97 Sichuan workers three months homeless 乌鲁木齐97名民工因工程泡汤蜗居桥洞3个月

ئۈرۈمچی‎ Ürümqi (in red)

At a time when the western media is focusing on continuing ethnic troubles in China as reported by the BBC, many foreign correspondents and so-called China watchers might have missed Chinese-language news about how desperate Min Gong's fate can be. Min Gong 民工 or workers emigrating from the country side and desperate for a life beyond survival are ready to go anywhere for work. Some of them are even willing to look for work in the multi-ethnic province of Xinjiang in spite of repeated clashes between the Chinese Han and the Uyghur, among others.

Welcome to the Wild West

烏魯木齊 (Wūlǔmùqí)

The Internet Chinese-language paper, Beiqingwang 北青网 （North Youth Network) reports on a group of 97 workers from Sichuan，among them 10 women, who were hoping for a better life in Ürümqi / ئۈرۈمچی ‎ / 乌鲁木齐 (Wūlǔmùqí) the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region in China. For the last three months, they have been sleeping in dire conditions under a highway bridge. The news has now reached the Beijing press. Beiqingwang reports that their boss has disappeared without paying them the wages which are due to them. The contracting company was an empty shell. Their dream of making money and returning home has vanished. All that is left them is shivering with cold in slippers.

They are still waiting for a job and a place to live. They could be offered some accommodation on the set for the popular Hunan TV series, 蝸居 [Snail House] aka Narrow Dwellings (sic). It features the tribulations of a young graduate couple trying to buy a home. The show has now been cancelled, some say censored, for its racy dialogue and realism.

No television station, Chilean or otherwise, has offered to turn the 97 workers' lives into a TV series, yet.