Showing off the real China at the Olympics
Although the Beijing government has repeatedly denied that it will order many of the city's migrant workers back to their home provinces during the 2008 Olympics next year, no one has stated precisely what will be done with them. For a city that's trying to make a good impression on the world, the prospect of hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of scruffy peasants sharing the streets with foreign guests is not particularly attractive. In an opinion piece that appeared in yesterday's Global Times, Ding Gang, a senior editor with the People's Daily, wrote that China should take pride in what it is rather than worrying about foreign tourists catching glimpses of Beijing's imperfections.
He Dong, who reposted the article on his blog, agrees with Ding, but fears that the government will be worried anyway. His comments are translated following Ding's essay.
There are quite a few construction sites near my neighborhood. Every evening, migrant workers will walk out wearing sandals, shirtless or wearing their shirts rolled up to expose their stomachs. They'll walk along the streets in groups of three to five, and occasionally there'll be someone sitting at the roadside eating a few sticks of barbecued lamb and drinking beer. They don't have much else to do outside of work, and they don't have enough money to enjoy a life outside of work. It's obvious that this is their most relaxing time of day.
A friend of mine became anxious after seeing this, saying that it would affect Beijing's image during the Olympics. My friend's worries are not without basis. Next summer during the Olympics, tens of thousands of athletes, tourists, and reporters from all over the world will crowd into Beijing. If they see this sort of sight, they may spread it abroad.
So how should this problem be solved? Should we impress a bit more upon those migrant workers the great importance that wearing shirts and buttoning them up has on the Olympics, or should we collect funds to purchase shirts for them? Or maybe we should just take the simplest approach, and when the time comes, have all of the construction sites simply halt work and dismiss them back to their homes.
Truth be told, going shirtless is not really in very good taste - it's less than ideal and the very least is not in accordance with the standards of modern civilization. For an influential, world-famous, metropolis like Beijing, it's something of a loss of face. But the reality of shirtlessness is not just Beijing's reality - it is China's reality as well. I will suggest that this phenomenon exists in practically all of China's cities. Making shirtless migrant workers completely disappear from Beijing's streets in a short time is not difficult to accomplish, but have we ever considered that Beijing without shirtless migrant workers is no longer the real Beijing, no longer the real China? We always say that the greatest inspiration, the greatest life force, comes from reality. When friends come from afar, we ought to warmly welcome them in a festive atmosphere. But we must not lose the opportunity to show the world the real China.
If foreigners do not see shirtless guys on the streets of Beijing, will they change their view of Beijing? Not necessarily, I'd say. If foreigners see shirtless guys in some other city, they may begin to be suspicious about the real Beijing. "When the false is true, the true becomes false" is precisely this logic.
Then again, even if foreigners see shirtless migrant workers, even if photos of those shirtless migrant workers are published in the newspaper, it's not that big of a deal. Ask yourself - which Chinese city doesn't rely on these shirtless migrant workers for swift growth? Which of Beijing's Olympic projects would exist apart from these shirtless migrant workers? Letting foreigners understand this is not the least bit shameful. There's really no need to worry too much over issues like shirtless migrant workers, and there's no need to take pains to cover them up or hide them away. Otherwise, it won't just be the government's money - it'll be more of a hassle for common people as well as officials. Rather than spending a great deal of effort to cover things up in pursuit of perfection, why not just take things as they come and give foreigners a picture of the real Beijing and the real China?
Everyone knows that it will take time to get shirtless migrant workers to wear shirts. It's not something that simple education alone will solve. It is a reflection of real standards of living for a segment of Chinese society, and it involves reasons both historical and contemporary. To transform their situation will require substantial investment; overall living standards must be raised for rural residents. Only when they have cool, air-conditioner-equipped rooms, and their wife and child are at their side, will they no longer go outside to chat and stroll shirtless on the streets.
Telling foreigners about the real Beijing is nothing that will muddy our faces. It will show our self-confidence and it will reduce pressure on government officials and common people. This is China's national situation - there are modern skyscrapers, but there are also low-lying buildings behind them, in streets that aren't very clean; you can find city-dwellers in pretty clothes eating Häagen-Dazs in snack shops, and you can see shirtless migrant workers strolling along the roadside....this is China, a developing country, a country that still requires vigorous effort to reduce the gap between rich and poor.
Perhaps what we should be thinking of is a way to let these shirtless migrant workers experience a bit of the Olympic atmosphere, and how to make sure that their livelihood, so hard to come by, is not casually interrupted. There's been news that the Beijing Municipal Government has denied rumors that it will urge migrant workers to go home, so I hope that when the Olympics come next year, I'll still be able to see shirtless migrant workers sitting at the roadside drinking beer, eating barbecued lamb, and talking about how many gold medals the Chinese team has won.
