【中文标题】中国人的餐桌：中产丰盛，穷人难过
【原文标题】On the menu in China: Middle class bounty, but lean times for urban poor
【登载媒体】华盛顿邮报
【原文链接】http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/on-the-menu-in-china-middle-class-bounty-but-lean-times-for-urban-poor/2011/05/11/AFB9eonG_story.html
两个中国家庭——一个富裕、一个低收入——之间鲜明的对比，显示出食品价格上涨对这个发展中国家所造成的影响。
这是2011年4月16日拍摄的照片，姚启宗（左）和他的妻子李蓉（中）、女儿姚欣欣准备在北京的家中吃午饭。
这是2011年3月16日拍摄的照片，5岁的钟楚汉（中）看着她妈妈李明霞，她的爸爸钟盛准备在北京的家里做晚饭。
李明霞在北京的家中准备晚饭。
钟盛（左）在吃菊花菜，李明霞（右）在准备炒菜。
在姚启宗的童年时代，饥饿感常伴其左右，即使现在仍是如此。40岁的他在北京街头出售新鲜蔬菜的时候，经常会弯腰建起掉在地上的蒜瓣。
这些年的生活好了一些，但是中国快速上涨的食品价格让这个家庭遭受了严重的打击。他越来越难为三个孩子未来的教育攒下钱，这是姚生活中最重要的目标。
在城市的另一边，钟盛在冲洗一条还在抽搐的桂鱼，把一堆青菜中的梗挑出去，他同时在讲述自己的购物理念。自从这位建筑师在5年前当上父亲之后，健康和安全是他首先考虑的问题，成本是次要的。
钟和他的妻子在温馨的厨房中准备晚饭，酱油味和葱香弥漫开来。他说：“你可以买便宜的东西，但是如果因此得病，去医院看病的费用可贵得多了。”
钟和姚这两个中国家庭之间鲜明的对比，显示出食品价格上涨对发展中国家所造成的影响。全球69亿人口中的四分之三都居住在发展中国家。
迅速膨胀的富裕中产阶层形成了一种复杂、怪异的消费品位。一些奢侈品，比如蓝莓、鳄梨、芦笋、菊苣等只有有钱人才会享受的东西，在中国的大城市中随处可见。
但是，富裕阶层消耗了农民满足不断增长需求的能力，尤其是在农村劳动力呈下降趋势的情况下。结果是，食品价格上升影响到社会的每一个阶层，不仅是那些买得起进口南美香蕉和中国偏远省份云南出产的昂贵蘑菇和青菜的人，低收入和固定收入人群更感手头拮据。
姚说：“我们不敢吃好东西，因为实在买不起。”他的4个长辈都在中国1960年大饥荒中饿死，他在安徽省农村极为贫困的家庭中长大，他的邻居都认为他早晚会沦为乞丐。
他说：“我去超市的目的就是为了开开眼界。”
成千上万的中国农民工到沿海城市的工厂和服务性行业去工作，让他们回到刀耕火种的环境中根本不可能。这种情况导致的食品短缺让食品价格连续几个月攀升，4月份比去年同期增长了11.5％。
在中国北方最大的农产品批发中心北京新发地，批发小白菜和香菜的小贩刘丽说：“你根本找不到农民，他们太贵了，每小时的工钱超过1美元。”
刘说，农村人想在工厂里上班，或者能在服务行业做事情，这样他们可以在室内工作，有个暖和的地方睡觉。务农“太脏、太苦了。”
尽管食品价格飞速上涨，毕业于北京一所著名大学，并且自己经营一家公司的钟仍然可以过着讲究的生活。2008年，受工业化学品污染的婴儿配方奶粉事件导致6名儿童死亡、30万儿童染病，他更有理由去享受昂贵的有机种植物和进口食品了。
钟和他的妻子和女儿坐下来享受一顿标准的晚餐——清蒸鱼、两种蔬菜、蘑菇、猪肉、米饭和苹果，这顿饭的花费是80元人民币（12美元）。这个家庭每月食品支出2000元人民币左右（307美元），大约相当于他们收入的十分之一。
姚在二十年前离开家乡，他现在的生活方式依然像一个农民。食物主要是廉价的馒头和面条，他努力攒下每一分钱，供孩子上学。他每星期只吃一顿肉，尽管他会想办法让孩子们多吃一些。
作为一名农民工，姚可以规避中国的计划生育政策，要三个孩子，而大部分农村家庭只能有两个孩子。但是他的农民工身份意味着他必须自己支付学费。
姚一家标准的午餐是一碗简单的面条，加一些青菜。姚的蒜姜摊位每月大约能挣2000元人民币（307美元），其中的600元用来购买5口之家的食物。
他说：“我需要攒钱，但我觉得能用的方法都用过了。我知道我们必须吃的更多、更好，否则我们的健康会受影响。”
还有其它一些因素也促成了中国和亚洲的食品价格上涨，包括为了抵御经济危机而实施的刺激政策导致市场中货币供给量过盛；油价上升；因污染和工业侵蚀造成的耕地面积减少。
联合国食品和农业办公室对全球肉类、谷物和奶制品的价格索引显示，2011年前三个月上涨了37％。在很多亚种国家，这表示当地食品价格上涨了10％。据亚洲发展银行的估算，6400万人的生活水平将下降到每天1.25美元的贫困线以下。
斯坦福大学的农业经济学家、中国食品市场专家Scott Rozelle说，食品和就业偏好的变化并非完全是坏事，因为这反应了中国的生活水平和经济在发展。
Rozelle说，中国早先分散、小规模的耕地正在逐渐集中，并且实现了机械化操作。这会促进生产力的提高，但是或许无法阻止食品价格的上涨。经济发展必然伴随着价格和收入的同时上升。
更高的食品价格提升了农村地区落后的收入水平，去年中国农村人均收入增长10％，达到5919元人民币（902美元），超过了城市人均收入增长幅度。
Rozelle说，中国农村在“从赤贫向贫穷转化”。他说自己亲眼见到中国农村的新砖房和碎石路，所有女孩子都去上学，家家都有手机。
但是，很多城市居民这种变化感到痛苦，尤其是退休人员、公务员和像姚一样的农民工，他们的收入水平无法跟上物价的脚步。贫富间差距拉大所引发的不满让中国共产党领导人忧心忡忡，他们在担心，今年年初，推翻埃及政府的示威活动部分原因就是民众对食品价格攀升的不满。
姚说，他羡慕那些想吃什么就买什么，不用顾忌价格的人们。他尽量说服自己不要总想着这些事。
他说：“这的确不公平，但是我知道我只能继续生活，努力工作，日子就会好过一些。”
即使像钟这样的中国经济发展受益者，也对此表示担忧。
他说：“他们的收入上涨速度并不快，所以他们的日子不好过。我觉得政府应当帮助他们找到提高收入的方法，照顾好这部分群体。”
原文：
In this photo taken Saturday, April 16, 2011, Yao Qizhong, left, and his wife Li Rong, center, with their daughter Yao Xinxin get ready for lunch at home in Beijing, China. The starkly contrasting fortunes of two Chinese families, one affluent and one low income, offer a glimpse into how soaring food
In this photo taken Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 5-years-old Zhong Chuhan, center, looks at her mother, Li Mingxia as her father Zhong Sheng, right, gets ready to make dinner at their home in Beijing, China. The starkly contrasting fortunes of two Chinese families, one affluent and one
In this photo taken Wednesday, March 16, 2011, Li Mingxia prepares dinner at home in Beijing, China. The starkly contrasting fortunes of two Chinese families, one affluent and one low income, offer a glimpse into how soaring food prices are playing out in the developing
In this photo taken Wednesday, March 16, 2011, Zhong Sheng, left, reach for chrysanthemum greens as his wife, Li Mingxia, right, prepares to fry vegetables at their home in Beijing, China. The starkly contrasting fortunes of two Chinese families, one affluent and one low
BEIJING — Hunger was such a constant companion in Yao Qizhong’s childhood that even now, at age 40, he’ll stoop down to salvage a single clove of garlic that falls from his table at the Beijing market where he hawks fresh produce.
Life is less harsh these days, but China’s fast-rising food prices have hit his family hard, making it increasingly difficult to save for his three kids’ education — Yao’s main goal.
Across town, Zhong Sheng rinses a still-twitching Mandarin fish and picks the stems from a handful of greens as he expounds on his philosophy of grocery shopping. Health and safety are his top concerns, ever since the architect became a father five years ago. Cost is a secondary consideration.
“You can buy cheap stuff,” says Zhong as he and his wife cooked together and the smells of soy and scallion filled their cozy kitchen, “but if it makes you sick, you’re going to end up paying more anyway in hospital fees.”
The starkly contrasting fortunes of the Zhong and Yao families offer a glimpse into how soaring food prices are playing out in the developing world — home to more than three quarters of the globe’s 6.9 billion people.
Prosperity and a fast-growing middle class have cultivated more sophisticated and exotic tastes. Such luxuries as blueberries, avocado, asparagus, and endive, recently unattainable to all but the wealthiest, are now widely available in China’s big cities.
But rising affluence has taxed the ability of farmers to meet growing demand while the rural labor pool dwindles. The result: Rising food prices hit every level of society, not just those who can afford imported South American bananas or pricey mushrooms and herbs from China’s remote Yunnan province. People on low or fixed incomes feel the pinch most.
“We don’t dare to try and eat good stuff because we can’t afford it,” says Yao, whose four grandparents starved to death during China’s 1960 famine. He was so poor growing up in rural Anhui province that his neighbors assumed he would end up a beggar on the streets.
“If I go to a supermarket,” he says, “it’s a novelty, like sightseeing.”
In China, farm workers have flocked by the millions to factory and service jobs in coastal cities. Luring them back to till and weed by hand is proving a tough sell. The resulting supply pinch helped send food prices up 11.5 percent in April from the year before, adding to months of steep increases.
“You can’t find (farm) workers and they’re expensive, over a dollar (7 yuan) an hour,” said Liu Li, a wholesaler hawking Napa cabbage and coriander at Beijing’s Xinfadi, north China’s biggest agricultural distribution center.
People in the countryside want factory work or a job in the service industry, where they’d get to stay indoors and have a warm place to sleep, said Liu. Farm work, she said, is “too dirty and too hard.”
Even with sharply higher food prices, Zhong, who runs his own business and has a master’s degree from a prestigious Beijing university, can afford to be picky. Besides he sees good reason to favor more expensive organically grown and imported foods after infant formula tainted with an industrial chemical killed six children and sickened 300,000 in China in 2008.
Zhong, his wife and daughter sit down to a typical dinner of steamed fish, two types of greens, mushrooms, pork, rice and sliced apples. Total cost, about 80 yuan ($12). Each month the family spends some 2,000 yuan ($307) on food — about 10 percent of their income.
Yao, who left the countryside more than two decades ago, still eats like a peasant, filling up on cheap steamed buns and noodles and pinching every penny so that he can put his kids through school. For him, meat is a once-a-week treat, though he tries to make sure his children eat it more often.
As a migrant laborer, Yao has been able to skirt China’s strict birth limits, having three kids instead of the two most rural families are limited to. But his migrant status means he must pay school fees himself.
A recent and routine lunch for Yao and his wife and children was a bowl of simple noodles with greens. Yao’s ginger and garlic stall earns him about 2,000 yuan ($307) a month, of which about 600 yuan ($92) goes on food for his five-person family.
“I need to save money but I feel like I am already scraping the bottom of the barrel,” he said. “At the same time, I know we have to feed ourselves and eat enough, otherwise our health is going to be affected.”
A host of other factors are also blamed for food prices hikes in China and elsewhere in Asia, including too much money sloshing about the economy after stimulus policies that warded off the global recession, rising oil prices and shrinking land for cultivation because of pollution and encroachment by industry.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Office’s index of global prices for meat, cereals and dairy foods has surged 37 percent in the first three months of 2011. In many Asian countries, that has translated into a 10 percent increase in local food prices, which the Asian Development Bank estimates is enough to drag another 64 million people below the $1.25 a day poverty line.
Yet the changes in food and work preferences aren’t all bad because they reflect the human and economic development taking place in China, said Scott Rozelle, an agricultural economist at Stanford University and an expert on China’s food markets.
Rozelle says that China’s scattered and small scale farms are becoming more consolidated and mechanized, which could eventualy raise productivity, but the changes probably won’t stop food prices from rising. Economic development involves both increases in prices and incomes, he says.
Higher food prices have in fact lifted lagging rural incomes. The per capita net income for rural Chinese grew faster than urban incomes last year, jumping 10 percent to 5,919 yuan ($902).
Rural Chinese are “going from grinding poor to poor,” said Rozelle, describing villages he’s seen with new brick homes and gravel roads, where all the girls go to school and every family has a mobile phone.
But the changes feel painful for many urban dwellers, particularly retirees, civil servants and migrants, like Yao, whose incomes haven’t kept pace. And the discontent that a widening gap between privileged and poor can generate deeply worries China’s communist leaders, who are mindful that the anti-government protests that toppled Egypt’s government earlier this year were triggered in part by discontent over climbing food costs.
Yao says he envies people who can eat what they like without concern for cost, but tries not to dwell on it.
“Yes, it’s unfair,” he said. “But I know I just have to keep going. I have to work hard and it will get better.”
Even those benefiting from China’s rising prosperity such as Zhong, the Beijing architect, are concerned.
“Their incomes are not rising as fast so for them this is difficult,” he said. “I think the government needs to find a way to help them raise that sector’s incomes too, and take care of them.” |
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发表于 2011-5-17 16:55
