City kids in all but name

• Source: Global Times
• [21:59 April 19 2009]
• Comments

By Li Hongwei

Xinli School is one of more than 300 schools for the children of migrant workers in Beijing. Photo: Zhang Siyang

Sitting in a shabby Internet cafe on the outskirts of Beijing, 17-year-old Du Hai turned on the webcam and saw an image of a girl about his own age. She lives in a village in Sichuan, his home province, and his parents think she might one day make a good wife for him.

Du moved to Beijing with his parents when he was just 4 years old and he has no plans to return. After exchanging a few polite words with the girl he logged off.

“I won’t go back to the country to get married,” he said, looking even younger than his years.

“I’ll stay in Beijing, find a good job and support my parents when they get old.”

The online date had been arranged by his parents who still trace their roots, at least emotionally, to the countryside.

Du’s determination to remain in the city where he grew up is echoed by his friends, all children of former farmers who left their pastures to find work in Beijing. His classmate, 16-year-old Zhang Nan, with her trendy hairstyle and strong accent is every inch the city girl.

“I am often taken for a Beijinger,” she said. “Which I actually am.”

Du and Zhang are typical of the second generation of China’s 150 million migrant workers. They study at Xinli School, 20 minutes outside central Beijing and one of more than 300 across the city catering to the children of ex-farmers.

Beijing has about 400,000 migrant workers’ children attending compulsory education – a third of the city’s total – said municipal education commission spokesman Xian Lianping at a recent press conference.

When asked if they perceive themselves as different from kids whose parents are Beijing natives, Zhang and her friends were adamant, “No, we’re all Chinese.”

“Everyone has a mom and a dad,” Zhang said – a common expression that effectively translates as “I’m not inferior to you.”

“I know Beijingers look down on people from elsewhere,” she said. “But I get along well with all my friends from Beijing.”

About 400,000 migrant workers’ children are educated in Beijing. Photos: Zhang Siyang

She said the primary school she used to go to was a “regular” one, where the majority of students were locals. But because she scored high marks in her examinations her classmates “respected and made friends with me”.