Name: I went undercover in Shein’s factory village
Uploaded: 2026-01-27T09:49:57.000Z
Duration: 10 min 13 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

This is a video about Shein supply chain that has never been shown on YouTube.

Basic passive voice

I am at the village where local people call Shein Village because here are where hundreds of Shein's manufacturers are located.

Adverbs of manner

Today, my brother and I are gonna go inside this village and hopefully to capture some footage of Shein's extensive supply chain.

Back in 2022, Shein was questioned about its labor violation in its supply chain here in China.

Shein then pledged 15 million over three to four years to upgrade its supply chain aim to ensure ethical practice and improve the welfare of workers.

Despite these efforts, Shein continues to be questioned over labor practices, including concerns about forced labor and working conditions within its extensive supply chain.

Let's see how she is doing with its commitment.

This village is called Nancun, located in Panyu District, Guangzhou, a city in Southern China and home to Xi' An's headquarters.

It has been reported that there are more than 500 large and small manufacturers in the village working for Shein.

I do not work for Shein and I'm not a journalist.

I'm just a YouTuber who happened to live around this area.

And I'm curious to see if labor violations still exist and if so, why is still a problem that has not been solved.

These 500 manufacturers form a highly responsive supply chain that meets all of Shein's need for its on demand small batch production model.

From design and fabric sourcing through production and packaging, the entire process can take as little as a few hours.

Shein has been widely criticized for poor working conditions, excessive hours and low wages.

Today I want to explore this issue further.

Walking through the village, we could see lots of hiring information.

I spotted a job board packed with openings in in garment production with people regularly scanning it for full time or contract roads.

We met a worker in the industry who share insights about the pay rates for some of the hiring position.

Just based on what he has experienced, the actual pay rates might be lower than stated.

I also documented the working environments which range from large factories to small family run workshops.

To be honest, these conditions may not seem pleasant, but

they represent the industry standard for garment manufacturing in China.

To better understand suppliers and worker compensation structures, I interviewed a factory owner in Dongguan, China, a personal connection who had previously been approached by Xi'.

If it's my impression that she in pushes for the lowest possible prices during negotiation to maintain its competitive edge.

Because competition in the Chinese market is harsh, suppliers have little choice but to do what she requested.

I am at the Village again today and I want to pretend to be someone who is looking for a job and see if I can talk to anyone who actually work in the industry to get some first hand information of how they feel about working in she in supply chain, But

just to know that like any other industry, wages in the garment manufacturing industry are based on different rules and skills required to perform the task.

This worker shared that his shift runs from 8am to 10pm with breaks for lunch and dinner.

These hours seem typical in the Xi' an village.

After a quick dinner, my friend and I returned to Fillmore.

Many manufacturers, both large and small were still operating at the time.

As I filmed this video, I feel very concerned.

Based on Shein's website, workers in the supply chain on average earn more than the average wage in private sector, but

Shein does not disclose how these samples are collected.

Without knowing how many hours they work, it is hard to tell if these numbers are competitive.

Based on my conversations with people in the industry, observations of job openings and visit other clothing manufacturing markets in the city, I would say pay rates in Shein's extensive supply chain is roughly the industry average, not significantly above.

In order to earn the above average income you would need to take extra shifts and sometimes under high pressure conditions.

I have seen Shein's worker describe on Chinese social media.

Behind this phenomenon lies Shein's need to meet the demands of its rapid product turnover and tight deadlines, leading the company to turn a blind eye to these labor practice.

China's massive population provides a continuous supply of low cost labor for labor intensive industry, something Shein has capitalized on.

Of course we hope that every factory worker can work in better conditions, receive fair wages and have reasonable working hours.

However, in the fierce competition of the market, they may not have better alternatives.

The consumer demand for low cost, fast fashion, Shein's need for an agile supply chain and local government's pursuit of economic growth together create the environment in which this phenomenon persists.

I see the shadow of exploitation, but this might not just be a Shein issue.

This might also be the hidden shadow behind the success of of China's manufacturing boom.