Can rural Chinese become agents of their own fortunes in the city?
She grasped her shoulders, wiggled her fingers and shivered - a mimed expression of fear. "My parents just tell me not to go near people like this so I stay away." I was new here, a wealthy, busy city on China's east coast and I wanted to interview a local street vendor, an elderly woman who sleeps under the roadway. I was looking for a translator. Zhang, a wealthy young business owner, suggested her friend who had just quit her job. But when I met them at Zhang's coffee shop, I was surprised to learn how unwilling some well-to-do urbanites here are to engage with poor migrants from the countryside - in this case a grandmother who sells furniture from a cart and sleeps on the sidewalk.
"In China people are scared to get involved with them. They are dangerous." Had these conclusions ever been tested? She ignored my question and waved a hand to evoke distant environs. "If you want to meet poor people you should go out there. I just believe it is some people's luck to be rich and some to be poor."
The People's Republic of China was founded upon the theoretical framework of "Marxism-Leninism applied and developed in China."1 After Mao's death, China's leadership began to chart a radically new course for the nation, which included dismantling some of the utopia that he had tried to create. The great rewards of this effort (one study found that average life expectancy in China had almost doubled between 1950 and 20112) as well as lingering contradictions are apparent in the China of today. Those who are enabled to navigate China's new economic terrain are growing increasingly rich,3 while others have seen their aspirations frustrated by conditions that have their very roots in the classless utopia envisioned by Mao.
Chen Xue Zhen
How does her business work? It's complicated.
Chen Xue Zhen is eighty-three years old. She sells furniture from a large wheeled cart and has been sleeping under the elevated roadway, by her account, for about twenty years. Not everyone is as scared of her as the young lady I met at the cafe - others give her clothing, blankets and snacks. She sleeps on the sidewalk because “it's good for old women to sleep on a hard surface." She never drinks anything cold and claims to continue such physically demanding labor at her advanced age because she needs to “practice herself.”
Control Part One: Rules
Chéngguǎn 城管
Chen's desire not to be seen granting an interview is likely the result of a dependence on the good graces of the urban management police - chengguan - who are charged with enforcing the rule of law in public spaces in many Chinese cities. Operating a vendor's cart is illegal without a permit in most places and street vendors are sometimes arrested and their goods confiscated. While in Mao's time street peddlers may have sold things "on poles or mobile stands"4 today it is more common to find them working from electric bicycles and three-wheeled carts, packing up and shuffling away as the chengguan approach. An altercation between vendors and chengguan in Zhejiang province escalated into a mass confrontation in which four officers were themselves beaten to death.5
Chen Xue Zhen explained to me that the local chengguan treat her with respect and turn a blind eye to her small encampment. I understood her ending our interview as an effort to maintain a low profile. As she had told me earlier, "When the other vendors leave, I have to leave too. It doesn't look good to stay out here and I know it."
Hùkǒu 户口
Hukou is a system of housing registration in which every citizen is registered to a single residence that is either "agricultural" (rural) or "non-agricultural" (urban). Chen Xue Zhen comes from a nearby rural area and is not likely to possess an urban hukou. This system was established in 1958 and functions as a form of internal migration control.6 Rural to urban migrants are able to travel and work in cities, but often unable to avail themselves of the housing, subsidized medical care, education, and other welfare available to their urban compatriots.
The unprecedented rural to urban migration that the policy discourages has actually been an important driver of China's economic growth as premier (and economist) Li Keqiang explained earlier this year.7 Urban administrations in some locales now offer hukou for purchase to highly educated and skilled migrants. This has effectively created a two-track migration system, with one path to urbanization for the rural elite and one for the poor and less educated.8 A black market for fake hukou documents also exists.9
This privileging of the urban population is in direct opposition to Maoist ideology. While Marx's theory of class struggle opposed a property-owning bourgeoisie with a proletariat that worked mostly in urban factories, for Mao the revolutionary base was the rural, agricultural class.10 Hukou's relevance and fairness continue to be debated and reforms are announced periodically.11 12 Still, the agricultural/non-agricultural divide remains and continues to operate as a type of institutionalized discrimination, directly limiting the economic competitiveness of hundreds of millions of people.
Control Part Two: Ideas
Model Workers - Láodòng mófàn 劳动模范
Hukou - which limits migration to China's wealthy urban centers - and chengguan - who are charged with maintaining orderly and lawful public spaces in the cities - are two very clear and obvious challenges to the efforts of some rural migrants like Chen to profit in China's urban centers. These are social policies that can be observed and debated, enacted or rescinded.
Ideal societies are not constructed from social policy alone, however. They must be believed in. Another powerful yet difficult to analyze form of state control is the rhetorical project of the "model worker." Through this effort, the CPC is able to instill in the citizenry a dedication to selfless toil and a firm identification with one's productive role. In the Mao era, this effort was directed to collective empowerment. In the current economic order, it has been harnessed for something completely different.
The model worker program was initiated in 1950.13 National and local model workers are nominated every five years to serve as moral exemplars. They are awarded medals and pensions and treated to banquets and sometimes even leisure tours. In the Mao era, they were represented in paintings that later appeared as mass-produced posters.
In 1950, model worker Zhao Guilan was honored by Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai and other leaders. She had risked her life to protect a chemical factory and her left wrist became injured. A painting of the banquet was later mass produced. Image courtesy of the Landsberger collection.
Elaborating on the dialectic of Hegel and Marx in the realm of human behavior, Mao conceived that the model worker's nearly super-human devotion to duty and selfless toil would be represented to the masses of ordinary workers and within the minds of each a contradiction would arise: 'They are like this (thesis), and I am like that (antithesis).' This contradiction would resolve itself in a new reality that would find the worker more closely emulating the model (synthesis). This process, at least in Mao's conception, would be repeated in a never-ending cycle of improvement.14 After Mao, this notion - that the productive capacity of every individual is infinitely perfectable - was paired with open economic competition.
Stories of model workers appear today in the official and semi-official press and across the growing public sphere of the internet, where their supposed accomplishments are sometimes derided by casual online critics. The types of narratives that are presented, and thus the types of behavior they are designed to create, however, have changed substantially from those of the planned economy era.15 Following other scholars of China's shift to capitalism, we might describe the former as a "Maoist" model worker, and the latter as a "Dengist" model worker [after the hero of China's economic opening, Deng Xiaoping].16
Shi Chuanxing was a human waste collector in Beijing when he was honored as a national model worker in 1959 and invited to meet president Liu Shaoqi. In a posthumous profile by the CPC People's Daily, Shi's wife recalled her husband's excitement and the accolades of the president: "For the work you do as a night-soil collector you are a true servant of the people. And as the the state president, I'm also a servant of the people." Shi was appointed to a local governmental advisory body and in 1964 became a deputy to a legislative advisory body, the National People's Congress.17 He also gave an address at the "National Conference of Heroes." Though he was later persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution, his narrative lives on in many forms - text, image, cinema and even monument.18 Shi's work, like that of many models from the Mao era, was dirty, dangerous and humble.
Shi Chuanxing was a human waste collector in Beijing who was honored as a national model worker. He was later persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution.
The rhetorical strategy developed by Mao in the 1950's has since been adopted by local governments and corporations who award honors to top managers. Deng Yuanyang received the honor of "Xiamen's Model Worker" in 2014 from the CPC Xiamen Municipal Committee, according to the website of his company. Yuchei is a manufacturer of small to heavy-duty engines that has transitioned from state-owned enterprise to publicly-traded, foreign joint stock-venture corporation.19
An online profile explains that the awardee "works as head of the equipment repair and maintenance team of the production operation department in charge of the daily repair and maintenance of equipment. Over the six years, Deng has taken an active part in the company's minor reforms and made rational suggestions." The profile concludes by quantifying the energy saved by his efficiency-conscious approach to work.
The rhetorical thrust of the model worker project has thus been effectively re-directed. While model workers of the Mao era were sometimes injured or even handicapped through their super-human efforts at realizing a socialist society, Deng was honored in terms drawn directly from neo-classical economic analysis for his minor reforms and rational suggestions. The ideal of self-less toil lives on, but its goal is now more closely aligned to that of the Yuchai corporation.
A similar shift can be seen in another rhetorical sphere, in which the concept of solidarity (tuánjié 团结, most commonly encountered as a verb), was once a staple of revolutionary propaganda, but used here as a marketing slogan.
Unite to compete for the bigger success.
Solidarity is the power.
Solidarity is the power of group buying... awesome price.
While this re-appropriation appears obvious and inelegant, the semiotic slippage of the model worker project is more subtle. China's new heroes are closer to the notion of a hustler, an independent economic agent who finds an accomodating niche in the economic order and operates according to the principles of profit. More commonly celebrated in the media today are China's growing ranks of industrialists. Their narratives of success contain all the fantastic elements of the heroes of the Mao era - unending struggle and a near complete sublimation of identity to realize their full productive capacity. This effort, however, is directed to the new ethos of private wealth accumulation.
Chen Xue Zhen's life has spanned this paradigm shift. Her strong identification with her productive role - developed in part through the thoughtwork of Mao-era propaganda - has adapted itself to the new economic realities of competition and private profit. She lives on the street because that also happens to be where her profits await. It was easy for me, having worked in homeless shelters in America, to read her life as very desperate. But she denied indigence at every turn. She's not a victim of circumstance. She has come here - like so many others, including myself - to seek her fortune.
Model Workers of Capitalism
Click on a portrait to read.
Each interview has been translated and edited.
"I think this job gives me more freedom and it doesn't require me to be controlled by others. I don't like to work for other people and be tied down."
"I want to rely on my own ability to make my own money. Right? You know everyone has his or her dream. I want to have an artificial limb, but I don't earn enough money."
"I previously worked on construction sites, but I am old now. It’s not good for me to climb to high places. And, to be honest, after doing that for about thirty to forty years I began to feel sick of doing the same kind of job."
"I want to open a shop, but I have no money. Because rent takes a hundred thousand each year. If it were twenty or thirty thousand each year, then I could make that investment. But it costs so much money that I dare not do it."
I have been here for about three years. My job is collecting garbage. I go everywhere around here.
How did you start this job as a garbage collector?
Now garbage collecting does not earn that much, because garbage sells very cheap. Also people don’t want to hire those who are over 50 like me. Now it’s very difficult to find a job, right? I am doing this only to get by. I earn about 20 to 30 yuan every day to earn my bread.
Before you started this job, what did you do?
Previously I worked in my hometown in the countryside building houses for other people.
If you decided not to collect garbage anymore, then what might you do?
If I were to quit this job, I would go back to my hometown and take care of my grandson. Maybe also do some farm work.
Where is your family?
They are in Bozhou, Anhui.
What are their jobs?
They are all farmers. That’s all that people can do in the countryside.
While you are collecting garbage, how do people treat you? Are they nice to you?
There’s no need to talk about nice or not. What is important is fair in buying and selling, right? Just be honest with your clients.
In China, some people are very poor but some are really rich. What do you think is the reason for this gap?
For this question, I think poor people are too poor and rich people are too rich. Being a stranger here, as I am, I can only earn 50 each day which is only enough for food. But for those who are really rich, they are so damned rich. It’s incomparable. We eat lunch here, only a bowl of noodles which costs 5 yuan. If you eat anywhere else, it may cost three times or five times more or even more money, right?
How about reasons? What do you think is the reason for this gap?
The main reason is that my mind is not cultivated as I have never been to school. If I had a degree like you do, I might have a better job. In the 60’s, my family was really poor and we couldn’t afford to go to school.
Only one reason?
In my hometown, I once worked on the production team and was paid with work points. And I have a lot of brothers and sisters who relied on my job to support them then. Where were we supposed to get the money for school? We just couldn’t afford it.
If you quit working here and return to Anhui, what will you do with the money you have saved?
What will I do with the money? Actually, I'm not able to save that much. We have to spend money every day for the family expenses. And in my hometown we just live hand-to-mouth on the farm. We can’t save much each year, at best 3000 or so.
So you've never thought about what to do next?
I just want to drift along. The future is uncertain.
郭世翠 Guo Shicui is selling keychains with live goldfish inside of them.
How did you begin this work?
I’m from a poor family. It's hard for us to make a living.
Where did you get these fish?
Why do you ask me this question? It’s of little significance. I got them from the wholesale market.
Then how did you put them in the bag?
I don’t know. The factory made it. How should I know? I’m only responsible for the selling part.
Have you had any other job in the past?
I just did some farm work in my hometown, cultivating the land.
Where will you go next?
Business people like us go where we can earn money.
Where is your family?
My children are working for others. One is in Hangzhou, another is not. I have two children.
How about your parents?
Parents? Only my mother is still alive. My father has died.
What are their jobs?
They just till the land and do some farm work.
How about your children’s jobs? What are they doing?
They work in a garment factory.
Do you have any friends here in Hangzhou?
No, we are strangers here. How could we have friends? We are just like beggars.
Why are some people in China poor and some rich?
Some people have a lot of money. We people from the countryside have no money. We are poor country folk.
Do you think the gap between the rich and poor is very large or small?
It's very large! Some people have thousands of yuan, some have millions and some even have billions. In our neck of the woods, we never ever had so much money. In our hometown we all work on the farm and till the land, so we have no money. So I took off.
What is the reason for this large gap?
The countryside can’t help but being poor. The whole countryside is like this. You haven’t seen what it's like. All the people there cultivate the land. Compared with cities, the countryside is far from being satisfied. You can’t compare the countryside with cities.
王叔 Wang Shu is selling candy.
How did you begin this work?
I previously worked on construction sites, but I am old now. It’s not good for me to climb to high places. And, to be honest, after doing that for about thirty to forty years I began to feel sick of doing the same kind of job. I began working on construction sites when I was 18 years old. I don’t want to do it any more. So I changed my occupation to do some small business.
How long have you been doing this work?
I have been doing this for about 10 years. And the cotton candy for about 2 years, to be honest.
Do you make enough money to pay all of your expenses?
Yes, it’s enough. What I earn is similar to those who work for others, two thousand to three thousand each month.
How do people treat you?
Hangzhou is a very good city. There are a few problems, but it can not be regarded as bad. It is a fact that the chengguan are very strict with us. I’ll be honest on this point. However, if they were not strict, everyone would put up a stall and do business outside. The city would be in chaos. So we can understand their point of view. That is what I want to say.
Why are some people in China poor and some people rich?
That is probably due to personal ability. If you have no ability, you won’t be able to achieve things anywhere. But if you do, there's gold everywhere. You can earn big money anywhere at anytime, right?
In China, apart from ability, what do you think is needed?
As long as you can bear suffering you can make big money anywhere. To give a simple example, you can support yourself by going outside to collect garbage during the night. Sometimes it’s because of vanity that prevents you from doing such a job, right? Sometimes you just feel embarrassed to do this kind of job. People care a lot about face.
祝朋 Yan Peng is selling watermelons from a truck.
Where is your hometown?
Anhui, Lixin County.
Where is your family, still in your hometown?
My wife and my mother are taking care of my four children in my hometown. They are taking care of the children and sending them to school. They all do farm work. Hey, the chengguan are coming. Let’s go down the street a little ways to continue the interview, just over there. [We meet and resume across the bridge.] I have fought with the chengguan twice in the past. I had to stop and then I restarted this job a couple of years ago.
How do people treat you? The chengguan? The customers?
Those who love eating fruit are very nice to me, but the chengguan are very rude to me.
Have you done other jobs before selling fruit?
No, I only washed dishes in a restaurant in Beijing. They gave me only three hundred yuan a month and I worked there for about a year. That was early on. Later, I collected garbage.
Why do you think some people in China are very rich while some people are very poor?
It’s very difficult for poor people to make money, while it’s easier for rich people to make money.
I don’t know why it’s like this. Rich people are really rich and it’s easier for them to make more money. But for the poor, it’s difficult for them to even have enough food. It’s impossible for me to make a fortune. I only think about making enough money for food.
Has it always been like this?
I don’t know. Actually I don’t care about these things. It's beyond my consideration.
张峰 Zhang Feng is collecting recyclables and might ride his bike to Xiamen.
Where are you from?
From Baoding, Hebei Province.
How is it that you began this job?
I think this job gives me more freedom and it doesn't require me to be controlled by others. I don't like to work for other people and to be tied down. These are the main reasons.
So how long have you lived here?
I have lived here for about 8 to 9 months.
Do you make enough to get by?
Generally speaking, it’s almost enough.
Is it similar to that of someone who gets a regular wage?
I mean the money I earn each month is just enough for my living expenses. But compared to those who work for others, I earn much less than they do. I mean my earnings are just enough for me as a single man.
Have you had any other job in the past?
I once worked on a construction site. On the construction site, I operated a small machine.
Where will you go next if you decide not to stay here any more?
If I decided to leave, my second choice would be Xiamen or Guilin. Both of them are famous tourist cities in China and their environments are very good.
How would you travel to Xiamen with so many things?
Unless something comes up, if I go to Xiamen, I will clear out those things that I do not often use. I'll only keep the essentials. The things I don't need I will either sell or just throw away.
Then will you take a train or will you go there on foot?
No, no, if I have to take my riding cart with me, then I will go along the national highway. That’s how I will go there.
Why are some people in China poor and some rich?
I think, on the one hand, it has something to do with the state system. On the other, personal ability, aptitude and the opportunity one may encounter as well as one’s family background all constitute the reasons for the sharp gap between the rich and the poor.
胡明生 Hu Mingsheng is selling noodles with his wife.
Where’s your hometown?
My hometown is in Henan.
How long have you been here?
I have been doing this for about 2 months.
Where is your family?
My wife is with me, because she is not in good health and my parents are very old now. So we need to work outside to do this job. We followed our relatives here. They brought me here. They are also doing some small business here. Because we are poor and we can’t afford a shop to do stable business. We can only sell noodles from a cart to earn a small amount of money.
What are their jobs?
My parents are almost 70 to 80 years old and my children are going to school. We have no other choice but to find work elsewhere.
How did you begin this job?
Our relatives are doing business here. They sell fruit. We are just new here and have no money. They lent me some money and I bought this small cart. I can only do small business now and can’t do big business.
Can you describe the daily procedures you are working now?
Describe the noodles that I make? What do you want to know? I get up very early every morning around 4 to 5 o’clock to make the noodles. I will finish doing it around 8 to 9 o’clock. Then I will chop some vegetables. Then load the cart. Then I will go out at 11 o’clock to sell the noodles.
How long have you been doing this?
I have been doing this for less than two months.
Do you make enough money for your daily expenses?
Just about. It’s basically enough. You know the rent here is too expensive, also the water and electricity bill. It’s just enough for my wife and I to live. You know this is a small business.
Before you started this job, what did you do in your hometown?
I once worked in Jiangsu for more than ten years. But now my wife’s leg does not function well. For more than ten years, she worked in a shopping mall, where she would stand for so long that she suffered from hyperostosis, which meant she couldn’t continue working any more.
What do you plan to do if you leave this small business?
I've never thought about that.
Why are some people in China rich and some really poor? What do you think is the reason for this gap?
One is what people have in mind and whether they have the courage to put it into practice. Another is whether they have capital to do those things. Some people, they have ideas but they dare not act on them, while some want to do something but they don’t have enough money.
余良 Yu Liang is repairing bicycles.
Where are you from and how long have you been here?
I’m from Anhui and have been here for more than ten years.
How is it that you began this job?
I have more freedom doing this than going to work for others and can earn a little bit more.
What do you sell here on a day to day basis?
I sell all kinds of things, mainly daily necessities. And my major task is repairing vehicles.
How long have you been doing this?
For more than 10 years.
How much money do you make each month? Is the money enough to pay all of your expenses?
How shall I answer you? It’s basically enough, but there isn't anything left over.
Did you have any other job before this one?
Yes, I did. I have done some business. I once owned a restaurant. The restaurant didn’t go so well and I lost a lot of money. Finally, I closed it and changed to this job.
If you decided to stop this job what might you do next?
I want to change my career, but I don’t know what to do.
What do you want to do?
I just don’t know now.
Where are your family members and what are their jobs?
My wife is here in Hangzhou and my children are still in my hometown.
What is her job?
My wife is also a street vendor.
Won’t the chengguan drive you away?
This is the service site that the chengguan help us set up.
What do you think of the people coming and going? Are they nice to you?
That depends on how you treat them, right? If we're nice to them, they'll probably be nice, too.
In China, some people are rich but some people are very poor. There is a gap between them. What do you think is the main reason for this gap?
That depends on one’s mind. One is flexible while another is not.
Any other reasons?
How can I put it? That’s all that occurs to me.
朱水福 Zhu Shuifu is repairing bicycles and selling cycle parts.
Where are you from?
I live in Xinba.
What are you doing?
I am repairing bicycles and electric motorbikes.
What else?
I also sell locks and chargers, etc, all kinds of stuff.
How long have you been working here?
I have had my stand under this bridge for about 12 years. I once worked in a long-distance transport company. Later, that company merged with another and I just quit, as it didn't pay much. Now with this job I earn a little more than if I was working for someone else.
What did you do for your last job?
Previously, I worked as a repair worker repairing those large trucks. And I can make engines also.
Do you make enough money for your daily expenses with this repair stand?
It’s basically enough. The money I earn now is about the same as what I earned working for others.
Why did you decide to change your job if the money you earn is about the same?
My wife lived in the village and had a rural hukou. I wanted her to be registered in the city. So I spent thirty to forty thousand yuan to buy her a city residence. Now she has a city residence. It’s just something you need to live a normal life.
If you were to decide not to do your job here, what might you do in the future?
After my daughter gets married, I will quit this job. I will go back to my wife’s hometown, Shengzhou, where she has a house. And we can raise chickens and ducks. We can live as we like. There are a lot of bird cages there. I love keeping birds as pets.
Where is your family now?
My wife is working in the Hangzhou Tower. And my daughter works in a school in Xiaoheshan.
How do people treat you while you are working here?
They treat me very well. Everyone who buys things here is very nice. Because my stand has been here for a very long time, for more than ten years.
Why do you think in China some people are very poor while some people are very rich? What do you think is the reason?
I don’t know how to say.
Just say what you think.
I work outside. Every morning, I go out at half past seven and work until 9 o’clock, then go back home. I can earn at least 200 a day or a little better - 400 a day. For the pension in the bank, we need to pay 700 each month. We need to save this money. There’s nothing else to say.
For the overall situation, in China, the gap between the rich and the poor, what do you think is the reason?
The gap, we are at least better than working for other people. Every month we can earn more than 4000 yuan.
What do you think is the reason for this gap?
I really don’t know how to say.
施林莉 Shin Linli wants to tell your fortune.
Where is your hometown?
Zhejiang, Yongkang.
How long have you been doing this?
About 4 to 5 years.
Where is your family now?
They are now in my hometown.
What are their jobs?
They are doing farm work.
Can you describe the work you are doing now?
I just put out this sign and when people see this sign they will come forward and ask me about their future. Then I will tell them to be diligent and stay away from gambling and prostitutes and to be a good guy. “People achieve prosperity through hard work.” I always tell them this sentence. If I see anyone who appears to be a playboy, I will tell him that he should not be too fickle in love and that he should be faithful to his wife and family. A peaceful family will prosper. After listening to me, some people will give me ten yuan or more.
Do you make enough money to pay your daily expenses?
Yes, it’s enough for me. I get rice and food from my hometown. I also will send some money to my grandson for his pocket money.
How do people treat you while you are telling their fortunes?
They say that my words ring true. They will give me twenty or thirty yuan as payment. They say I am a very good fortune teller and are willing to accept my advice to be good guys. They are very pleased with my words. People will always be happy with good words.
What did you do before this?
Previously, I was in my hometown doing farm work.
What will you do in the future, if you stop telling people’s fortune?
I will look after my grandson in the future.
Why are some people in China poor and some rich?
Because poor people are not diligent. They eat their heads off. People should be diligent. And now it’s easier for everyone to find a job to feed themselves. People achieve prosperity through hard work. Now some rich people are rich through their hard work. If someone is not diligent, how can they become wealthy - right? One should be very diligent. If someone lacks money, then they should be thrifty and avoid over-indulgence. Everything will turn out better and everyone in their family will be happy.
夏和东 Xia Hedong is selling plants.
Where is your hometown?
My hometown is in Jiangxi.
How long have you been here?
I have been here for several years, for many years.
How about your family, are they with you now?
My family is here with me.
What do they do?
My wife takes care of the children. My son goes to work every day. We only work to pay the rent and have some money for food.
Can you describe your working procedure a little bit?
First, I go to the market to get some potted plants and also get some that I've grown by myself. Then I go out to sell them.
Do you make enough money for all of your daily expenses?
We now mostly rely on our children to earn money and we mainly take care of the grandchildren. Whatever we can earn is okay.
Then you sell your plants riding your cart around?
We just go here and there. There is no fixed place for us. That’s what a mobile businessman looks like. Otherwise, the chengguan might drive us away. If the chengguan left us alone, it would be easier for us to do business.
Just now you mentioned the chengguan, what are their attitudes towards you?
They treat me very badly. They may scold you or take your cart away, all kinds of methods. You must have known what they are like. To say it in a vulgar way, a couple of days ago the chengguan in Wenzhou were fighting with those vendors in the streets, and it was exposed on TV. It’s the same with the city keepers here, no better than that.
Have you done any other job before selling flowers?
What should I say? I once worked on construction sites and also collected used electrical appliances. And I also worked for other people, but I had less freedom in those lines of work.
What if you decided not to sell flowers. What would you do?
If I stopped selling flowers, we would go back to my hometown to take care of my father, who is still there. The time for me to work won’t last long. I just work one day at a time.
In China, some people are very poor, some are very rich. What do you think is the reason for this gap?
What should I say for this question? It depends on one’s mind. Some people are poor. That’s because our minds are not as developed. Those rich people must be very intelligent and they can do big business. Then they suddenly turn rich. That’s it. I don’t know any other reasons.
Do you think it has always been like this or has it grown more severe in recent years?
The gap between the rich and the poor has always been like this. It’s impossible for everyone to be the same. That’s it.
徐香玲 Xu Xiangling is carrying baskets of fruit for sale.
Where are you from?
I am from Jiangxi Province.
How long have you been here?
For about three to five years.
How did you begin this job?
I once worked as a housekeeper for other people. But I only got a thousand yuan each month. After paying rent and other expenses, I had almost no money left. So some people told me that it’s better to just rent a place to grow some fruit. So I tried it and had good results. Then I realized this job was a good fit.
What's your day-to-day schedule like?
In the morning we start to pick fruit and in the afternoon we carry it outside to sell. You know we have no fixed place to sell, so we'll sell fruit anywhere. The chengguan will drive us away once they see us. So when we see them, we take off.
Have you thought about doing other jobs in the future?
Of course I want to do something else. But I have no skills and I am not well educated either. If you want to earn more money, you've got to invest some money up front. It takes a large sum of money, but I do not have that much. I want to open a fruit shop which would be much better than carrying the fruit here and there. But the shops in the city are so expensive that we can’t afford it. It may take a hundred thousand each year for the rent alone. It's not clear how much profit there is to be had in such an arrangement.
Where is your family?
My parents are in my hometown and my husband and I are here in Hangzhou. Also my children are in my hometown. Since they were born, we haven't really been there for them.
How do people treat you while you are selling fruit here, either the chengguan or the customers?
These people are okay. Sometimes the chengguan will make an inspection here and warn us to go away. As for the customers, they will bargain with me. But actually, we are low profit. We only profit about 10 percent from this fruit. We only make 2 yuan from a 10 yuan sale. If they bargain too much, we can’t earn much. So we only make about 70 to 80 yuan a day. We actually live a very frugal life. We don't spend much money on food.
In China some people are very rich while some are very poor. What do you think is the reason for this gap between the rich and the poor?
On the one hand, some work needs technology, so someone who has a sharp mind can earn a lot. On the other hand, some people dare to invest their money. In this way, they can earn a lot of money. Mostly these two reasons. We can’t compare ourselves to them. Rich people, they invest in big business like real estate, which is very profitable.
苏峰 Su Feng is singing on a busy street corner.
Where is your hometown?
My hometown is in Guizhou.
How long have you been here?
I’ve just been here for 12 days.
Is your family in your hometown?
There aren't many people in my family, only my elderly parents are in my hometown. We are from the countryside.
So what are their jobs?
They do farm work, their faces to the soil and backs to the sky. What else can they do?
Can you describe the job you are doing now?
I just want to be happy no matter what I do. I am not like other people who regard themselves as begging. I want to rely on my own ability to make my own money. Right? You know everyone has his or her dream. I want to have an artificial limb, but I don't earn enough money. So I need to work hard outside to earn money.
Did you do the same job in your hometown?
A few years ago our house fell down and my legs were buried in the rubble.
What was your job?
I used to run a small business.
What did you sell?
I sold hardware, things like steel and supplies, etc.
How do people treat you while you are singing here?
Very well. I think China is a very friendly and peaceful country.
If you didn't stay here any longer, where would you go?
I won’t go anywhere. I will stay here and have my artificial limb. After I get my artificial limb, I will do something I really love to do. I'll sing in a pub or somewhere and live a carefree life.
Some people in China are rich, some are poor --
(Interrupts) That’s a very easy question. People all over the world are like this. Not only China. As far as I’m concerned, I was born in a peaceful time. Now we don’t have any problem getting enough food. There is also this gap in America, right?
苏云锋 Su Yunfeng is selling fish.
Where is your hometown?
I am from Henan, Zhoukou.
How long have you been here?
For about twenty days.
Where is your family?
My wife is still in my hometown and my children are all working elsewhere. One of my daughters is still in school.
What are their jobs?
My wife is doing some farm work at home and also taking care of my mother. She is 82 years old now.
Can you describe the procedure of your work?
My working procedure is a little bit complicated. I take my things to each community every day and sell them. Some of my friends are caught by the chengguan and fined by them. So we only sell fish secretly. We get up at 5 o’clock every morning and sell until it gets dark. Then we go back home. That’s all.
How long have you been selling fish?
Only for about ten days. I just arrived here from my hometown about twenty days ago. Previously I worked as a barn keeper there. The salary for that job is only three thousand yuan each month. It’s not enough for the daily expenses. After paying for rent and food, there was only 2000 yuan left each month.
Then do you think selling fish can make enough money for your daily expenses?
It’s not that profitable, only just enough. We have no other choice since we've already come here. We need to go on. We have to send money back home since my child still goes to school.
If selling fish doesn't work out, what do you plan to do in the future? What do you want to do?
What do I want to do? I want to open a shop, but I have no money. Because rent takes a hundred thousand each year. If it were twenty or thirty thousand each year, then I could make that investment. But it costs so much money that I dare not do it.
What kind of shop do you want to open?
Any kind of shop is okay, as long as I can make money. Cloth shop, etc. But that is only a fantasy. I can’t put it into practice. Because I need to build a house for my children and they also need to get married. Where can I get that much money? It’s so troublesome. We live a very difficult life. We hold our breath selling fish here, afraid that the chengguan will come and take my cart away.
In China, some people are very poor while some people are very rich. What do you think is the main reason for this gap?
What reason? It depends on personal ability. It really depends on personal ability.
胡立中 Hu Lizhong has set out some tofu for sale.
Where is your hometown?
My hometown is in Lishui.
Did you have any other jobs before this one?
I used to do some farm work in my hometown but now I am old and I can no longer do that. So we came to our children's home to live with them.
Can you describe how you go about your day to day work?
This is done by my son-in-law. He is so busy that he can’t finish everything by himself, so I just help him sell these. As I am old now, I have nothing to do. Also, I live and eat in his house. I have to help him with some easy work.
What's this?
This is preserved vegetable. It is produced by a factory from Shaoxin. They put it here and ask me to sell it for them. The tofu is produced in Shaoxin and we buy the tofu from the factory. And after we get the tofu, we clip it into small cubes and put it in an oven to let it ferment. After a few days, we take it out and put it into bags to sell. It comes from the countryside in Shaoxin and it tastes good.
How long have you been selling these things for your son-in-law?
I have been selling these for about three to four years here. As I eat at my daughter’s home, I need to find ways to offer my help. We need not care about other things when they give us food. Also, my son-in-law’s former employer wasn't doing so well and now he's unemployed. He doesn't have anything to do either, since he's lost his job. So he's been looking for something to do to support the family.
Excuse me for asking, but how much money do you earn each day?
It’s not a lot of money, but a little better than other people make. If one works for others, one has to watch the time. Also one has to be controlled by others. But this job is okay. Our schedules aren't regulated. We can set up the stand late and take it down early. It all depends on our will. It’s less controlled. If there are people who want to buy, we can sell more. If not, we can sell less. It’s okay. We just put the stand out in front of our door. There is no tax or other management fee to pay. We do this just for some living expenses. My son-in-law, once he reaches sixty years old, can get his pension. But now each month he has no salary.
What would you do if you stopped selling tofu?
If I didn’t do this, then I really would have nothing to do. Now I am more than seventy years old. I have nothing else to do. No one would hire me if I wanted to go out and work for someone else.
Street vendors like Chen Xue Zhen are a regular sight in urban China and many of them are migrants. Though few are likely to sleep outside, many have made deep personal sacrifices to compete for wealth in the city. Among those I met here, some were recently displaced and some perpetually itinerant. Others were just giving city life a try.
It's striking that not a single respondent mentions hukou or other social policies explicitly when asked about inequality of wealth. They are more likely to either pronounce themselves unqualified to discuss the issue, or to explain it away through assumptions about one's fundamental ability to earn, their intelligence and their determination. Only a few mentioned connections to those in power and access to capital.
There are other jobs available to rural migrants in Chinese cities. Still, many of the vendors I met explained that they appreciate a certain independence - their profits redound entirely to themselves, though so does all of the financial and legal risk. Many told me they had purposely chosen this work instead of another job so they can operate on their own terms. Economic agency means having to compete with others for a livelihood. But it also means the possibility of being one's own master to the extent possible.
Are "informal economies" inherent to market-based societies? In the unique state market economy that has developed in China it seems almost inevitable that some people would imbibe and then try to implement the work ethic presented by the country's leadership and elite, legally or otherwise. Arguments continue to be made for hukou's reform on terms that support the bottom line, which is rapid and sustained national economic development.20 The world's largest experiment in socialism should offer an example of an economy based on competition that is not just efficient, but also fair. As its social and economic models begin to be emulated across the globe, China's leadership should seek to develop a form of market socialism that results not in a competition that becomes ever more fierce, but rather one in which all citizens can compete for wealth legally and on the most equal terms possible.
Plans for the nation's 13th five-year plan will be finalized in a few months. The central government should move beyond the outdated agricultural/non-agricultural categories and allow rural Chinese to compete for wealth on the same terms as their urban counterparts.
