Migrant Labors (民工)When I entered into the fast food inn, I found there were about 10 migrant labors. They were gawking at the TV which showed bikini show accompanied by disco music. I could not help smiling when I saw them watched this that way. And I felt that they were very interesting and, to some extend, funny.
I know few people will agree about my feeling toward the migrant labors. In most people’s eyes, migrant labors represent filthy, illiterate, barbaric and villainous. That’s true, we often see the migrant labors littering in the public. They spit without paying heed to other’s feeling. Now and then we can see them even pee at the corner of a wall. When they get in the bus, people always try to keep a comfortable distance from them not only for they are ragged, but their body odor. The most thing hated by us is that the criminal cases involved with migrant labors rise as the population of migrant labors jumps. If we trace back the reason for so much criminals committed by them, we will see the motivation is simple: money.
Driven by the dream of rich, they poured into big cities in the gold rush. Comfortably sitting in front the wheel, we pass huge building sites in dog days; we sip our coffee while coldly watch them work like ants in rainy day from the glossy bar; their slums sprawl besides the sites of luxurious houses built for us. Ironically, we enjoy the modern facilities made by them with a disgust of their behavior and appearance.
I don’t think we would act better than them if we are brought up in a rural area. They don’t have glittery toilets as live in nature; nor garbage tin is needed for them. They live in peace with the nature but we, the real people polluting the environment, criticize them for dirtying the city. There’s no high school or university in their villages, how can we expect them to act like a cultured modern citizen. The money we made by our knowledge and education times greatly than their money made by sweat and blood. We detest their illiterate but none of us ever think to give them the same opportunities of receiving high-level and high quality education for the sake of improving them.
When we travel to rural places and beautiful scenes, we relish our body in the Shangri-la surroundings, while our hearts are touched by their humanity and simplicity. But they when they come into big cities, we ignore their simplicity and prejudice them by our criteria. There’s no fair play for them, for they are too simple, too honest, too innocent to be the friends of modern civilized people.