作者：wanderer 在 海归茶馆 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
这是洋海龟闯荡神州系列的主角人物之一Dan Washburn在今年夏天他的横贯中国旅程中路经西安时写的报道：
In Xi’an, House painters Hit The Streets To Peddle Their Wares
XI’AN, Shaanxi — They arrive by the dozen, hundreds of them, every morning, pedaling eagerly to the corner of Feng Gao Xi Lu and Xi Er Huan Lu, looking something like hobo jousters, wooden poles topped with paint rollers strapped like lances to their rundown bicycles. They are ready to do battle for a day’s work. Because work for these men is never guaranteed.
When people need day laborers in the midwestern Chinese city of Xi’an, they don’t look in the Yellow Pages or classifieds, they head to a local street corner like this one, where workers will literally fight for the opportunity to earn RMB 50 ($6) a day.
Xi’an is an ancient walled city with a storied history. A couple thousand years ago, it was the center of the Chinese universe. It’s a popular launching spot for tourists interested in seeing the world-famous Army of Terracotta Warriors. In recent years, however, Xi’an’s large state-owned industrial sector has been hit hard by China’s nationwide economic restructuring. Between 1995 and 2002, 45 million Chinese workers were laid off, including 36 million from the state sector.
Some of the men waiting for work on the corner are “off duty” state-owned-enterprise employees, or xiagang. Most are peasant workers, nongmingong, the masses trapped in the rubble of China’s economic boom. But, either way, none of the men are officially considered unemployed by the Chinese government, thanks to some seriously flawed methods of calculating statistics.
Officially, China only counts as unemployed those who have registered for unemployment benefits with their local governments. “Off duty” SOE workers — so-called even though there is no “on duty” — are not considered unemployed because they are technically still the financial responsibility of their employer, even though xiagang from poorer SOEs receive next to nothing at all.
Most peasant workers are statistically invisible — they lack a hukou, the Chinese household registration system that ties each citizen to a specific city or town. Regardless, according the Chinese government peasant or agricultural workers can never be unemployed: There is always farming to be done, and underemployment is not considered unemployment.
Xi’an’s registered unemployment rate is 3.2 percent, slightly lower than China’s official national average. But a recent statistical survey conducted by Michigan State University suggests that Xi’an’s actual unemployment rate is closer to 15.9 percent. The wide gap between the two figures is filled by China’s huge “floating population.” Estimates of this neither-unemployed-nor-employed population’s size range from 75 million to 130 million.
And these people are barely getting by. The street-corner painters of Xi’an never know when the next job will arrive.
“It’s a matter of luck,” said Mr. Wang, a 30-year-old painter-by-default. “I didn’t have any other job. Why would I like this job? I do this because the job requires no special skills.”
The prospective laborers gather at the intersection of Feng Gao Xi Lu and Xi Er Huan Lu — a site for hiring workers since ancient times — at 6 a.m., seven days a week. They stay until 6 p.m., or later. Clients arrive on foot, on bicycles or in cars. Jobs can be for a dozen men or one man. They can last for one month or one hour. Corners such as this one are found all over Xi’an, a city of close to 7 million.
“The daily wage varies,” Wang said. “Sometimes it’s RMB 50. Sometimes it’s RMB 20. We never know.”
Wang said 200 to 300 laborers, mostly painters, gather at the corner every morning. And the average worker gets four jobs a week. Out of a dozen workers questioned, all said they had wives and children to support and that they were the only money earners in the family.
“We make about RMB 1,000 ($120) a month,” Wang said. “We can just make ends meet. I don’t have to support the family. When we have to starve to death, we starve to death. I’m being truthful.”
Wang and the other painters actually have it better than most Shaanxi residents. Recent gavernment statistics list the average urban monthly household income for Shaanxi at RMB 610 ($74). For rural Shaanxi households, the figure is much lower. For the first half of 2004, the average family earned a total of RMB 960 ($117). And China’s official statistics have a reputation for being inflated.
Wang’s corner is just a short walk from Xi’an’s five-star Sheraton Hotel, where foreign tourists often plunk down an entire month of Wang’s salary for one night’s stay.
Days on the corner are generally relaxed while men wait for work to come knocking. Some sit and chat. Others play cards. Several sleep on the pavement, using a wooden trowel as a pillow. But when a client arrives, things get serious. The client selects a group leader, who then is responsible for choosing the rest of the workers for the job.
“There are certainly arguments,” Wang said. “We often have fist fights for work.”
Although Xi’an has several legitimate paint contracting companies, Wang said he and his fellow laborers want to avoid the “restrictions” of working for an official outfit. And since the day laborers cater to a different clientele — individuals with limited funds — the big companies don’t view them as undercutting their business. In fact, Wang said, the contractors will often come to the corner in search of extra labor.
And to the thorny question of whether what the corner laborers do is legal, Wang laughed.
“Of course not,” he said. “But the Bureau of Labor looks the other way. We are the peasant workers, excess labor. The government would probably love to see all of this extra work.”
Interviewing the interviewer: The painters asked as many questions as they answered. Here is a sampling of their queries, along with a couple of their related comments:
- Where do Americans go if they want their houses painted?
- Is it expensive to have an ad in the newspaper?
- How much per square meter do painters charge in America?
- Is there a big gap between the rich and the poor in America?
- At least in America all men are created equal.
- Are there many Americans who oppose the attacks on Iraq?
- Do American farmers get to elect their president?
- Our representatives don’t speak for us.
- Why is the United States in favor of the independence of Taiwan?
- Americans are the international police.
- Bush is too aggressive. What about Kerry?
- Are there jobless people in the United States?
Dan and the workers
作者：wanderer 在 海归茶馆 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
