Between City and Village | Alice KWAN

[ ‘SHARE’ Mar-Apr 2013 – Between City and Village ] FOCUS: SPECIAL TOPIC

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Does city life meet migrant workers’ expectations?

Author> Alice KWAN Education and Promotion Officer

‘Running to’ the cities

Each Lunar New Year we hear news and see images of migrant workers in China cramming into public transport to get home to their families. This has been going on for nearly thirty years and this annual travelling back and forth is continuing. For the first time in 2011, China’s 690 million city dwellers outnumbered the rural ones, accounting for 51.27% of the country’s total population. [1]

Why do rural people flock to work in the cities?

40-year-old Mr. Liu, a deliveryman in Yunnan, says, ‘I came to the city for a better life; conditions here are better than the village’s.’

23-year-old Jin works in a convenience store in Kunming, ‘Home is a small place and prospect was not good… I live here each day as it comes… I want to see more and experience things while I am still young…’

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Like other migrant workers, 40-year-old Mr. Liu, a deliveryman in Yunnan, seeks work in the city for many reasons, such as having a poor family, hardship in farming, backward rural economy and a desire to see the world.

Travelling in cities and villages

After graduating in late 1990s, I researched on labour studies in China. I waited outside factories in the Guangdong Province catching migrant workers coming out for lunch breaks to talk about their work and life there. They told me how they were forced to work long hours but wages were held up or often deducted by trickery, or how labourers injured at work were neglected and ignored. Questions came to my mind ‘Why did you come here? Wasn’t it a better life in the village? At least you would not be taken advantage of!’

After joining CEDAR in 2000, I went to Hubei, China, and visited different project sites; then I lived for a few years in a Gansu village working on a development project. As I got to know the people, I gained a better understanding of the tension they faced between village and city lives.

Once a villager pointed out to some newly repaired brick houses and told me that they were financed by migrant family members who earned money in the cities. As my informant lives in a ramshackle wooden shack; he looked both jealous and envious.

Village life has become even less secure in recent years because of uncertainties of climate change. When farmers sow seeds in springtime they cannot be sure if there would be much harvest in the autumn. Young people have all left the village and the remaining adolescents wish they will soon look old enough so that they, too, can leave and travel far.

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Travel between cities and villages helped me see the tension villagers face.

‘Staying behind’ in the villages

So is there nothing in the villages to keep the people there? There is such a great urge in them to leave!

Not necessarily. I chatted with a young mother who came home for Lunar New Year. Soon she was in tears because her two-year-old did not recognise her and clung to the grandparents only. She could not believe that while she had left home to improve the family’s situation, she would in the end lose her family. There are those villagers who have tried by all means over a long time but still failed to recover hard-earned wages owed to them.

As a development worker, I always hope that whether the villagers have decided to stay or leave, CEDAR’s rural community development projects will give them timely help and more room for choice. I believe that urbanisation is not the only way for development and parents need not leave their children behind to go and work elsewhere. Even in villages people can explore possible development plans through projects such as husbandry breeding, organic farming, making fair trade handicrafts and setting up farmers’ cooperatives.

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In winter women earn money making fair trade handicrafts.

It has been over 30 years since China’s reforms and opening up, and the first generation of migrant workers are now middle-aged; many of them have chosen to return home because of their age, family, and the government’s new rural policy.

49-year-old Gansu villager Zhang Zi-sheng says, ‘I worked in the city for over twenty years and I am now back home to devote myself to developing breeding and farming.’

48-year-old Hu Yun-jie from Hubei says, ‘I had been to many places and in the end I feel that home is the best place for my future; I can both look after my family and develop my village, here I can fulfil my parental responsibility of raising my children. Now that the Chinese government has quite a good rural policy and there is prospect for rural development; I am very hopeful for the future.’

35-year-old Tan Feng says, ‘I had gone away to work before, but I have decided to come back because my parents are getting old but my child is still young and needs looking after.’

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Zhang Zi-sheng, a returnee, wants to restart farming.

‘Watching over’ migrant workers

As there is still a difference in the wages and development prospects between cities and villages, despite the hardships involved many are still migrating to cities.

30-year-old Ms. Li, now a waitress, followed her husband from Hubei to the city. ‘I left home for the sake of my children and family… I made the decision but I do not like it… I am not happy, there is no freedom working here, I don’t have my dreams and I have to listen to people’s orders.’

35-year-old Mr. Liu works in a supermarket in Kunming, Yunnan, ‘I had little choice but to work here. If something happens I will be left with nothing and no protection.’

As a socialist country, China’s labour regulations are very comprehensive but enforcement is slack. Apart from exploitation and unfair treatment, China’s household registration system also makes migrant workers second-class citizens, which means that regardless of how much they have contributed to the cities they are not eligible for medical treatment or children’s education benefits. Many migrant workers cannot adjust to the urban lifestyle, often homesick, and missing family. It is difficult for them to enjoy living in the city in cramped conditions.

Alone and away from home, it is very important that fellow villagers can support and watch out for each other when challenges, difficulties and disappointments arise. Currently CEDAR is actively promoting migrant workers projects, providing pre-departure training, teaching them labour rights based on past cases to raise their civic awareness. CEDAR also plans to set up networks so that migrant workers from the same or a neighbouring village support and help each other.

Today I do not get to walk around industrial sites or visit villages often, but I still bless those who travel between city and village. There are numerous possibilities between the two and I hope that they actually have the freedom to choose, and have a fair share of the fruits of development. I hope their lives will be happy and enriched, whether they be in the city or village.

For Further Action

If you care about migrant workers in China, you can:

Special thanks to CEDAR’s staff stationed in Hubei, Yunnan and Gansu for their help with the interviews.


[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9020486/Chinas-urban-population-exceeds-rural-for-first-time-ever.html

Support Social Network-building for Hubei Migrant Workers

[ ‘SHARE’ Mar-Apr 2013 – Between City and Village ] STEP INTO THE WORLD

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Many villagers in Wufeng County in western Hubei are migrant workers but they lack basic labour law knowledge and there is no liaison organisation to help, so whenever a labour dispute arises or hardship falls, migrant workers are on their own and helpless.

To promote connection amongst migrant workers originating from Baiyanping Village of Wufeng County, CEDAR builds effective enquiry platforms and social support networks so that through channels like mobile text messages, message boards on the internet, contact cards and blogs, migrants can get the latest information on labour and daily living, enhance their bargaining power when they look for work. Further, labour dispute settlements are facilitated through referrals, and CEDAR sets up training on parenting, finance management, occupational safety and labour rights.

Please support the Hubei migrant workers project financially to safeguard their rights:

HK$200> will financially help 5 migrant workers with four work related training sessions each

HK$400> will provide 10 migrant workers with information on labour protection and practical living

Donate Now! Click here.

Other Methods of Payment

  1. Cheque payable to ‘CEDAR FUND’
  2. Deposit to HSBC A/C No. 600-385678-001, enclosing with the Pay-in slip
  3. Autopay (only applicable to regular fixed donations), enclosing with a completed Autopay Authorisation Form (Download: WORD or PDF)
  4. Visa/ Master Card

Download Donation Form

Please send a completed Donation Form, enclosing with cheque or pay-in slip, to CEDAR FUND, G.P.O. BOX 3212, HONG KONG.

Donation Form: WORD or PDF

[1] CEDAR is an approved charitable institutions and trusts of a public character under section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance. Please click Inland Revenue Department website to check for details.
[2] Donations over $100 are tax deductible in Hong Kong with our receipts.
[3] Please DO NOT fax any donation information.

Caring for Our Society Practising Our Faith | Matthew

[ ‘SHARE’ Mar-Apr 2013 – Between City and Village ] TAKING ACTION

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Author> Matthew, Chairperson of Hong Kong Baptist University Christian Student Union (CSU)

This year, through CEDAR, CSU visited new immigrant women and people living in wooden-partitioned cubicles, and after visits we met up to share our thoughts and experiences. In CSU, all Christian students have unrestricted space for examining our faith and how it can be applied in our lives. A Christian’s spiritual life and concern for society are interdependent; therefore, we as a group of Christian students walk in our community and establish contact with others so that through visits, sharing and reflection we may work out how we live out ‘Christian caring for the society’.

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This project helped us see differently those we visited. The media often portray new immigrant women in a negative way, but after meeting with them, we discovered that they have come to Hong Kong not to get the territory’s resources for their own use, but for their children’s future.

Students live a colourful and exciting life, members of CSU study different courses and go to classes at different times, and furthermore they have their own church activities to attend, so it was tricky trying to arrange our visits. Not all the churches of CSU members have a community ministry hence we hope that these visits can enrich and broaden the scope of applying our faith.

Justice and Self-sacrifice | Jojo POON

[ ‘SHARE’ Mar-Apr 2013 – Between City and Village ] CEDAR’S BLOGGER

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Author> Jojo POON, Education and Promotion Officer

In the past I have always felt indignant when faced with lopsided criticisms, excessive accusations, over the top special treatments and rude attitudes; I would even get annoyed by customer services that have special counters for ‘VIP’ – does it mean that other people are less important, and their time spent on queuing is not as precious?

Yet, often, the so-called lopsided, excessive, over the top, rude or unfair events, might have been assessed by my own sense of values – but what is a fair measurement to be used? It varies. From this, I felt less certain that the anger inside is fuelled by a sense of justice. How much of this anger is about justice, and how much from jealousy or self-love?

Recently I made a paradoxical discovery: ‘Justice’ and ‘self-sacrifice’ are twins! When one demands another to treat others fairly, one also needs to be unafraid of losing out. When one expects others to handle matters justly, then one also needs to willingly take on extra commitment. Only when one learns to let go of ‘self’ will one be able to focus on discerning and pursuing true justice. Yes, humility is vital in learning self-sacrifice.

As a reminder, I pin a note by my work desk which includes Andrew Murray’s definition of ‘humility’:

‘Humility is perfect quietness of heart, without worries, anxiety, anger, rage, hurt, or disappointment;

It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me;

It is not resenting or seeking revenge. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised.

It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and above is trouble.’