'Ghost villagers' face uncertain future
By Xu Chi |
November 2, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AS dusk falls on the village to end another day's work on the farm, 22-year-old Tang Chunhua dons fashionable clothes bought in nearby towns and sits down to watch the neon lights come on one by one down the hill.
It is his favorite leisure time, when the world outside the village seems to be so real and tempting.
But Tang, born as a "ghost" without an ID card and residence permit in a "non-existent" village unmarked on the latest maps, knows his life is shackled to this isolated village, the Southern Weekend reported.
He is among 6,500 or more "residents" living in the small, poor and out-of-date villages in Yunnan Province who have no ID card or residence permit - hukou - which prevents them studying, working or even getting marriage certificate.
They have no permit because there are no governments to offer them. From 1980, groups of people have ventured into isolated woods in Yunnan to found villages, but those communities have never been acknowledged by the government and the land on which the villages sit is still labeled as woods or wasteland on the latest maps.
The ghost villagers living in these phantom villages become illegal or "black" householders, who cannot live a legal life and whose offspring suffer the same fate.
According to Kaiyuan City's migrants investigation team, the number of illegal householders in the city is known to have reached more than 6,500, but the true number may be more than 10,000 as "many of them choose to hide from investigators."
The village, Matou Hill, where Tang and another 597 villagers live, is regarded as an "isolated island" by the villagers themselves.
Tang's father Hou Zhiqiang, 62, told the newspaper he remembered clearly when in 1980 "he brought his family to the hill to build wooden houses."
In the following 10 years, more people came to the hill and it gradually grew into a village, but different from those equipped with roads, schools, hospitals and water mills - the village has none of these because it has never been acknowledged by the government.
It is effectively self-governing, but this generates problems. One is that without birth-control policies it is normal for couples to have four or more children. Some families have nine children.
Other problems include a lack of children's education, which leads some to become criminals.
Wang Haifen, a teacher at a small school near the village, said: "Their parents do not realize how important education is."
Without residence permits and ID cards, young adults cannot find employment.
According to the newspaper, the Kaiyuan City government has decided to support the illegal householders financially, but the future remains uncertain.
It is his favorite leisure time, when the world outside the village seems to be so real and tempting.
But Tang, born as a "ghost" without an ID card and residence permit in a "non-existent" village unmarked on the latest maps, knows his life is shackled to this isolated village, the Southern Weekend reported.
He is among 6,500 or more "residents" living in the small, poor and out-of-date villages in Yunnan Province who have no ID card or residence permit - hukou - which prevents them studying, working or even getting marriage certificate.
They have no permit because there are no governments to offer them. From 1980, groups of people have ventured into isolated woods in Yunnan to found villages, but those communities have never been acknowledged by the government and the land on which the villages sit is still labeled as woods or wasteland on the latest maps.
The ghost villagers living in these phantom villages become illegal or "black" householders, who cannot live a legal life and whose offspring suffer the same fate.
According to Kaiyuan City's migrants investigation team, the number of illegal householders in the city is known to have reached more than 6,500, but the true number may be more than 10,000 as "many of them choose to hide from investigators."
The village, Matou Hill, where Tang and another 597 villagers live, is regarded as an "isolated island" by the villagers themselves.
Tang's father Hou Zhiqiang, 62, told the newspaper he remembered clearly when in 1980 "he brought his family to the hill to build wooden houses."
In the following 10 years, more people came to the hill and it gradually grew into a village, but different from those equipped with roads, schools, hospitals and water mills - the village has none of these because it has never been acknowledged by the government.
It is effectively self-governing, but this generates problems. One is that without birth-control policies it is normal for couples to have four or more children. Some families have nine children.
Other problems include a lack of children's education, which leads some to become criminals.
Wang Haifen, a teacher at a small school near the village, said: "Their parents do not realize how important education is."
Without residence permits and ID cards, young adults cannot find employment.
According to the newspaper, the Kaiyuan City government has decided to support the illegal householders financially, but the future remains uncertain.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
