美国国家公共电台 NPR In Chinese Cities, Migrants' Work Is Welcome. Their Children Are Not

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Think of this next story as a tale of undocumented migrants. Americans are, of course, debating what to do about immigrants who came here illegally for work. And there's a similar story in China. Many people migrate within that country for work. And though they never cross a border, millions run up against a web of rules and restrictions¹. China welcomes their labor² but resists letting quite so many live in ever-more-crowded cities.

In Beijing, a very crowded city, we visited a school where migrant children live out that contradiction. The school is built around a courtyard which fills with children each time there's a class break.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: Instead of a bell, the public address system plays "Music Box Dancer," an old hit song from the 1970s.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Hello. Ni hao.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Hello.

INSKEEP: Kids from age 5 to 14 sprint³ across the courtyard and burn some energy before they duck back into the classrooms. The classes are in a two-story building lined by outdoor walkways like an old roadside motel. It's a simple building. Some of the doors are missing knobs, but the walls are painted orange and green. And the teachers engage the students.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Speaking Chinese).

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Speaking Chinese).

INSKEEP: One first grade teacher addressed the students with a wireless⁴ headset microphone like a rock star. There's something distinctive⁵ about the school, or rather, about its students. Every one of the several hundred students is from somewhere else.

MOLLY: This is a school for migrating kids, and it is a private school.

INSKEEP: Molly stood in the courtyard to explain. She's a volunteer who helps to teach a ninth-grade class. And like others in this story, we are not using her full name. The school where she works is not licensed⁶, even though it operates in the open.

Why can't these children go to a public school?

MOLLY: All of the public schools are for local people. We call that hukou.

INSKEEP: Hukou - that word refers to China's household registration⁷. If you're legally registered as a person from Beijing, you get local services. But if government records show you were born in some distant village, you are generally expected to remain there.

MOLLY: That's from like the family resources.

INSKEEP: You are permanently⁸ attached to the place where you were born?

MOLLY: Yeah. Not only attached to the place but also attached to the family where you're born. Like, once you got a hukou, all of your kids have the hukou.

INSKEEP: The thing is, people haven't stayed in place. China's economic rise drew hundreds of millions to cities for work in everything from factories to food carts, the largest migration⁹ in human history. An estimated 8 million migrants live around Beijing alone. The more prosperous can buy expensive residency permits, but the rest, without papers, have difficulty gaining admission to public schools and even to health insurance. Private schools fill some of the gaps. And the government sometimes moderates its policies. But as authorities redevelop North Beijing, they have abruptly¹⁰ closed some schools to tear them down.

What do you think about when you see that kind of demolition¹¹?

MOLLY: It's hard to say because for one side like myself, I'm on like a Beijing - like a local people. I live here like from childhood.

INSKEEP: Yeah.

MOLLY: And I see like more and more people coming to Beijing cause all of the trouble here, like the traffic and all of other problems like whenever you've got too many people. For example, like the air pollution here. So the city is trying to get people to leave the city.

INSKEEP: Try to get people to go somewhere else and spread out.

MOLLY: Yeah. So that's their way. I don't know if that's the right way, but I know that that's a thing need to be done.

INSKEEP: Beijing authorities want to stop the city from growing larger than 23 million. The population is already getting close to that, which increases the pressure to make some people leave. And while it's not clear that officials are deliberately¹² tearing down schools to expel migrants, the government would prefer that many migrants go home.

MOLLY: But while they doing that, of course, some people will lose their jobs or lose the place they live or their kids lose the place to be educated.

INSKEEP: Standing¹³ here in the schoolyard, what stands out really is that given that these are the children of migrant workers, they don't look that poor. They're well-dressed. They've got nice coats. They're very curious. Dozens of them gathering¹⁴ around us now.

They wear their coats in and out of the classroom, since it is common in China to find buildings that are barely heated. They bring lunch from home and eat standing up in the courtyard, washing their dishes afterward¹⁵ at a row of faucets¹⁶. A community center at the school offers extra classes like dancing and art. The kids have reason to wonder how long it will all last, since some are refugees from other closed schools. During a lunch break, we met a teacher named Helen.

HELEN: (Speaking Chinese).

INSKEEP: She was teaching at a different school for migrants until September 3.

HELEN: (Through interpreter) So the school was closed because as a private school, there has to be examined all their licenses¹⁷ and everything else. And after they shut down, all those teachers and students scattered¹⁸.

INSKEEP: She fled here, along with 15 3rd grade students.

HELEN: (Through interpreter) So nobody wants to be scattered. Nobody wants to change their place.

INSKEEP: As we talked, we learned that Helen, the teacher, is a migrant herself. She is from Inner Mongolia, a largely desert region north of Beijing, beyond the Great Wall.

Do you feel welcome here?

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: She had been feeling happy until the time when she had to be expelled out of the previous school.

INSKEEP: Now she insists she is happy again at the new school, though as she says it, she seems on the edge of tears. The students here include Helen's own 10-year-old daughter.

What kind of a future do you want for your daughter?

HELEN: (Speaking Chinese).

INSKEEP: "No particular career," she says, "I just want her to be happy."

Do you think that your daughter will have opportunities to be happy when she gets older?

HELEN: (Speaking Chinese).

INSKEEP: "Hopefully," she says, "because she studies hard at this school." We also asked if Helen thought the hukou system was fair and she seemed baffled by the question. She seemed to think of household registration rules like the weather. It simply is the way of China's government.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: As we stood in the courtyard, the music played again, the signal for children to race back to class. This time - Beethoven's "Fur Elise." At one point, we saw the principal across the courtyard. We asked to meet him, but he chose not to. He sent word to ask if we could avoid mentioning the school's name and we agreed. He didn't want to call too much attention to a school that is very much like the migrant children themselves - part of a society that both accepts and rejects them, tolerated until they're not, living a hidden existence in plain view.

(SOUNDBITE OF BEETHOVEN'S "FUR ELISE" BAGTELLE NO. 25 IN A MINOR)

1 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 sprint   

n.短距离赛跑；vi. 奋力而跑，冲刺；vt.全速跑过

参考例句：

• He put on a sprint to catch the bus.他全速奔跑以赶上公共汽车。
• The runner seemed to be rallied for a final sprint.这名赛跑者似乎在振作精神作最后的冲刺。

4 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

5 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

6 licensed   

adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The new drug has not yet been licensed in the US. 这种新药尚未在美国获得许可。
• Is that gun licensed? 那支枪有持枪执照吗？

7 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

8 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

9 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

10 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

11 demolition   

n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹

参考例句：

• The church has been threatened with demolition for years. 这座教堂多年来一直面临拆毀的威胁。
• The project required the total demolition of the old bridge. 该项目要求将老桥完全拆毁。

12 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

13 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

14 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

15 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

16 faucets   

n.水龙头( faucet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Water faucets shall be chrome-plated type with ball valve. 水龙头外表为铬镀层。 来自互联网
• The plumber came that afternoon and fixed the faucets in some minutes. 当天下午，管子工来了，几分钟内便把水龙头安装好。 来自互联网

17 licenses   

n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Drivers have ten days' grace to renew their licenses. 驾驶员更换执照有10天的宽限期。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Jewish firms couldn't get import or export licenses or raw materials. 犹太人的企业得不到进出口许可证或原料。 来自辞典例句

18 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。