The Children of Migrant Workers in Beijing

Beijing, a global city with almost 20 millions of residents, is one of the most populous cities in the world. It is the heart of China's politic, culture, and military; more significantly, it serves as the nation's educational center. As the home of more than eighty universities, Beijing attracts the interests of elite teachers and students all over the country.

Unfortunately, such wonderful educational resources could never be shared by one group of the Chinese citizens----the children of the poor migrant workers in Beijing. To limit the population in Beijing, the Government enforced an amendment, which restricts migrant children from attending public schools. Richer migrant families would get around this problem by either bribing school officials or paying the overcharged price of going to private schools. In contrast, the majority of the migrant workers' children would end up going to schools that were specifically opened for them. Most of these schools are in terrible condition and could only afford to hire teachers without qualified certification.

This summer, a couple St. Stephen's students and I had the opportunity to organize an English program for these migrant children in Beijing. Here is a reflection I've concluded at the end of our camp:

Our goal was to teach these kids some simple English, Math, and organize some fun activities for them in order to lighten up their summer. We thought that they would not be so keen on coming to school every morning during the summer and learn about a language that was rather strange to them. Yet, they responded with much enthusiasm and promised to tell their friends to show up as well. (272)
The classroom was filled with trash, dirty wallpapers, and had the smell of rotten pickles, yet, the students were so unbelievably focused. Even though they were not very fast learners and sometimes had difficulties of understanding our objectives, they never gave up and always came back the next day with even more enthusiasm. In the end, we decided to extend our days at the school as the children had really inspired us. Yet, their condition still worried us as the principals for these kind of migrant children's school often took away the government fund, which often resulted in the closure of schools.

Since schools specially opened for migrant workers' children only go as far to 9th grade, most students would not have the chance to go on with their education. As a result, they are forced to enter the society at an early age, and their criminal rates are far higher than those of the children from richer families. This scenario reminded me of a passage in "Maggie, a Girl of the Streets,"----- "when Jimmie was a little boy, he began to be arrested. Before he reached a great age, he had a fair record" (Crane 18). Similar to Jimmie, who had been raised in the New York tenement, migrant workers' children in China also live in slum-like households and are more vulnerable to the Urban life's evil deeds.

Shanghai, shanghai

Shanghai is one of the largest cities by population in the world. During the last decade of the booming of Chinese economy, it has flourished to a global city, exerting influence over finance, commerce, fashion, technology and culture.


Today, Shanghai is the leading financial center in Asian continent; it's own stock market Shanghai Stock Exchange ranked their among worldwide stock exchanges in terms of trading volume; it has over 20 million residents; it just held the World Exposition in 2010; it has over 13 metro transportation lines; ATP World Tour took place in Shanghai; F1 took place in Shanghai; Transformer 2 was shot in Shanghai......


However, under the shade of prosperity, Shanghai is a vicious magnet, attracting migrant laborers to come and contribute their life to the venal magnates. Let's look at some facts and statistics. Shanghai has a bigger population than Australia's. Out of the 23 million people in the city, 9 million of them are migrants from all over the country. Then, out of the rest of 14 million residents, only 35% of them are natural Shanghaiese, born in Shanghai and speak Shanghaiese, a local dialect only spoken in Shanghai, distinct to Mandarin Chinese. Similar to the immigrants culture in New York City, a foreign is formed by various groups of emigrants in Shanghai.


This is a typical tenement, maybe even a fancy one since it has only one storey and a yard. Behind the tenement we can see that there is a silver modern building. In all the images one can find online, Shanghai is composed by a medley of uneven fashionable buildings, but here in this picture there is only one. On the second door from the right, a red Chinese letter is written on it: "拆“, which means demolishing. The tenement we are looking at here is about to be pulled down, or already pulled down by now. Because another groups of modern building is about to be constructed here. It means that the migrant workers living in the tenement are forced to leave and find somewhere else to squeeze in.


shanghai v. to put by trickery into an undesirable position

Other than the "Shanghai" you can find here, (just kidding, here). There exists the invisible "shanghai" behind it. It locates at every blind spot away from the city's resplendence. Shanghai, lures these migrant workers with its exhaustible opportunities and limitless wealth, cram them into slums and extort cheap labor from them. No "rags to riches" story could possibly blossom there because "infants" are already smothered in the "nursery". While the urban city expands, these "ugly" tenements are torn down and workers are driven out from their home. The city's improvement is based on the sacrifice of diligent, innocent workers. Once a worker offered all his labor to the city, the city repels him, leaving him no opportunity nor even a shack for him to live. Behind the glory and splendor, the human nature of greed and hideousness forms the invisible city - shanghai.

After all, where can he go?