peasants
From New York Magazine: http://nymag.com/thecut/2012/08/scenes-from-the-chinese-consumerist-revolution.html 代购, dai gou (MOT translation: proxy-shopper): An agent hired to buy luxury goods overseas to avoid the import tax. 暴发户, bao fa hu: Nouveau riche, parvenu. 山寨, Shan hai: An obvious counterfeit, i.e., a monogram LU bag (after LV, or Louis Vuitton). 酷, ku: Cool. 晒, shai: To show off [...]
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From Modern Express and Sina Weibo A young peasant-turned migrant worker gave up his bus seat to a woman with a little child. His well-meant offer was abruptly rejected by the woman, who claimed his seat was “too dirty,” and took it out on her child desiring the seat. The post, recounted by a witness, [...]
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From NetEase 网易《看客》 Ministry of Tofu: Migrant workers have been subject to unstable employment, hazardous working conditions, and low wages. On top of that, they often find themselves fighting deceptive employers for their meager salaries. Here are some pictures that show what they would do in desperate situations. Migrant workers are considered “outsiders” in the [...]
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From NetEase and Caijing This year, farmer Han Gang reaped a bumper harvest from his over 80 mu (5.3 hectares, or 13.2 acres) farm in a village to the north of Zhengzhou, the capital city of central China’s Henan province, where he grows sweet potatos and daikon radish. However, the bountiful radishes, each weighing as [...]
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A severe and persistent drought, which started in June, has been parching crops in southwest China and straining drinking water supplies for more than 12.6 million people. According to the state media, until September 8, altogether 3.41 million hectares (8.42 million acres) of farmland in four provinces, namely Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and Guangxi, and Chongqing [...]
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From Xinhua Due to the massive urbanization process, the traditional pattern of agrarian life in which men farm and women engage in the weaving and spinning has been tweaked in many rural regions in China. However, restrictions and discriminatory policies on family register (hukou) system, housing, education and other social security have rendered it very difficult for [...]
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Yao Jiaxin, a 21-year-old student at the Xi’an Conservatory of Music in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, stabbed a peasant woman to death after hitting her with his car. Should he be sentenced to death?
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From Qianjiang Evening Post Every early spring, a foul odor fills the air of Dongyang, Zhejiang Province. Dongyang people call it “the smell of spring.” Yuck, it’s actually the smell of urine. And prepare yourself for this: Dongyang people boil eggs in boy’s urine and sell them at 1.50 yuan (23 cents) apiece. It sells [...]
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From IFENG It was the first day of the new semester at Baoping Elementary school in the town of Wamiao administered by Ziyang County, Shaanxi Province. In order not to be late for school, 12-year-old Zhang Huaying (张华英) got up at 5 a.m. as usual. Her home is nearly 10 kilometers (6 miles) away and [...]
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Photos from IFENG Report from Xinhua In Sanya, a beautiful coastal city in south China, a large area of makeshift shacks sprawling over Mangguo village and Xigua village (literally: Mango village and Watermelon village) used to be peasants’ abode. However, since January 19, the city government has started forced demolition and eviction that targets the [...]
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Jing: Although in today’s Chinese cities, blood shortage and unsafe blood transfusion are no longer vexing issues, in the last century, China relied on paid blood donors to maintain an adequate supply. People in China’s rural regions where household income was not enough to keep body and soul together had a strong incentive to extend [...]
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Source: Sina&Youku Her name is Wang Xiaoxing, which in Chinese means Little Star. She is a second grader at a primary school in the city of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Her parents are truck farmers from Pizhou, Jiangsu. They now live in Jiangning, a district administered by Nanjing but rather far away from the city, and [...]
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