beggars

After living near the UVa ‘corner’ last year, I am familiar with passing by beggars on my way to class. It was usually the same one or two guys, whom I would always see later in the day drinking 40s.

I realize that Shanghai, Kunming, Xi’an—or every other city I’ve been to in China—is bigger than Charlottesville, but I was still not quite prepared for beggars in Chinese cities. The most troublesome kind is child beggars. I was first exposed to these beggars outside clubs or bars in Shanghai. Most of the time there would be a mother holding an infant, and then also a small child of about 4 or 5 years old. As soon as we would step toward the taxi-stop, the mother would come up and grab my shoulder; the child would grab my leg. Even after I had closed the door, the mother’s arm was still reaching into the taxi through the window.

I had been warned that these set-ups were all fake and that the children with the mother are usually not even of the same blood. Apparently there are “communities” of beggars in large cities that rotate children and location.

When I arrived in Kunming, I noticed two new “types” of beggars in large volume, though of course in addition to the other “types” I have grown accustomed to seeing (women dressed in “minority”-style clothing, very elderly men and women, and the child beggars). The first is severely crippled individuals—lots of people missing hands or feet, deformed limbs, etc. In fact, in some places around the city I saw healthy, “normal” looking women essentially show-casing what appeared to be their deformed children. One woman even had her “child,” who seemed to be suffering from some sort of enlarged skull, on a leash in front of her.

The second peculiar group of beggars I have encountered in Kunming is one, sometimes two, people sitting on the ground in front of their “story” written out either on a piece of cardboard or in chalk on the sidewalk. The individual(s) is usually staring at his/her feet, allowing people to stop and read the written words. Local Chinese crowd around these types of people, but only to read—I have yet to see money be given to this type of beggar.

I usually walk by as fast as I can, but at the beginning I was intrigued by the large crowds, so I, too, read the “story” of two or three different beggars. One claimed that he was a college graduate that was unable to find work in Kunming and now just wanted to return home. He asked for a specific price—30 kuai—to buy a train ticket to get back to see his parents. Most all of these written pleas ask for a specific amount of money, and I’ve even seen some close to the train station written in English (an area where many foreigners pass through).

At first I thought this was just so humiliating for the beggar—staring at his/her feet, I really felt sorry for the tragedy written out before me. But then I saw a child beggar sitting in front of a piece of cardboard with a “story” written on it. The young girl was probably 5 or 6 years old, and at the time I saw her, she was coloring in a coloring book. Then I realized, this small child probably can’t even write the story in front of her, let alone read it. The large, bold characters were very clearly written, and I definitely did not recognize all of them.

I talked to a taxi cab driver about this child beggar phenomenon once, and he told me that although it really is a pity, he believes they are all fake. Most Chinese youth I have spoken with say it is especially awkward when the beggar is a peer—like that college graduate—however, most still maintain that they should not give beggars money.

I am really not familiar enough with Chinese culture and society to be able to point to any of the social forces that cause such a diverse group of people to exist (and I would probably do a clumsy job guessing at the social forces that cause it in America). So what happens? We all just keep walking.