娃娃上陣:中國農民工討薪新招?
An old story took on a new twist this month as a group of Chinese migrants protested outside a real estate development to demand payment of overdue wages. The difference this time: The protesters were children and they were successful.
一個陳舊劇目又有了新的演繹。一羣外來人員在一處房地產開發項目外抗議，要求支付拖欠的工資，而這一次的不同之處在於，抗議者是兒童。最後他們如願以償。Tourism company Xinhua Shizhaizi has handed over 14 million yuan ($2.2 million) to a court in southwestern China's Yunnan province to cover debts owned in connection with a real estate project in the scenic city of Dali, the state-run Xinhua news agency said Wednesday. Included in that sum is 8 million yuan in wages owed to 500 migrant workers involved in construction of the project, according to Xinhua.
官方媒體新華社週三報道說，旅遊企業新華石寨子公司已將1,400萬元（合220萬美元）款項交付雲南省一家法院，以償還與旅遊城市大理一處房地產項目有關的債務。據新華社說，在這筆款項中，有800萬元應付給參與項目建設的500名農民工。The news comes roughly a week after local media reported 13 children, ranging in age from five to 20, had lined up outside a shopping and tourism complex in Dali known as Nanguo City, holding hand-written signs demanding the complex's developer pay their parents.
大約一個星期以前，中國國內媒體報道說，13名年齡在五歲到20歲的兒童和少年在大理購物與旅遊綜合設施“南國城”外排成一排，打出手寫的標語，要求“南國城”的開發商把欠款還給他們的父母。
'My name is Gao Jia,' read the sign held by one little girl. 'I want to eat, to go to school, to drink milk, to eat cookies.'
一個小女孩手裏舉着的標語寫道：“我叫高家，我要吃飯，要上學，要吃牛奶，要吃餅乾。”The appearance of the children appears to struck a chord with China's sometimes jaded Internet users, prompting new interest in an issue that had fallen out of the headlines in recent years.
中國網民對討薪這種事見多了，有時候甚至感到厭煩，但兒童的出現似乎叩動了他們的心絃。於是，一個近幾年不再受到關注的話題又引起人們新的興趣。Responsible for the actual work of building the country's shiny new urban skylines, China's migrant workers have long complained of exploitation at the hands of employers. Failure by real estate developers to pay migrant construction workers has led to a number of protests and worker suicides over the years. Though courts have sometimes sided with workers in wage disputes, labor experts say, they have little power to enforce their decision, particularly when developers are politically connected.
農民工承擔了中國城市裏摩天大樓的實際建設工作，他們長期抱怨遭僱主盤剝。由於開發商沒給建築行業的農民工發工資，這些年來已經有許多起抗議事件、工人自殺事件發生。勞動法專家說，雖然法庭在薪資糾紛中有時候站在農民工一邊，但它們沒有多大的能力去執行自己的判決結果，特別是在開發商擁有政界人脈的時候。Public opinion appears to have made the difference in Dali, where Xinhua Shihaizi had been refusing to pay despite being ordered to settle its bills by a provincial court two months ago.
大理事件出現轉機似乎應歸功於公衆輿論。之前，儘管一家省級法院在兩個月前就下令新華石寨子還賬，但這家公司一直拒絕執行。While conflicts over unpaid wages have become routine, the children's protest hovered near the top of Chinese search engine Baidu's trending topics list throughout the day on Friday and garnered widespread sympathy from Internet users.
雖然拖欠工資問題導致的衝突在中國已經屢見不鮮，但在整個上週五，娃娃討薪事件一直停留在百度熱門話題排行榜的前列，並引起網民的廣泛同情。'While [a lot of us] are living cotent and happy lives, there are millions out there with no food to eat, no milk to drink,' wrote one user of Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service Weibo.
新浪微博的一位用戶寫道：“我們過得幸福的同時也會有無數的人沒飯吃，沒奶喝。”Not everyone was thrilled with the use of children, including a disapproving microblogger who asked: 'What kind of parent lets their five year-old demand their unpaid wages?'
並不是所有人都贊成利用兒童討薪，一位微博用戶問道：“讓五歲的孩子去爲自己討欠薪，這樣的父母啊……”Though the children undoubtedly made an impression, the workers' case may have been aided by anxious chatter in Beijing over the country's growing wealth gap. A blue book on the country's urbanization released last week by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences noted that the divide between urban and rural incomes had widened 26% since 1997, with urban residents now making five times as much on average as their rural counterparts.
儘管兒童的出現無疑引起了關注，但這起農民工案件或許也受益於北京對貧富差距日益擴大這一問題充滿憂慮的討論。中國社會科學院上週發佈關於中國城鎮化的藍皮書，提到城鄉收入差距自1997年以來擴大了26%，現在城鎮居民收入平均達到農村居民收入的五倍。On Wednesday, state media quoted a report by the state-backed Center for Rural Studies as saying inequality in China was approaching 'danger' levels.
官方媒體週三引用華中師範大學中國農村研究院一份報告中的話說，中國的貧富差距正在逼近警戒線。With developers feeling the squeeze from a tightening credit environment and curbs on speculation, Dali may not be the last place we see migrant children carrying protest signs on their parents' behalf.
在開發商因信貸環境緊縮、政府抑制投機而受到打擊之際，大理或許不是最後一個農民工子女替父母舉牌抗議的地方。
