagine how such a government handles the real voices of courage and dissent amongst its populace. In fact, we do know how they handle it, they murder them.
As an actor, I have held numerous day jobs over the years. When the temp agency called to tell me about the company that I would be interviewing with, I was not pleased, but my financial situation dictated extreme measures. A quick Google search on China Shipping, the multi-billion dollar company owned by the Chinese government, only exacerbated my sense of doom and dread.
My interview with the Office Manager went well. We sat in a dull gray room, gray walls, gray carpeting and gray ceilings, as I spoke of my affinity for repetitive tasks and hoped that my nervous smile hid my internal struggle with the moral implications of working for the government of China. When I returned home, I watched Steven Spielberg resign as the Creative Director of the Beijing Olympics in protest over the Chinese government’s lack of respect for basic human rights.
I couldn’t sleep the night when the temp agency told me the job was mine. I accepted and hobbled together an intricate series of rationalizations based on the idea that I was an employee of the temp agency and not of China Shipping. As I read the email with instructions for my new assignment, a photograph of the Dalai Lama stared at me from the corner of my bedroom mirror. I thought of the fact that most major companies in the U.S. have some sort of business relationship with the government of China. I wondered if the best answer was not to run in the opposite direction from a problem, but instead to get involved and see if somehow I could learn or share something that could help in a small way.
The temp who was leaving and training me to fill her shoes kindly showed me the ropes, warning me to keep personal items to a minimum in my cubicle, not to eat at my desk and to avoid using the stairs so that the secretary could see me coming and going.
A lot of the employees did have personalized screensavers on their computers. I searched for a Free Tibet or Save Darfur symbol for my pc, but I was concerned that the harshness of the images I found would be misinterpreted by my employer. In the end I decided to go with a soothing picture of flowers for my screensaver. I wanted to be open, friendly and cooperative. I began to view the simple act of being a compassionate person at my job as an act of resistance.
While the majority of my American and Chinese coworkers seemed nice enough, on a few occasions I overheard white employees making racist comments about Chinese people. I thought of the difficulties my Chinese coworkers had contended with and I did not want to offend them or convey a message that could be construed as anti-Chinese. I have great respect for the people of China. Their government is another matter entirely.
After my first week on the job, I was attempting to relax in front of the television. I watched a news magazine show about China selling the dead bodies of executed political prisoners and shipping the bodies around the world to be displayed in human body art exhibitions. The story included footage of a giant China Shipping freighter piled high with green containers.
As the days turned into weeks, the news stories kept weighing on my conscience. Headlines about millions of Chinese people being evicted from their homes to clean up for the Olympics, thousands of cats being swept off the streets and pressed into over-filled cages to be destroyed before the games, and recalls on lead-tainted toys made in sweatshops kept surfacing in my mind through the sea of invoices.
This past week marked the 49th year of the Dalai Lama’s exile from Tibet. Peaceful protesting monks and nuns are being beaten and killed.
I got fired for saying I’m against murder.