Rice bowl, 1990s
date: label: date made
content: 1990 - 1999
label: date made
content: 1980 - 1999
notes: label: Description
content: This plastic rice bowl belonged to Jumnien Torusmee, who worked at a sweatshop in El Monte, California. This bowl was found in the well-publicized 1995 sweatshop raid and is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation. Torusmee was one of 72 workers recruited from Thailand who were promised good pay and good working conditions. After paying $5,000 to be smuggled into the United States with fraudulent documents, the workers were paid $1.60 an hour with seventeen-hour workdays in horrifying conditions. In addition, the workers were forced to buy their food and products from the company store at inflated prices , including rice bowls like this one.
place: label: place made
content: Taiwan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Production and Manufacturing
label: See more items in
content: Food
label: See more items in
content: El Monte
label: See more items in
content: Work
label: See more items in
content: American Enterprise
label: See more items in
content: Sweatshops
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Jumnienien Tornsmee
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1997.0272.01
label: catalog number
content: 1997.0272.01
label: accession number
content: 1997.0272
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bowl
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: pink/multi (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/2 in x 7 5/8 in; 6.35 cm x 19.3675 cm