are there homeless in the cities in china?

[civic94]

I am a ABC, used to work as a security guard and Had to remove homeless from the tenants property as part of my job in downtown, and pretty much every single city that I have visited in america and canada has a big problem with homeless, and I have been to many cities and states (30 states). I have never been to any one city, big or small, where I have not seen a homeless person.

I have yet to see a homeless chinese person in america, maybe its because of values that you have to save, and think of the future, at least thats what my parents, uncles, friends look at life. their mentality is to save for the future.

anyways I want to visit china in a few years at the latest, and from what I see in the videos, it seems capitalism is spreading over there, where a city builds tall buildings, and land gets more expensive, wiping out poor people. my parents were from a village, they said that they dont need to pay rent, or prop tax/insurance. but the bad thing is that they dont have any money if they dont work, they can farm, but its really hard work. but at least there is a roof over your head and you can harvest some food, the problem is lack of money for healthcare.

they came here for almost 30 years, they view america as a different type of worry, such as if you cant find work, you will go homeless, but you still have food from foodbanks and food stamps.

[liuzhou]

Yes. Many.

[civic94]

wow.. I watched on youtube about it.. seems very very sad, especially the children. all I have been watching online is how china is booming and people getting lifted out of poverty.

lol this is a typical ABC not knowing anything about china, I wanted to visit since I have met about 5 good friends from the mainland at my university in the states, they really think im a banana since I dont know how to speak mandarin and my last name, and face is chinese. anyways by abc standards im really chinese since I speak cantonese, i thought i was chinese enough.

anyways I might ask more about social stuff on here sooner or later

[anonymoose]

There are lots of homeless people.

There are also many people who have a fixed abode consisting of basically a bed in a room shared with dozens of other people, and nothing else.

[roddy]

anyways I might ask more about social stuff on here sooner or later

In the nicest possible way, please Google '__________ in China' before hand, spend fifteen minute reading and then ask any follow-up questions.

[chineserelics]

I live in Shanghai, have lived in 2 other cities in China and go on frequent business trips around the country, I can confirm that yes, every city has homeless people. But in some ways, it is a lot more shocking and gruesome than the West.

In China, organised gangs work to force children to beg on the streets. Children are kidnapped from poorer areas, then sent to the city where they are kept with fake beggar "parents". Apparently they are fed sleeping pills, which wouldn't surprise me as they are normally sleeping. These poor children are dirty, probably beaten on a daily basis, probably quite hungry as well, not to mention how much I imagine they miss home. It's a bit of a tricky situation when you see these kids, you feel really sorry for them whilst their beggar "parents" are shaking cups in your face pleading for money, it's hard not to want to give, yet at the same time you hear all these stories about kids are kidnapped into this and you think that maybe giving them money will just feed the problem.

Then there are the cripples. Have you ever watched Slumdog Millionaire? The scene where the child gets blinded by having something poured into his eyes so that he becomes a real disabled person, and people who see him on the streets will therefore give him more money? This happens in China as well. The things you see are horrendous, and quite shocking. Just yesterday I saw a half naked man lying on the ground, both of his legs had been misshaped so they were bent backwards in very unnatural ways. A while ago I saw some poor young boy in a makeshift buggy who'd had his backside horribly mutilated, every time someone walked past the beggar dad would pull back the boy's robe to show everyone. I guess the logic is that the more horrible they look, the more people will sympathise and the more money they will give.

There is a lot of poverty in China, it is a huge problem and one that I think is going to bubble up to the surface over the next 5-10 years and cause serious problems. It's quite depressing to see people driving BMWs and throwing trash out the window, as they drive past cripples begging for money.

[civic94]

thanks chineserelics,

The poverty thing, I must go there and check for myself. Living in america and being chinese, my parents and others around me tell me how lucky that I am in america, but my struggles were my idenity, no matter where I am here, Im chinese, even if im considered american, or even if I am a 5th generation chinese, people look at my skin and consider me asian. I got the worse of it when last year, I went on a field trip with my school for 5 days, and we did group activities, and yes, there are going to be gossip going on, and I was the only asian person out of about 40 people. needless to say, I overheard behind my back, and they just talk smack about the asian guy and some nonsense. If I was younger I would of went up and started a fight, or at least went up and asked them if they are american, because none of them are. the real americans are the native indians. a eupopean/russian immigrant can just go to america, learn the correct american accent, and be 100% american, while a 5th generation asian is still asian.

on the other hand, The mainland friends that I made while at school, they all seem to have tons of self confidence, they said that money is power, and some chinese people in china are ceo's, goverment leaders, people of power, etc. while in america, thats really not possible for a asian person, but there are a few exeptions. Thats what I liked about the guys, they have that self confidence.

and the thing that i did not like is that they talked about class, how their parents are rich, and how high class they were and the lower class in china beg for money. they told me when they came to america, they thought the asians here are high class because they are in america, but then they see that a normal asian person cant be a ceo or be a leader with serious power. I told them, 30-40 years ago, in china, everybody was poor, and everybody was not that high class, and that why do they look at the poor in such a way.

[外国赤佬]

Yes, the huge disparity between rich and poor in China is a big problem. And it doesn't help that the rich here are usually extremely arrogant. Most common people have it in their heads that a person's goal in life is to make as much money as possible, no matter how. 利欲熏心，不择手段.

Here's another quote, that I like. 这世界上其实只有两种人：一种是永远拿穷人取笑的富人，一种是永远嫉妒富人的穷人。这世界太黑暗了，到处都是算计、陷阱、谋财害命，最后吃亏的永远是我们这种老实人。

[icebear]

on the other hand, The mainland friends that I made while at school, they all seem to have tons of self confidence, they said that money is power, and some chinese people in china are ceo's, goverment leaders, people of power, etc. while in america, thats really not possible for a asian person, but there are a few exeptions. Thats what I liked about the guys, they have that self confidence.

I think you're grossly misinformed about the average socioeconomic status of Asian-Americans relative to all other groups in the US, including whites. Meeting a mainlander in the US is also a biased sample - how many poor kids from the ghetto in the US make it to China?

[liuzhou]

The idea that

a normal asian person cant be a ceo or be a leader with serious power

in the US is patently nonsense.

thats really not possible for a asian person, but there are a few exeptions

is self contradictory. If there are exceptions then it's possible.

some chinese people in china are... ...goverment leaders

Well, what a surprise! I thought all leaders of the Chinese government would be Scottish!

[civic94]

I think you're grossly misinformed about the average socioeconomic status of Asian-Americans relative to all other groups in the US, including whites. Meeting a mainlander in the US is also a biased sample - how many poor kids from the ghetto in the US make it to China?

well what I meant was that there has not been a president of chinese decent in america in history, or a asian CEO in america that runs a huge company that they did not create. I mean, I gave an example of Jerry Yang, the co founder of yahoo who is a ceo, and they told me that he founded yahoo, not worked his way up there to be a CEO.

I know that they must be rich back in china since their parents can afford the tuition in the states, which isnt cheap, its 40k a year for them after room and board since they are international students. I mean, most kids in the states have to get loans just to go to University on resident tuition! and yes, they also bought a volvo, while the others had a bmw. the richest one I know that was cocky paid over 100k cash for a top of the line mercades AMG.

[icebear]

I'm not sure why you take some types of success (co-founder + CEO) as less than others (CEO) - in publicly traded companies the CEO still serves at the pleasure of the board. I get the feeling you have some sort of inferiority/persecution complex about being Asian American; you should drop that.

And of course there hasn't been an Asian-American president yet, racial views only relatively recently reached a level where that sort of thing is possible. And I do think it is possible. Meanwhile, take a look at the top brass and their lineage in China...

Also use Google occasionally, it's good for the mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asian_Americans#Business_and_industry

http://business.goldsea.com/Execs/execs.html

A final suggestion: when/if you finally make it to China, ask many, all, Chinese you meet if they wish they'd grown up as an average Asian-American or could now switch for American passport (vs their current situation). Ask the same thing of all the Asian-Americans you know.

To be clear, I really love China, Chinese, the Chinese, and spending time with all. But your characterization of both China and the US, and how you are comparing the two, is terrible.

[liuzhou]

well what I meant was that there has not been a president of chinese decent in america in history, or a asian CEO in america that runs a huge company that they did not create.

Try switching that sentence around.

Well, what I meant was there has not been a president of American descent in China in history, or an American CEO in China that runs a huge company that they did not create.

You might then see how silly it is.

The fact is that 97.73% of American presidents have been caucasian. 2.27% (Obama) have been of African-American descent. I don't know the relative percentage of Asians in the US population, but it's a lot lower than the African American population.

Whatever, it certainly isn't impossible that there will be.

Compare that with China where 0% of Chinese presidents are from minorities. Even Chinese minorities. Not one American is in the Chinese government at any level! Five provincial governors are from Chinese minorities, but governors have no power. 100% of provincial party secretaries (the real power) are Han Chinese.

Your measure of success is deeply flawed and your understanding of either China or America very suspect.

[Lu]

I suspect that the number of Chinese Americans with money/power as percentage of all Chinese-Americans is a lot bigger than number of mainland Chinese with money/power as percentage of all mainland Chinese. I suspect even as an Asian-American you have more opportunities to become rich and/or powerful in the US than as a regular Zhou in China.

Confidence or lack of it is not an Asian issue. There are extremely confident Asians, extremely insecure white people, and mainly a lot of people who appear very confident but in fact are not. Are you sure that those very confident Asians aren't part of that last group? Are you sure you don't seem to others a totally confident guy who has it all figured out? When I read those articles by Asian-Americans on Chinasmack Diaspora where people write about how they were so insecure and never fitted in I can usually identify, even though I'm not only not Asian at all but not even any kind of minority (in my own country, that is).

Of course it sucks when people talk about you behind your back, no matter if that's because you're Asian or because you have glasses or some other stupid reason. But here again, bullying and gossiping will happen to all kinds of people, bullies/gossips will find some excuse or the other. Generally, you can't change other people and their behaviour, you can only change your own respons to it.

There are some Asians in the US with serious money and/or power, so it clearly is possible, if difficult. Figure out for yourself what you want to be (rich? powerful? a regular job with enough time for hobbies and family? working in some field you're really interested in even though it won't make you rich?), then try to achieve that. If you run into discrimination on the way to your goal, find a way to deal with it. Deciding now that you can never make it is a bit premature, Asian or not. No doubt there is racism in the US against Asians and that is bad, but the discimination is not so bad that it will certainly trip you up.

Lastly, Liuzhou already mentioned how few black presidents there have been so far compared to the amount of black people in the US overall. For a more extreme example, I would like to add the number of women vs the number of female presidents or female CEO's to that consideration.

Edit: Fixed name mixup.

[imron]

Lastly, Imron already mentioned how few black presidents there have been so far compared to the amount of black people in the US overall.

For the record, Liuzhou is not me

[chineserelics]

I agree that you seem to have an inferiority complex about asian americans. Be careful, you know what a self-fulfilling prophecy is right? If you think that asian-americans are worse off, the victims, lacking in opportunities, then that is most definitely what your life is going to be like. Don't forget that white people are now in the minority in America!

When I went to University (in the UK, not the US, but I imagine quite a similar situation) and graduated, the vast majority of my white British friends including myself, just dithered around for a few years trying to figure out what to do, completely wasting their University degree. The asians I knew (Chinese, Hong Kong, Indian) on the other hand were far more on the ball. They went to University for a purpose, they finished knowing exactly what they were going to do. They were the ones that went on to be Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers. They were the ones that at the age of 25 were making £60,000 a year, had a house and were flying around the world staying in nice hotels. In my opinion, Asians are far less naive about how to operate in a capitalist society than the "give-me-everything" generation of British people. Perhaps it's not just Asians, maybe its people from immigrant backgrounds in general.

Also, do not envy the Chinese in China. Yes, some of them are rich, very, very, very rich. But most of them are poor. Most of them have to work damn hard, harder than any American would ever have to, for uncertain gains. Capitalism is ruining China in my opinion. Some people really know how to play the game of money over here, but that's the minority, the majority on the other hand would much rather enjoy a simple life, but that's just not practical in China.

[liuzhou]

For the record, Liuzhou is not me

And, coincidentally, Imron is not me.

[crazy-meiguoren]

The US may not had a Chinese-American President (yet), but the current US ambassador to China, Gary Locke, had served two terms as governor of the state of Washington (the USA's first Chinese-American governor). But some say he got lucky because his opponent was a right-wing religious fanatic who was old enough to have been a part of the original tea party in the 1700s...

There may not be a lot of Asian-Americans rising in the ranks of the established companies, but you gotta give credit to those who defeat the glass ceiling by walking out the door and starting their own companies. Nothing wrong with that. It's a much more positive way of dealing with the situation. One notable person I can think of is Charles Wang, who founded CA in the 1970s (formerly Computer Associates). He retired from the company about ten years ago. He was born in Shanghai. They were known for taking over several mainframe software companies - just about everything except IBM.

[crazy-meiguoren]

And, coincidentally, Imron is not me.

Some of us are more difficult to convince than others. lol