Migrant girl: ‘I’d like to have a little white teddy bear’
Print Edition
Migrant worker Liu Lihu and his wife Li Quanyu were overjoyed in September when their six-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter were enrolled in public schools.
But the new uniforms for the year for Liu Tong and Liu Chang, five sets for each, cost a total of 3,000 yuan (US$494), nearly half the family’s monthly income of 6,000 yuan. Prices were raised to no more than 300 yuan per set because of a scandal involving toxic fabric.
Liu, a 33-year-old Anhui Province native, left his rural village in Lu’an City, and moved to Shanghai in 2000. His family had always worked the fields; he was the first to move to a city to support his family.
His wife, an Anhui native, went with him. Their girl was born in Anhui, their boy in Shanghai.
They have no Shanghai hukou but the parents have a residence permit entitling children to public education.
Liu works on an air-conditioner assembly line in Minhang District. He previously worked as a security guard, a delivery man and a baker. His wife works at Tesco in Minhang, selling stationery items.
Liu only finished middle school and insists his children study in Shanghai as long as possible, receiving the same education as urban children. He hopes they will have better prospects than he and his wife.
Daughter Liu Chang studies at the middle school affiliated with the Shanghai Teaching Resources Training Center Experimental Center. The boy Liu Tong attended Shanghai kindergarten and is now in the first grade at Junlian School.
“It is great progress for my children to enjoy the same education as children in Shanghai,” Liu said. “I cherish the opportunities and appreciate Shanghai’s openness.”
Of the family’s total 6,000 yuan monthly income, they spend around half on rent and utilities, food, transport and clothes.
They and their grandmother live in a 100-square-meter apartment on Laohumin Road in Minhang District. They share it with five other tenants. Liu pays 800 a month toward rent, which totals 2,000 yuan.
Each month the family spends more than 1,000 yuan on the children — they try to save the rest. The biggest expenditure is food and clothes. They seldom buy toys because they cannot afford them. Instead, the walls of their main room are covered with colorful pictures, teaching pinyin, the alphabet and simple arithmetic. The room is sparsely furnished and the walls are bare concrete.
“My wife and I want to create a study environment though we cannot give our children a big study with books and a big desk for homework,” Liu said.
Public school fees and textbooks are free, but food and clothes are an expense.
“Both my children are growing and they’re always hungry, especially for milk, meat and vegetables, and prices have risen significantly,” Liu said. The children are always outgrowing their clothes.
Liu Chang likes dancing very much and she took dancing class for two months during the summer when she was nine. She wasn’t able to continue because of the cost and the family decided that Chinese, mathematics and English were more important.
“My daughter still sometimes asks if she can learn dancing. I can only tell her that if she studies hard and gets a good job, she can fulfill her dream and learn to dance when she’s older,” Liu said.
At home, the boy has a Transformers toy and the girl has a small plush animal.
“I’d like a little white teddy bear,” she said.
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