In Need of Help for a Short Story.

[AmericanWriter]

Hello,

I need some help learning more about Chengdu. I’m trying to write a short story, and I need to know more about what life is like for the poorest of people living in Chengdu, or at least the lower class.

What is life like for the poor? Is free public housing available, and if so, what is it like?

The story’s  about a poor janitorial worker from Chengdu. Most of the story takes place in Beijing, and some parts in Henan, but I would like to devote at least one part to describe what his life is like while in Chengdu. Can anyone help?

Thank you! 🙂

[Mr. Klink]

24-hour mahjong parlor.

[AmericanWriter]

Haha, thank you Mr. Klink. I have heard people in Chengdu love to play Mahjong, so maybe I’ll add that to my story too. 🙂

 

[tina tan]

 Is free public housing available, and if so, what is it like?

this one is so not true..with the skyward going earth price and such a large polulation base.

as far as i know , our ayi(cleaners) , or janitors ,or  sanitation workers ,they live in rented house like 500 hundred per month with water and electricity , but no gas sometimes and no elevator(sometimes they share a room , sometimes not).which is available even in the first ring road, and it is not that bad as you might have imagined. the average salary  per month for most chengdunese  is around 3000RMB(dont judge or doubt or anything about this figure, especially do not judge by what YOU see),most people get at least 1500 even if you are a janitor or ayi. So it is not like what newpaper tells. if they don’t have a very sick family member with horrible desease or have to support the whole family all by himself , it is not that hard at all.

there is a reason why those sad stories happen more on Henan  people or people from some faraway places. Henan has a population more than anywhere else. people tend to have more kids there thus have to feed the family , the parents will try to save every penny for the kids.whereas in chengdu ,the one child policy was pretty strict when it was out, so nowadays you see Chengdu people live more happily than people from other places.

Anyway , in my opinion ,maybe what i mentiones should be defined as  the lower class ( i think i should put myself into the lower class , haha ), rather the poorest, the poorest according to me would only because of some special cases such as the desease , or single parent family with many people to feed)

[tina tan]

i just realized you are going  to write a story about the poorest or the lower income class….. so looking forward to see what the ” man” would  be like in your story.. haha.

I dont know why, but my  instinct tells me that you are going a wrong way, Chengdu is a city with a christma so different from Chongqing or anywhere else. it would be very hard to describe a Chengdunese, even for a character from lower income class. but majinag and tea house( not the fancy kind,  the kind that is everywhere in the park , under the bridge, along the road, in front of the houses, around the corner with rough rickety bamboo chair and a glass of green tea/ jasmin tea by its side.Where people from all classes gather together , chatting about politics and news but mainly  trivial matters in our daily life for a whole afternoon…..) would be good ones to employee..

[Rick in China]

AmericanWriter – are you in Chengdu? If so you can wander around the North/Northeast of Chengdu, and as you get past the train station and avoid big developments you can find some absolutely poor areas, typically represented by dirty red brick walls around a block with tons of semi-rubble-ish huts crammed inside the walls, and when you find the entrance, feel free to wander in – lots of hobbles have no doors, and the people will likely be very curious as to how a foreigner ended up there and if you are able to speak Chinese, may pick up some interesting tidbits to help with your writing. Or – go at night – same area – find some crappy food stands, and hang out, chat to people.

[AmericanWriter]

Thank you Tina, and Rick. You’ve both been very helpful.

To Rick: No, I’ve only visited Chengdu for about two days, and only saw the more wealthy areas. If I’m back in Chengdu again, I’ll be sure to take your advice. Thank you.

To Tina: Thank you for your help too. My goal was to write a short story about a man from a poor background, leaving his hometown to achieve his dreams, or at the very least find a better life. The more I’m reading and learning about Chengdu,  though, the more I want to write about life in Chengdu, including the majinag and tea houses.

Thank you both again. I really appreciate your help.

[Ray]

If you get a chance try to watch the local news here, Chengdu TV. or Sichuan TV. Many of the stories may seem trivial “(man falls over, nobody helps”) but you’ll get an insight into how typical people live. Sometimes they’ll film in someone’s apartment, and it can be quite shocking; the poverty; the filth; the lack of education. But on the bright side, Gucci just opened another store in the International Financial Centre, so it’s all good.

[raschmidt]

Just  a thought but, their are a few photographers/enthusiasts here.  A picture is worth a million words so you might check around and see if you can find some photos that someone has taken.  Some of the urban scenes that people take will probably help, and in many cases I bet the photographer has more than a few stories  to tell.

[Charlie]

Rick in China wrote:

AmericanWriter – are you in Chengdu? If so you can wander around the North/Northeast of Chengdu, and as you get past the train station and avoid big developments you can find some absolutely poor areas, typically represented by dirty red brick walls around a block with tons of semi-rubble-ish huts crammed inside the walls, and when you find the entrance, feel free to wander in – lots of hobbles have no doors, and the people will likely be very curious as to how a foreigner ended up there and if you are able to speak Chinese, may pick up some interesting tidbits to help with your writing. Or – go at night – same area – find some crappy food stands, and hang out, chat to people.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest – go up by the North Train Station and just walk around there. It is the nexus to the very-poor other regions of Sichuan. Check out all the tattoo vendors around the train station which lay out their blurry printed out images of tribal tattoos that they will ink on you for less than 100 kuai.

I went up there a year ago and took some photos and posted them here on the forum. You can find them here: Streetside Tattoos in Chengdu

[Author]

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