Tag Archives: 春运

civilized departures

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The other day saw two friends off to Xiamen. I had been expecting crowds and unpleasant jostling, but instead found the bus station well organized and people departing without problem. Apparently, the Shenzhen version of the national “Civilized departure, peaceful spring movement (文明出行，平安春运)” campaign is going well.

To put Shenzhen’s estimated 10 million arrivals and departures in perspective, Guangdong province’s estimated spring movement is 141 million trips from Jan 19 to Feb 27. Halving that total means an estimated 75.5 million people will be moving in and around Guangdong.

Once again, I don’t know how to imagine this scale of movement. I don’t even know how one would go about counting heads. I think that numbers this large (75.5 million is 1/2 the population of Russia; Shenzhen’s measly 10 million halves to five million or more than the population of Houston) must be of world significance, but offhand I’m not sure exactly what that significance is.

All this to say that at many levels, the scale of the transformation I am witnessing from my perch in Shenzhen confounds me. I grew up thinking about population in terms of thousands; even NYC had less than 10 million when I was a young’un. I note increasing traffic jams, insufficient places for high school students, and the radical restructuring of Shenzhen Bay and associate it with increased stress, growing inequality, and environmental degradation. But. What does it mean if we do not choose to live otherwise?

Today, a friend and I spoke about what an intervention might look like. She said that according to Chinese understanding, the best time to intervene is when a mistake happens, branding the event into the person’s mind. “For example,” she offered, “the other day I was trying to get on the bus carrying my camera and supplies. I asked two teenager girls to let me through. I was trying to be polite because I didn’t want to bash them with my equipment. But one of them sniffed and said, ‘I’m not fat.’ Strange. She thought me asking her to move meant I thought she was fat. At the time I wanted to say something, but then thought, forget it. Let her learn from society.”

“So we intervene one by one?” I asked.

She sighed and explained, “If more people were well-intentioned, it would be a beautiful world.”

In fact, one by one is how we do it. And maybe the point isn’t to finish, but to keep trying.

Shenzhen bus-mash

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This morning, at Shangshui Village stop, which is a major transfer point, a 322 was so packed and so many people were trying to squeeze on that bags were being thrown over the top of the crowd in a kind of bus-mash out of here moment. And here’s the rub: Spring Movement (春运) has started and thus today’s rush hour rush was less rushed than usual. So yes, I understand why those who can buy private cars, do, which in turn, makes rush hour more rushed. Sigh.

春运: Where’s home?

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From Jan 19 through Feb 27, 2011 we float through the happy daze of 春运 or “Spring [Festival] Movement.” Indeed, the scale of Spring Movement merits its own website. Possibly of more interest to anthropologists, the scale of movement provides another opportunity to wonder about how the tension between hometown feelings and making oneself at home shapes Shenzhen identity.

The Municipalitaty estimates that during Spring Movement, Shenzhen’s land, sea, and air borders will be crossed over 9.4 million times, an increase of 700,000 from 2010’s official Spring Movement stats. However, folks have already started travelling and some, like me will leave during Spring Movement, but return after. Or leave before and return during? So again, shakey figures. Should we go with an estimated 10 million holiday related border crossings?

Other facts shed interesting light on the scale of Shenzhen’s Spring Movement. During these five weeks, the city guarantees that everyday, 9,000 buses will be leaving and returning to the city; in addition to the City’s 1,640 chartered buses, another 2,000 charted buses have been loaned to the City; the downtown and west railway stations will fill 960,000 seats before Feb 3; the airport guarantees 500 flights per day.

The point is that Spring Movement is not simply important, but also one of the events that the government takes very, very seriously. Indeed, going home for the holidays is, among my friends, a self-evident good and therefore a necessarily political event; for officials, problems during Spring Movement can be carreer ending. For many migrants to Shenzhen, Spring Festival makes immigration meaningful. Some may have come to try something new and find new opportunities, but most understand (and endure) the process of migrating to Shenzhen in terms of families elsewhere.

A friend explained to me the feeling of eating with her family.

“I used to think it was really annoying to be with my parents because they nag and stick their noses where they don’t belong. However, once in Shenzhen I had to eat by myself. Everytime, I eat alone, I really miss the feeling of being with my parents. As soon as I get home, they rush down five flights of stairs, carry my suitcase for me, and bring me into a warm room with a big table of food. It’s so comfortable and I’m not lonely, not like in Shenzhen.”

And then she sighed because after the holiday, she’ll return to Shenzhen, alone, to continue working at a job she doesn’t really like so that she can continue to send remitances to her parents, who in turn, will save the money for the next Spring Festival reunion.