Search This Blog

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Denizens In Their Own Land: 我们不是公民而是居民

我们没有真正属于自己的土地、房屋甚至墓地,没有生育权,没有出入境以及言论的自由,没有保护自己不受不公平待遇的能力,我们不是公民而是居民,我们是一群暂住在中国这片土地上的租客。

We don’t have any land, houses, even cemeteries that truly belong to us. We don’t have the right to choose how many children we have, to cross the border freely, or to speak freely. We don’t have the power to protect ourselves from unfair treatment. We aren’t citizens, we are denizens, renters with temporary residence on this piece of earth called China.

From the internet in China, this occurs in the China Digital Times in a discussion of the China Internet Phrase of the Week: Temporary Residence.
暂住 (zàn zhù): temporary residence
Permit to work or live in certain major cities required for those without local household registration (户口 hùkǒu or hukou) must obtain to work or live in 21 cities in China [zh], including the metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing. Those in the cities without a temporary residence permit may be fined or deported.
While the disparity in development between China’s countryside and urban areas has made it economically necessary for many rural migrants to live as temporary residents in large cities, the permit system prevents them from enjoying the same privileges and rights as city natives.

 Police officer weeding out people without the proper permit. (Southern Metropolis Weekly)

There are Words of the Week and Sayings and more from the great and various land of China.
Get started at this point of "temporary residence" at  
 http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/07/phrase-of-the-week-temporary-residence/

--




No comments: