Eric's Beijing Diary

Langfang. You're not going to believe this. The egg was fried. Cold and hard, but it was fried. I could swear they have been reading my web log, but that's not possible, because Blogspot is blocked in China.

This week I have been talking with the freshmen in Langfang about the plight of beggars. Last week I told them about my experience with the girl who was selling flowers on the street. I asked them what they thought about it. In particular, I asked them if they thought she was working for herself, or controlled by someone else. Most of them felt that she was working for an unscrupulous man who uses children to make money. One guy told about how, in the countryside, many people do not want a little girl, so if they have a girl, they sell her, and wait to have a boy. I was a bit skeptical about this statement. Not the first part of it, but the idea that parents would actually sell their children.

I should interject that these young people, although not all from wealthy backgrounds by any means, are indeed privileged, in that they are given the opportunity to get a very good education. So perhaps it should not be surprising that most of them seemed to feel that beggars are not as poor as they appear to be. One of them even described a scenario where beggars were living very well in the suburbs, and then dressing like they were very poor, and taking a taxi into town to put on their act.

I was a bit provoked by their response, so I did a little research. This week I shared an article with them which contained several interviews with beggars. The interviews were conducted by the Beijing News in response to word that the City of Beijing had decided to remove all beggars from the subway stations. I asked the students to discuss this article and give me their thoughts. One young man said he felt that the beggars should be removed, because otherwise foreigners who come here will think China is a poor country. But most young people seem to feel that there is a difference between performers, who play an instrument and put a can in front of them, and beggars who get in your face and ask for money. I tend to agree. But I also pointed out to them that regardless of the different categories we may place them in, none of them seemed to be making a big living from it, and none of them were working for anyone else. They all seemed to be begging to alleviate their own poverty. I wish the Beijing News would interview some of the beggars over by the Friendship Store in the Embassy area. I would be very interested to see the results of that study.