Comment

Meeting a master beggar

By Joseph Christian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-10 13:09

The little boy that approached me couldn't have been much more than 10. His cheeks were rosy, creating a clear contrast with his dark yellow skin. His red windbreaker fluttered in the wind as he asked me in the most tender voice possible: "Big brother, what time is it?"

He looked so innocent and cute. I chuckled as I pulled out my cell phone to look at the time. I half expected the boy's mother to rush in at any moment and usher him away, but as I took a quick look around I noticed no one who looked like the boy's mother.

So I turned to the boy after a few seconds and told him, "It's 2:30."

The boy quietly thanked me. His whole approach instantly endeared him to me. He must have noticed.

"Big brother," he continued, his eyes now downcast to the concrete sidewalk. "I don't have any money to get home. Can you please give me some money to ride the subway?"

Instantly alarm bells went off in my head. This must be a beggar. But the young boy had so artfully pitched his story that a large part of me wanted to believe.

He continued to look at me with his big innocent eyes and my heart just melted. I pulled some change out of my pocket and slowly extended my arm toward him.

He sheepishly moved toward me and took the money. He then smiled and politely took a small bow before running off in the opposite direction that I was walking.

When I gave him the money my heart believed him. But as I thought about it afterward I realized I had just run into the best beggar I have ever met in Beijing.

I wasn't upset because the boy's display was so skillful he easily earned every fen of the few yuan I gave him. In fact he just might be the best beggar I have ever met.

In my life I've had many run-ins with beggars and the homeless. Just to give you some context, for more than four years I volunteered for various community organizations in Philadelphia whose aim was to help the legion of beggars and homeless that wondered the streets.

As a result, I have met and talked with hundreds, possibly even thousands, of these unfortunates.

When I first started I had a bleeding heart. But as I got conned and saw so many throw away all the help that I offered, just so they could get their hands on a bag of crack, I became a little jaded. But still I persisted until I moved to China over five years ago.

Even though I am not part of any effort to help beggars in Beijing, I can't help but run into them. They are everywhere that you look.

On the subway you can see a man horribly scared by flames singing into a portable microphone. You can see the clouded eyes of a blind woman as she is led by a fingerless midget who insistently bows to seated passengers. On the street you can see a motionless old woman bundled with heavy cotton blankets, her hand outstretched to grip a battered tea cup.

If you really stop to think about such sights, it is gut wrenching. Yet sadly, most people, me included, seem to chalk these up as just a daily sight in Beijing.

Some of my Chinese friends warn me that they are just professional beggars. One time I was walking

with one such Chinese friend as he shooed a beggar away.

He turned to me and said, "This beggar probably makes more than me!"

I have other Chinese friends that often give money to beggars they believe really could need the help.

"You can just tell if they really need some money," one friend told me.

In America I would agree with my friend you can just tell. But for me in China, with cultural and language barriers, sometimes I can't tell and so I have become largely callous to the situation.

If I stop and think about it, I feel ashamed, but that is just the way things are. I would like to help them but given my far from fluent Chinese, the only thing I can really do is to offer them some cash.

There are thousands of beggars and homeless people in Beijing. Like any city these are the people on the fringes of society. These are the people we sometimes wish weren't there, even if we never dare say it. They are the people officials want to hide from foreign visitors.

The innocent little boy I ran into got me thinking. Maybe I shouldn't be so callous. Maybe other beggars can learn from the boy's expert example. All it takes is a little kindness to pull the strings of our hearts. It worked quite well on me.