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西方人眼中的北京外来者
In the City, Not of It
Beijing, China -- In a neighborhood shared by the grandly named Roman Garden Apartments, a clot of upper-income residential towers, 21-year-old Wang Xue sat behind the plate glass window of the Huixin Beauty Salon waiting for the first customer of the day.
She does not officially exist.
Unlike most of the people who frequent her shop, Wang is not regarded as a resident of the capital, being one of 3 million migrant workers who have pitched tent in the margins of the city, seeking a better life.
Throughout China a massive population of internal migrants is on the move, drawn to the cities by the potential for membership in China's new middle class.
Wang wandered into Beijing a year ago from the interior province of Shanxi, daughter of a worker in one of the world's most dangerous coal mines. "I was attracted to Beijing by television programs about the city -- it seemed so beautiful and there's so much fun here. But when I got here, well, it's just so-so.?br>
Wang is one of four children from the village of Datong. Her family is dirt poor and in need of income to help support her three siblings, who are in school.
She said she was lucky to find a job in the beauty shop because it was owned by someone from her town. "That's why my parents let me go,?she said. "They were a little worried at first, but now they aren't. Since it only costs $7.65 for a roundtrip rail ticket, I go home every three or four months.?br>
Yet because she does not hold a Beijing resident's permit, a device the communist government had used in the past to control the movement of the population and remains on the books, her income of about $1,034 is scarcely 40 percent of the average in the city.
"I work from 9:30 in the morning until midnight,?she said, adding, "I'm not afraid of working hard. We are from poor families so we don't care if it's tiring.?br>
Even so, she says, city life is not for her. "Beijing people are quite snobbish, I'd say. They aren't as polite as I'd imagined. Beijing men are pretty glib. I think people from my town are more trustworthy.?br>
But Beijing has changed her, as she readily admits. "When I came here I looked a bit like a bumpkin,?she said with a laugh. "But now everybody says I've changed from head to toe.?br>
Driving workers into the cities is the inexorable deterioration of the rural economy, said Huang Ping, deputy director of the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "We're seeing the decline of rural society in economic and social terms,?he said. "In the next 10 years the current 120 million mobile population could very easily double and triple. They'll be lucky to find jobs, despite having no legal protection, health coverage and social security.?br>
At 36, Miao Guixiang is among the new poor. Along the street with a gaggle of 20-year-olds slathering soap and water over cars that stop for a quick wash, Miao stands out with his beard and bushy eyebrows. "I've been here for about six months,?he said, momentarily handing his rag to a fellow worker. "I came here from my village in Shandong because I heard that money is easier here. I've got a boy at home -- he's 13 -- and he just took the entrance exam for high school. His grade wasn't good enough to get into the key schools,?the better publicly run high schools, "so I need to pay more money?to get him a good education.
"I work here from 6:30 in the morning until 8 at night, sometimes 10,?he said, for very little money. "I try and call home every week, three or five minutes a call. It's too expensive to talk longer.?br>
Not all migrants to Beijing, however, are mired in low-paid day labor. At the open-air vegetable market near the landmark Temple of Heaven, Li Fengshuang, turned out in a flowered blouse and pale trousers, sat beneath a capacious umbrella before mounds of green peppers, onions and yellow squash.
"It's hard to make a living in my village in Shandong,?said Li, 50. "What we make is hardly enough to pay for what we need. We are not taxed there by how much land we have but how many people are in the family. We've got four, so we have to pay about $500 a year and if you don't pay they get back at you with some kind of punishment. So we gave up our land to our relatives. Whenever we go back, our relatives will give us the land back, but if we'd given it to the government we'd never get it back.?br>
Li, unlike many migrants, is in Beijing with her family, all of whom help in the vegetable business. Together, they managed to scrape together about $1,235 to buy a small truck to bring the vegetables from the countryside. Despite the investment, Li said, the family is still scraping by.
"All we have is a small room for the four of us,?she said. "There's a gas bottle stove in the courtyard for everybody. We pay about $50 for that, and another $86 for our place in the market here. What we have left over is just enough to eat.
"Life here isn't what it is at home,?she said, her words ending in a sigh. "We're bullied here. We're always being fined. I'm illiterate, so I can't read what you're writing. I only watch television when eating supper. I've never been anywhere in Beijing. I don't know anywhere besides this place.?
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long arm of coincidence here~
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2003-09-18 22:30:33
