Stealing business
As Chongqing becomes more urban, and with more roads being built, more people arerelying on their cars and public transport, meaning less work for stick soldiers.
Research suggested the situation is only going to get worse, with the municipalityexpected to be 70 percent urbanized by 2020, according to the 2007 city government report.
“More bang bang come flooding in but the work is drying up,” said Gui, who explainedthat he even once met an unemployed graduate working as a stick soldier. “He didn’t knowwhere to get a stick, so I told him how to buy one and how to tie the cargo up with rope,”
he laughed, before coldly adding: “But young people learn faster and work better than (oldergenerations).”
Gui is now considering returning to his village “but I don’t think I can feed my familywith farming”, he said.
Professional removal companies are also stealing customers.
“Clients trust companies like us more,” said Liu Xiaoxiao, who runs a moving service inthe city.
Liu, 47, was working as a stick soldier when he founded his company in 1997 withthree colleagues using 20,000 yuan they borrowed from friends and relatives. The group evencalled it Bang Bang Jun.
The business now employs more than 60 staff, all former stick soldiers, who are paidregular salaries of up to 1,500 yuan. Bang Bang Jun is expected to make 3 million yuan inrevenue 2010.
“As an individual, life as a bang bang is very hard. I used to sleep on the street,” said Liu.
“They should be organized and trained.”
Bang Bang Jun offers its employees free meals and accommodation, and providestraining. Also, Liu insists his staff call their customers “clients”, not “boss”.
“People will only respect bang bang when the transportation industry (in Chongqing)becomes more serious and professional,” he told China Daily. “This is the only way to ensurethey can live in the city, instead of being sent back to the countryside when they are old anduseless.”
However, Liu said that about 90 percent of stick soldiers are unwilling to work for hiscompany, even though it would guarantee them a regular income.
Although the number of removal companies is rapidly increasing in the city, sticksoldiers make up just 1 percent of the workers being hired by them, said the businessman.
“I don’t want to pay taxes and be ruled by a company,” said 42-year-old Wang as hewaited for work in downtown Chongqing. “Being a bang bang means being free. I keep everypenny I make and can take a rest whenever I want.”
Liu Zeping, another stick soldier stood nearby, agreed and said he needs to go backhome during harvest season and feels a company would not give him the time off.
Wang also said he does not mind the prospect of returning to the countryside when hegets too old to work.
“The city is a good place to make money but I don’t want to live here at all. City peoplelook down on (rural people),” said the villager.
June 7, 2010
Underpaid, overworked and ignored
Substitute teachers stand to lose livelihood as a result of policy change.
Hu Yongqi in Anhui and Peng Yining in Chongqing report.
Xiang Zhixiang was diagnosed with infantile paralysis in his right leg when he was a yearold and has needed crutches to walk for as long as he can remember. His condition hasseverely impacted his life, job opportunities and marriage prospects.
Yet his disability did not stop him becoming a vital crutch that has helped prop upChina’s rural education system for two decades.
As one of about 330,000 substitute teachers nationwide “filling the gaps” in thecountryside, 48-year-old Xiang has helped nurture thousands of young minds in his nativeYuexi, a remote county in Anhui province. Although his salary is far less than a qualifiedteacher’s and he enjoys none of their welfare benefits, such as social security or medicalinsurance, his dedication is without question.
However, like the majority in his position, he lives in constant fear of losing hislivelihood after the Ministry of Education announced plans in 2005 to sack all substituteteachers “as soon as possible”. No deadline was set, although in 2009 the ministry put a freezeon hiring new substitutes. A spokesman said that those fired would receive compensation.
“I don’t know where I’d go if I lost my job,” said Xiang. “I’m disabled and have no otherway of making money. Probably, I will turn to charity organizations for financial help. I needa pension and decent compensation if local authorities want to sack me.”
His only hope is to become a qualified teacher. A statement from the ministry in Januarysaid “outstanding” substitutes with at least 10 years of classroom experience can sit a test toearn a certificate.
However, Xiang’s chances are slim. With a monthly salary of just 480 yuan (70) -one-fifth of the pay received by a full-time teacher in the same county - he cannot evenafford the 500 yuan it would cost to sit a Mandarin language exam, which is a prerequisite.
“I’m really anxious about the future. I do not know if I can ever be a regular teacher,” hesaid.
Zheng Ya, 33, another substitute in Yuexi, has her teaching and Mandarin certificatesbut said she does not know how long she will be able to survive on such a low salary. Manyof her friends have already quit the profession to find better paying jobs, she said. “But after15 years with the children, I’m reluctant to give it all up. I feel it is something I want to holdon to.”
Cheng Xuedong, deputy director of the Yuexi education bureau, could not guaranteethat any of the county’s substitute teachers will be promoted. “No decision will be made untilthe provincial education bureau decides their fate,” he said.
Education experts say substitute teachers have been stepping in to help out since the1980s, when there were not enough qualified educators to deal with the boom in the ruralchild population. Over the decades, these teachers have been credited with playing a crucialrole in developing education in China’s most isolated and impoverished regions.
