Yuan Ling, "​Outside Beijing’s Sixth Ring Road:  The Vagrant Life of a Family with Five Off-Plan Children"

New on the site this month, Yuan Ling, "​​Outside Beijing’s Sixth Ring Road: The Vagrant Life of a Family with Five Off-Plan Children." Yuan Ling (b. 1973), is a journalist and non-fiction writer. The text translated here is drawn from his recently published book, Silent Children 寂静的孩子 (2019), in which he describes, in ethnographic detail, the lives of poor and underprivileged children in many parts of China. This excerpt, the subject of which is a family of seven migrant workers struggling in the far Beijing suburbs, complements Qin Hui's study of China and South Africa by illustrating how constant urban renewal projects make the lives of migrant workers unbearable.