I’ve been reading 亚洲周刊 recently. It’s pretty good, a real Chinese publication (a lot of publications are just translations of English ones) with some pretty heavy material.
Just now was reading an article on migrant workers in Chinese cities. They have a hard life. And by ‘migrant’ they don’t mean people from other countries, but people from the countryside who come to big cities to work.
You see, people who are from cities have it good. Their children have good schools, they have health insurance funded by the state, and they get an old age pension.
But just because you live and work in a certain city doesn’t entitle you to these benefits. The article gives the example of one woman who has lived in Beijing for 24 years. Even after these 24 years her kids can’t go to proper schools (unless she pays extra fees) and she doesn’t have any medical insurance.
The article mentions the meeting of the CPPCC and the NPC, the country’s two biggest political entities, which is happening today. Reform of the system that doesn’t allow non-residents to get benefits of the city that they’re living in was brought up, but the article mentions that it’s brought up every year without any action being taken on it.
I was considering translating the thing but it’s really long. Here’s a part that I found interesting though:
秦紅霞一個月掙錢不會低於六千元，但因為這種生活的不確定性，她所有的錢都從指縫裏省下來，消費低得驚人。她以炫耀的口吻問記者：「你猜從去年九月到今年 一月，我一共花了多少錢在伙食（吃飯）上？」「五百？」「再猜。」「三百？」「再猜。」「一千？」「呵呵，我告訴你，只花了五十六塊錢……」她幾乎笑得臉 都要開花了，聽者只是驚呆在原地。
And the English:
Qin Hongxia makes more than 6000RMB a month, but with such uncertainty in her life, she saves most of it. Her expenses are astonishingly low. She proudly asked this reporter: “From September last year to January this year, how much money do you think I spent on food?” “Five hundred?” “Guess again.” “Three hundred?” “Nope.” “A thousand?” “Haha, I’ll tell you this: I only spent 56 RMB….” Her face broke out into laughter, and all listening were dumbfounded.
I can tell you that I would be one of those people dumbfounded. A quick Google search tells me that she spent the equivalent of 9 Australian dollars. Granted food is a lot cheaper in China but I can tell you that a day out in China, or even a couple of hours spent in a local establishment downing alcoholic beverages would set you back more than that.
Those 农民工 (rural workers) really have it tough.
