The Beijing subway system with eight lines, 123 stations and a total of 200km coverage is quite an extensive subway system anywhere in the world major cities.
What is most impressive is that the fare is just at RMB 2 from one point to the other within the subway network (with the exception of the airport express line that charge only RMB 25). The service is affordable and mostly comfortable with the exception of the two older lines where the trains are slow and the stations are old.
I have traveled just a few occasions but I am pretty satisfied with the expanded subway service. It maybe crowded during the peak hours but the service is reliable and generally comfortable with the newer lines. Sometimes it is more convenient and time saving traveling on the subway than traveling on taxies which are again back to halting speed during the Beijing peak hours.
Having said that, I typically find myself traveling in the comfort of taxi which allows me to learn a bit of gossip and sometimes to educate the taxi drivers with my uncensored information.
I always enjoy to enlighten the taxi drivers who are nostalgic of Mao.
To mainland Chinese, it is the three years of natural calamities as opposed to the Mao's policy of the Great Leap Forward.
The massive starvation is officially attributed to climate and sometimes the withdrawal of Soviet's support. This is when I jumped in to bash Mao and assert my supposedly more objective information.
Having shared my insight, their perspective is not lost however.
It may not be scientific but many Chinese (from the taxi drivers I surveyed) are yearning for the equality of yesteryear.
The disparity of wealth has led many Chinese to be nostalgic of Mao's era even if everything then were scarce, the few things that existed were more secured. Everything now though seems to be more abundant, nothing is assured.
This is contradictory and this is the irony.
The reality (or the perception) was that during the Mao's years, the jobs were secured never mind that they didn't exist or the income was meager. The housing were allocated, the health care service and the education were provided never mind that they were rudimentary.
Under the current Chinese capitalism, the jobs, though more abundant by statistic, are less secured. The vast majority are concerned if they could keep their jobs, afford the housing, the healthcare, the education and living as a going concern.
There are greater sense of insecurity now than ever.
It is not that they are unwilling to work. Their fear is that even if they work, they might not be able to keep the job; they might not make enough money for treatment when they or their family are sick; they might not be able to afford the children's school fees.
All these happens despite the fact that they recognize they have enjoyed greater creature comforts from refrigerator to mobile phone.
Added to this sense of insecurity is that the current system appears to be unfair and exploitative of their labor.
A common complaint I heard is that the taxi drivers, on top of having to pay the police fine for violating the traffic offences, are contractually imposed a penalty to pay a further fine doubling the amount of the original fine, to the taxi company that they work for. Supposedly, the penalty is imposed to ensure better compliance with traffic regulation but the police fine itself is already punitive. Naturally, this is viewed as exploitative.
I see this as a double jeopardy and what make me uncomfortable is that this is one
among the many more grieving complaints I have heard.
Will the drivers sue against the unfair contract? All of them said they would not. The reason is that there are many more peoples lining up to take their jobs.
Such is the agony of Beijing taxi drivers and, by extension, their fellow Chinese.
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3 comments:
The one constant - whether Mao or now - is human nature.
Let me share a few thoughts:
Our own interpretations are coloured by our assumptions and one of the most common assumption goes something like this:
If A = x(happiness) and B = y(happiness)
When A > B, x must be > y
i.e. we assume that if we feel uncertain or fearful at not having "enough"; if have more we should feel "less-lacking".
That assumption is founded on one shaky basis which is that happiness or contentment depends on "something else" being fulfilled; when in my view, happiness is a personal choice, a decision regardless of external conditions.
In Mao's time, even in objective poverty and mistreatment, perhaps people found joy even in their situation because they knew they could do nothing to change their situation so they decided to appreciate what they have. In "acceptance" they made peace with their poverty and hardship.
Put it simply, people now may have more but they pay less attention to appreciating what they have. To me, happiness comes from appreciation not possession.
Ironically, in giving the choice and power to improve one's lot, the power and expectation becomes a burden.
My second thought has to do with the different basis for social competition. I disagree that life during Mao era is completely equal. Human nature will find ways to find other 'more equal than others', but they definately took place in a different (and often more deadly) form.
Social competition then were political instead of financial security. People might have forgotten those other forms of insecurity(and any who are below 40 years old are too young to experience the direct effects) to do a like-for-like comparison, but arguably, if one compares insecurity in its totality the result might not be too different.
Thirdly, there is a reason why they are taxi drivers i.e. it is to make living at the entry-level skills. Many of them are probably from nearby provinces trying to make it good in the city. It is a tough, dreary, unsociable job with ridiculously long hours. A migrant without existing social networks can easily find driving a taxi depressing - long lonely hours filled by repeated fears and frustrations. I believe it is hard to find a happy, enthusiastic and optimistic taxi driver anywhere in the world!
nice to read your thoughts; some quick points:
1. most peoples during mao's era are ignorant as to what they can do. those who know what they can do are either silenced or sidelined.
2. the equality esp in poverty then vas more confined to masses never mind they were the suffering lot and the starving lot. of course the party cadres are more equal than the others. needless to say the intellectuals, the traders, those associated with KMT are less equal. never did CCP admister the country with full equality. i am planning to bring up a point from chinese classic on this in my next post.
3. my last trip to beijing airport, i finally found an enterprising taxi driver. i will share his story when back from bali vacation.
4. i cannot agree more with your observation on human nature.
5.quite unlike other cities, taxi drivers in beijing are by far and large the city residents. this phenomena is rather unique and contrary to our usual observation.
6. your points on empowerment and social competition are very profound.
this enterprising taxi driver made perhaps several time more than the average income of his fellow grumbling colleagues.
his success boils down to diffentiating his service from the great majority.
he learn his english and he uses that to target on international tourists who rely on him to travel and to shop.
like every one in the travel industry, he made the extra income via commission.
this is due to his enterprise and additional hardwork. if you have objection that this is kick back, please remember caveat emptor. do your research before buying.
otherwise, be prepared to concede to taxi driver "consultancy fee" in the form of commission
alternatively, lobby to get the law passed to require taxi driver's disclosure of interest.
i am joking. let's spare them. better catch the big fish in the wall street.
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