Shanty China
May 16, 2013
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北京也有貧民窟
克拉麗莎·塞巴格-蒙蒂菲奧里 2013年05月16日
Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
北京——來北京旅遊的西方遊客經常會談起這裡沒什麼貧民窟。這座都城裡生活着700萬農民工，但是點綴或環繞着孟買和里約熱內盧這種發展中城市的骯髒棚戶區是看不到的。
然而北京是有貧民窟的——只是都被遮擋了起來，而儘管生活條件惡劣，裡面的許多居民卻令人意外地心懷希望。
有的貧民群體被稱為「鼠族」，因為他們生活在曾經的防空洞和地下室那些潮濕、黑暗的房間里。還有一些農民工住在一些被這座不斷擴張的首都吞沒的村莊里。（官方媒體對這種地方的委婉說法是「城中村」。）
兩種貧民窟都是國家默許的。政府對此睜一隻眼閉一隻眼，因
為中國這場震撼人心的城市化進程需要大量農民工充當廉價勞動力。一旦某個貧民窟變得太礙眼，政府就直接把它拆掉，把地賣給房地產開發商，強迫民工繼續往城
外尋找住處。在剛過東四環的地方有一座外觀氣派的高層住宅樓，門口站着保安，大廈正對面就是一個叫辛庄的城中村。在這裡的簡陋水泥房或磚房裡，一個房間可
以住進整整一家子人。這裡沒有淋浴或廚房，一棟建築物只有一個共用的水槽，狹窄的走廊里擺着幾個電爐，到處是低垂的電線。外面是腐臭的垃圾。居民用的是戶
外廁所：一條條連通的開放式排水溝，沒有隔斷，到了炎熱的夏天會滋生大批的蒼蠅。
民工沒有北京戶口，能享受到的醫保和教育等社會福利是有限的。因此很多更窮一些的人會選擇把孩子留在老家。還有的採取折中方案：上周在辛庄和我聊過的一家人，拿不出每年1600美元（合9800元人民幣）的學費，因此，他們的兒子現在就沒上學。
就算是這樣，在最近的一次訪問中，我感受到的主要情緒也還是樂觀。
25歲的張凱（音譯）是一名餐館服務員，每個月收入大約
300美元（合1844元人民幣），花40美元（合246元）和人合租着一個小房間。他用手頭的閑錢偶爾可以上一下網吧，去一些著名景點玩，比如頤和園和
鳥巢。在辛庄，他只能在一條臭水溝邊洗衣服，但是在這個貧民窟里的生活還是要比他在山東東部的農村老家強。看着周圍灰塵漫天的街道，他說：「多虧了有這個
村，民工不用被逼着搬到五環外更遠的地方。」
他的鄰居、一位姓朱的小攤販現年53歲，在這裡住了18年，靠在路邊一個小店賣一塊錢一個的冰激凌掙到的錢，供了三個孩子上大學。他們在讀平面設計、電子技術和經濟學。
北京的這些貧民窟之所以能夠維持現狀，靠的正是這種社會地
位變化的承諾。他們不像印度貧民窟的居民那麼貧窮或疾病橫行。這裡的多數民工能找到工作。很少有嚴重的犯罪。外地人湊到一起，營造出一種鮮明的社區感。所
以連生活在貧民窟的人都是樂觀的——至少，只要生活條件一直在改善就行，就像過去三十年那樣。
這種情況能持續下去嗎？湯姆·米勒(Tom Miller)在《中國的十億市民》中警告，如果不改革戶籍制度，開發廉價的大型住宅區，到2030年十億中國人里會有將近一半淪為「龐大的底層階級」。對於中國的貧民窟，這意味着那裡將從揮灑希望的家園變成充滿憤懣的熔爐。
翻譯：經雷
Beijing does have slums,
however — only they are mostly hidden from view and, despite bleak
living conditions, many of their residents are surprisingly hopeful.
Some communities of slum dwellers are called “rat tribes”
because they live in damp, dark rooms located in one-time air-raid
shelters and basements. Other migrant workers live in former villages
that have been engulfed by the ever-expanding capital. (The state
media’s euphemism for these is “villages inside cities.”)
Both types of slums are
tolerated by the state. The government turns a blind eye because it
needs a large migrant workforce to provide the cheap manpower behind
China’s astonishing urbanization. Whenever the slums become an eyesore
it simply tears them down and sells the land for development, forcing migrants to look further afield for housing.In
the eastern part of the city, just past the Fourth Ring Road, opposite a
smart high-rise residential unit with a guard at the gate is the
village-inside-the-city of Xinzhuang. Here, whole families cram into
single rooms in makeshift concrete or brick structures. There are no
showers or kitchens. In one building, just one public sink and a couple
of hot plates are located down a poky corridor with low-slung electric
wires. Rubbish putrefies outside. Residents use outdoor toilets:
communal open troughs with no partitions that are infested with flies
during the oppressively hot summer months.
Migrants without a Beijing
hukou, or official household registration, have limited access to social
benefits like health care and education. This leads many of the poorer
ones to leave their children behind in their hometowns. Others make
compromises: One family I talked to in Xinzhuang last week could not
afford to pay the annual $1,600 fees to educate their small son. For
now, the boy is going without schooling.
And yet, during my recent visit, the overriding feeling I encountered was optimism.
Zhang Kai, a 25-year-old
waiter who earns roughly $300 a month, spends $40 on renting a small
shared room. He has enough spare cash to occasionally go to Internet
cafes and visit some famous sights, like the Summer Palace and the
Bird’s Nest. In Xinzhuang, he has to wash his clothes next to a fetid
canal, but life is still better in this slum than in his home village in
eastern Shandong province. Looking around the dusty street, he said:
“Thank God there is this village so that migrants aren’t forced to move
too far outside the Fifth Ring Road.”
One neighbor, a 53-year-old
migrant vendor who goes by the surname Zhu, has lived here for 18 years
and earned enough money from selling 16-cent ice creams in a roadside
store to send all three of his children to university. They are studying
graphic design, electronics and economics.
The promise of such social
change has kept Beijing’s slums contained. They are not as poor or
disease-ridden as those in India. Here, most migrants can find work.
Serious crime is rare. Outsiders club together, creating a palpable
sense of community. And so even slum dwellers seem upbeat — at least as
long as living conditions keep improving, as they have in China over the
last three decades.
Can this last? In “China’s
Urban Billion” Tom Miller warns that without a reform of the hukou
system and the development of affordable mass housing, by 2030 almost
half of the one billion Chinese who live in cities will belong to a “giant underclass.” Were that to happen China’s slums might go from being places of aspiration to cauldrons of discontent.
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