Food for Thought: The Hukou System- Be, Believe, Belong

Don’t forget your roots.

If I had a penny for every time someone told me that, I would have had enough money to move to Australia to fight the bird- eating spiders and emperor scorpions (note to WWF: the above is a joke; neither of those can even be found in Australia).

But seriously; many people I’ve met during my time in England have constantly been complaining that they have often been discriminated against because of their name, accent or origin. Some of them have even gone as far as changing their names and lying about their nationality; quite appalling, really.

What’s more appalling, however, is having to do all of the above just to get a job.

Fun fact: Did you know that, regardless of being a part of the European Union, Bulgarian and Romanian nationals must apply and obtain a work permit before being able to work in the UK?

From a purely logical (and economically- sound) point of view, then, many employers would prefer not to deal with Bulgarians and Romanians as this causes them an unnecessary amount of admin work and hassle (and extra cost, respectively).

Consequently, abominable as it may sound, you may sometimes be justified in forgetting your roots.

A problem, however, arises when your roots would not forget you.

For many years the above has been the case in the People’s Republic of China (‘China’).

Initially introduced by the Xia Dynasty (c. 2100 BCE - 1600 BCE), the then- Hukou system quickly evolved from a family register into an organization of families and clans for purposes of taxation, conscription and social control.

When the ancient Hukou system (or ‘huji’) was reformed by the Communist party in 1958, China saw a stark and formal separation between ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ workers.

The system was used as an instrument to command economy; namely, those born in the rural areas were to stay there and work on there land whilst those born in the cities were to be bound to their ‘office positions’. In that way, the Communist party could efficiently control the supply and demand of goods and services without giving workers much of a choice.

This, effectively, created two worlds and if you wanted to move from one to the other, you would need to get the government’s express permission to do so.

Thankfully, since China has become a capitalist market and a member of the World Trade Organisation, the Hukou system and its enforcement have been severely relaxed.

Still, several very important characteristics remain even today:

• A ‘rural’ worker still needs the government’s permission to become an ‘urban’ one
• The Hukou is hereditary and permanent- you can only have a temporary residence permit or ‘temporary Hukou’
• Most medical insurances only cover your permanent Hukou area

Undoubtedly, the Hukou system is quite an efficient way of regulating China’s immense workforce.

Nevertheless, it still restricts freedom of choice and puts labels on people.

So, before you start complaining about your roots and origin, think of the Hukou system; think of where you are and where you could have been.

-- Be, Believe, Belong --

Quite terrifying, really.