Beggars Caged & Penned Up Behind Bars at Nanchang Temple Fair
by Li on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
From The Beijing News:
Metal Bars Pen Up Beggars at Nanchang Temple Fair
Beggars were all sitting within a “metal cage”, with various kinds of basins and bowls placed just outside the bars, waiting for passing tourists to give them money. Yesterday [September 18th], several photographs taken at the Temple Fair of Xishan Town, Xinjian County, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, incited controversy. The Temple Fair of Xishan Town, where the famous Taoist Temple “Wanshou Gong” is located, attracts a few hundred thousands visitors and worshipers during the 8th month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar.
As shown in the photos, one side of the Temple Fair street is sheltered by an awning about 50 meters long, with the shaded area surrounded by metal fences. Inside, more than 100 beggars, male, female, old and young, all sit on the ground, and outside the bars in front of them were all kinds of basins and bowls, many with some small change placed in them. Suspended on the metal fencing above was a sign that read: “Temporary Rescue Shelter”.
As reported by the media, an employee of the Temple Fair said that the people in the fences are all beggars, and enclosing them was to prevent visiting worshipers from being cheated by these “beggars”. As well, there is dedicated staff who will provide them with water and meals. Yesterday [September 18th], some netizens said that this was “treating the beggars as guilty until proven innocent”, “disrespecting their human dignity, a direct restriction of personal freedom and even suspicion of illegal detainment”.
Response: Penning Them Up Is To Prevent Them from Being Trampled; Entering And Exiting Are Allowed
Yesterday afternoon [September 18th], Mr. Chen who works at the Xishan Town Government Office said that the people who have been penned up are mostly “professional beggars” from other towns, who come to the fair every year. He explained that many of them were old, weak, ill or disabled, making it hard for them to move. Some of them would even lie on the ground, so enclosing them in metal fencing is out of fear that they’ll be stepped on and trampled accidentally.
He also said that they had tried to tell them to leave and tried to drive them away in the past, but they would not leave, so the using metal fencing is also something they had to resort to. Additionally, the Temple Fair organizers have arranged for people to provide water and meals to the beggars. This Temple Fair worker emphasized that the beggars have not actually had their freedom restricted, “For example, if they want to use the bathroom, they are allowed to go outside, but if they want to beg, they have to do so inside the metal fencing”.
On the same day, an employee of Xinjian County Government also said that this was a temporary rescue shelter, and they encouraged beggars to go inside voluntarily. And the open-style shelter was to prevent trampling accidents. However, the local Bureau of Civil Affairs has already given the beggars transportation fare and sent them home.
