Provisional intimacies

Among many garment factory owners I met in Moscow, 38-year-old Thanh was the most generous supporter of my research. Without her, I would never have been able to access xưởng may đens (black/illegal garment factories) or get to know other garment factory owners who subsequently became important informants. As discussed earlier in Chapters III and IV, the risky and illegal nature of their business compels xưởng may đen owners to be highly prudent, discreet, and vigilant in their everyday lives, and their factories are often hidden away in remote rural areas, accessible only by themselves and their trusted van drivers. Due to security concerns, Thanh did not go to her xưởng may đen every day or stay long when she did, but she was happy to bring me along and let me stay there overnight when she had to go. At the time of my fieldwork in 2014, Thanh and Vũ, her 30-year-old boyfriend, were employing 40 workers from North and Central Vietnam, 15 of whom were women. Their workers lived and worked in an abandoned, run-down warehouse about 45 kilometers southeast of Moscow that they shared with three other factories: another Vietnamese-owned xưởng may đen belonging to their friend Tài, a small garment print workshop also owned by a Vietnamese man, and a fake liquor workshop run by migrants from Central Asia. The site is described in detail in Chapter III.

Given the security concerns and mobility restrictions due to the remoteness of the site, workers worked, ate, slept, and socialized in the same space in the old warehouse, which was shared with 60 other workers from the three neighboring workshops. The main door to the building was always locked and securely guarded by a Russian watchman who kept the keys. On rare occasions when the weather was good and the business was going well, Thanh and Vũ would treat their workers to a barbecue dinner in the backyard of the building, yet still within the gated compound and away from the prying eyes and ears of random onlookers, if any. The party was the sole opportunity for workers to leave their crowded and dusty work and living quarters, albeit for only a few hours, and enjoy the fresh air. Each factory/ workshop occupied a separate section of the vast warehouse, demarcated with flimsy walls made of cardboard and wood planks.