Not exactly the most enticing of subjects, but I guess I should write something about this group of people whom you will not go through a day in Shanghai not seeing. Basically as far as beggars are concerned, they come in all shapes and sizes, may have different number of limbs (from zero to four – I haven’t seen someone with five yet though), but they all have the same mission – get money from you. They lurk in different places all around the city, from the metro station to the metro trains itself; from railway station to the long distance bus station; from East Nanjing Road to West Beijing Road… basically if you see a road there is a chance of you seeing one.
Even though they have the same mission of trying to get money from you, the way they do it varies from one beggar to another. For some of them you’ll probably really take pity on them because they really look pitiful, while some of them look so clean-shaven and tidy that you would think they are actually richer than you. But nonetheless, here’s my list of most frequently seen beggars in Shanghai. I would tend to believe that it’s about the same in other places in China:
1. The old man/woman (Pity Index: 1/5)
They would walk slowly around places such as the bus stops, metro stops, busy shopping districts, etc etc, and what they do is very simple – they just open their palms and ask money from you. They don’t normally tell you all those grandmother’s (or grandfather’s) stories, and they don’t really try to hog around you for too long. If he/she discovers after 20 seconds that you are not going to give him/her any money he/she will probably just move on to the next target. Sometimes you wonder if the social security system in China is so bad that these old folks are forced to be begging instead of enjoying their twilight years. Oh well.
2. The man with less than four limbs (Pity Index: 2/5)
Because they are disabled, they tend to be able to conjour up more pity. They are highly easy to identify – those with one leg with walk with crutches, those without any would either be crawling or on a skateboard (OK so maybe not really a skateboard but a board with wheels). They also tend to appear everywhere – I’ve seen them in metro trains before as well. They tend to be less persistent because the ones I’ve seen don’t really chase you around to ask money from you (probably because they know if you move away they won’t be able to catch up with you so they just don’t bother). They also just open their palm and would probably ask you to give them money. Some extreme cases would even show you their “disability certificate” which is issued by the government for disabled persons. Though has anyone ever told them that this certificate only proves that they are disabled, and is not a licence to beg?
3. The woman with the young kid on her back (Pity Index: 2/5)
They are an easy bunch to identify. Normally what happens is that a middle-aged woman would be carrying this kid (usually not older than 3 years old, apparently) and go round asking you for money. They are slightly more persistent with the begging and they would tend to follow you for almost a minute before giving up. Sometimes some of these adults would bring a slightly older kid (somewhere between 5 to 7 years old) so that it would make running after you for money slightly easier. I don’t understand why should these irresponsible adults subject the kids (I haven’t even start questioning if the kids are theirs to start with) to such a life. I mean, kids should be in school, learning and studying, having fun and making friends, not being carried or hurried around by sick adults to beg money together wtih them.
4. The kid (Pity Index: 3/5)
These kids normally are between 7 to 13 years old and once they find their targets, they will really keep bugging you, run circles round you, pull your shirt, pull your pants, pull your jackets, etc etc in order to persuade you into giving them money. Again, I don’t understand why these kids should be doing such things instead of being in school.
5. The story teller (Pity Index: 3/5)
The story teller normally does not have the look of a beggar. He or she would be more clean-shaven, neater in the appearance, and some of them even wear suits with ties and all that (!). But the way they beg from you is by no mean less irritating. They will come up to you and start to tell you stories about how they have no money, so you would normally have stories like they come from somewhere else in China, got conned into coming to Shanghai because their uncle’s cousin’s neighbour’s classmate’s brother-in-law’s colleague’s son told them that Shanghai is a place to earn big bucks, and now they want to go home but they don’t have the money. Sounds like a sad story, doesn’t it? But sometimes their stories are so fake that you can’t even believe them (I once have a man coming to me and say that his mother has just given birth – c’mon, tell me a better story please). And they would really bug you for the money because among all the beggars featured so far, they are the most mobile lot, so they can afford to walk a pretty long distance together with you. I once had one of these story teller following me for half of the Nanjing Road Pedestrial Street. Perhaps they can consider making a living by participating in those marathons or something.
6. The chalk man (Pity Index: 3/5)
Similar to the story teller, but they don’t really talk and walk around with you. What they do is they’ll write their life story (similar to those of the story teller) on the ground with white chalk, and then they’ll just kneel there. I’ve seen cases of “university undergrads not having enough money to pay for tuition fees”, “family of three coming from Nanjing having all the money stolen”, “parents passed away in hometown and not having the money to do a decent funeral”… Sometimes their stories are really pretty touching, though I have people telling me that 11 times out of 10 these stories are as real as the Pamela Anderson’s boobs. So my take is that I just don’t buy their stories. The chalk man also comes in different forms – the life-story-written-using-market-pen-on-a-big-piece-of-mahjong-paper version, as well as the life-story-written-on-the-shirt version. Different forms of presentation, same objectives.
Sometimes when I look at these people, I do find them pretty pitiful, but I have never given any of them a single cent. I don’t believe that by giving these people the money is a way to help them. I mean, there are so many of them around, if I were to give 10 cents to each and everyone of them I would probably have conjured up enough money for some third-world country to last for a month or something. The thing is that these people feel that by playing onto people’s kind-heartedness they can get their money. But what they don’t realise is that there are so many of them around that everyone is so numb about these beggars that everyone can’t be bothered any more. And with Expo 2010 coming up in a few years’ time, I’m sure that their “livelihood” will be seriously affected.
Spent the whole day sturggling with the ASP programming. I think I’m getting a little bit irritated and frustrated doing the programming, but since it’s a “farewell gift” from me to my company, I will do it well!
Everyone in my house is planning for the year-end trip after the internship ends (which will be in 2 weeks, may I add), and while I honestly want to go somewhere too, my finances simply don’t allow me to do so, so I think I’ll probably just hang around in Shanghai during the Christmas and the New Year period. After all, there will be a lot of things that I want to do on my own during these period. Also, there would be people whom I would want to spend more time with before going back to Singapore, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with staying in Shanghai. The good thing about China is that it’s not really an expensive place to come to even if I’m in Singapore, so I’m not really in a hurry to travel around places now. Ah well whatever.
Waking up at 6.30 today is never the best idea so I’m off for some sleep. See you guys tomorrow.
Random Ramblings of the Robotic Renegade 