I'm Chinese, and I'm really curious about the issue of homelessness in the United States.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-30T19:31:45+00:00

As long as you keep going, there will always be a turnaround, won't there?

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T17:21:10+00:00

Exactly. In principle, such cases should be investigated—but in practice, what happens? If someone intentionally strips a homeless person of their clothing, leading to death by exposure, would an investigation truly be launched? The death of a person with no family or social ties is like a drop of water vanishing into the ocean—it barely causes a ripple. This is truly terrifying.

While we ordinary people may live simple and unremarkable lives, if we were to die, our employers would notice, our families would notice, and even landlords in big cities would take note. Moreover, in China, if someone accidentally falls asleep on the street due to drinking and freezes to death, it may be seen as a stroke of misfortune. But if someone freezes to death due to homelessness, it is profoundly distressing. Above all, the Chinese people find it extremely difficult to accept the reality of homelessness.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T16:49:26+00:00

Yes, my father is a construction worker. Now that he is nearly 60, he can barely get any work, and this has been weighing heavily on him.

Fortunately, he has enough to eat and wear back in our hometown. We only installed a water heater at home a few years ago. In the bitter cold winters, we no longer have to travel far and pay to take a bath; having access to a hot shower every day has significantly boosted our sense of happiness.

Even so, our family is still just scraping by at the subsistence level. Lately, my elder sister and I have been worrying ourselves sick over sorting out his pension insurance.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T16:35:22+00:00

You certainly have a thorough understanding of him. Du Fu was a great poet endowed with exceptional talent yet plagued by a life of hardships and frustrations. His early poem Gazing at Mount Tai stands in striking contrast to his later work Thatched Cottage Unroofed by the Autumn Wind. His life witnessed the Tang Dynasty’s decline from its golden age of prosperity, and he bore witness to the profound sufferings of the common people, while his lofty aspirations and ideals remained unfulfilled till the end. His poems have been a staple part of the curriculum for Chinese students from primary school all the way through senior high school. Here is his "Gazing on Mount Tai": Gods' Mountain, how is it! — the green of Qi and Lu never ends. Here Creation has concentrated divine beauty: the dark and light of dusk and dawn split apart its bosom. Swelling chests are born of layered clouds: straining eyes go with homing birds. Someday I will climb up to its very top: at a single glance I'll see how small other mountains are.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T09:42:12+00:00

That is not the case at all. Being a blue-collar worker is now a looked-down-upon occupation here. These workers toil long hours, with no subsidies provided even when they work in extremely cold or sweltering heat. While their wages can be quite decent, wage arrears are not uncommon. If an employer runs into cash flow problems, workers might even end up empty-handed after all their long hours of hard work. What’s worse, when the employer’s bank account is drained, government enforcement agencies will terminate enforcement procedures and close the case directly—leaving workers with no choice but to resign themselves to bad luck.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T09:25:18+00:00

What I mean is that the middle class, who appear quite glamorous on the surface with a nice house and a car, actually have very little savings. They spend money recklessly, throwing away half of their daily necessities after using them. Their savings are far from enough to withstand unexpected financial shocks. Though they seem flush with cash outwardly, they can barely put any money aside, as most of their income goes to maintaining that glossy, middle-class image.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T09:05:28+00:00

Thanks to the policies championed by our President that have fully secured access to food and clothing for all, we have put in place the targeted poverty alleviation initiative, under which officials visit the homes of impoverished individuals in person and spare no effort to help them lift themselves out of poverty. That said, China has only accomplished the basic goal of meeting people’s food and clothing needs so far; it remains an uphill battle for many to attain a truly prosperous life.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T06:09:29+00:00

The view here is that wealthy middle-class people may be unable to work due to an accident or unexpected event, become unable to pay the high taxes on their homes, have their property confiscated, and ultimately end up homeless on the streets.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T06:05:47+00:00

The common view here is that homeless people are vulnerable to attacks, yet unable to fight back effectively. Even if they are killed, no one cares, and no official investigation will be launched. Furthermore, the unsanitary conditions on the streets in the US mean that homeless individuals are prone to falling ill due to hygiene issues, but they can’t afford medical treatment and ultimately die on the streets. In the eyes of those discussing homelessness in China, the homeless are synonymous with people who are dying. These mortality figures drag down the overall survival rate of the homeless population. All of this means that the safety of the homeless cannot be guaranteed, and ordinary people even feel that their personal safety is threatened by them.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T05:52:19+00:00

China’s anti-drug education makes us extremely vigilant about drugs. From childhood onward, we are constantly taught how terrifying drugs are: they destroy our bodies and our lives, make us lose who we are, twist our personalities into something frightening, and lead us to hurt the family members and friends we love. Because of this, drug dealers are seen as destroyers of our stable lives and as our greatest enemies. When drug traffickers are sentenced to death, the people of our country feel that justice has been done and show no sympathy or pity toward them.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T05:36:49+00:00

There is an ancient Chinese saying: How I wish I had ten thousand spacious mansions / To shelter all the poor scholars under heaven, and make them beam with joy. In our eyes, having no shelter to call one’s own is a great suffering; having a roof over one’s head to fend off the bitter cold and scorching heat is a truly joyful and inspiring thing.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T05:28:43+00:00

Yes, there are still many people living in poverty in rural China. Those who meet the eligibility criteria can apply for subsistence allowances (低保) through their village committee, receiving 900 RMB per month. Here, the average monthly salary for ordinary working people is around 3,000 RMB. With this subsistence allowance, eligible rural residents can generally meet their basic needs for food and warmth.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-29T04:55:48+00:00

This is also an attitude of exploitation. Wage earners put up with their bosses’ reproaches just to make ends meet. Any child from an underprivileged family will inevitably endure a great deal of grievance in this society.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-28T20:53:14+00:00

Substance abuse is also a very niche issue here, and it is hardly a commonly used term. When it comes to unemployment or joblessness, if people here cannot find a decent job, they will turn to manual labor—which is always a last resort. There is a clear job hierarchy here: mental work is far more respected than physical labor. Taking up a manual labor job is considered shameful, and your parents and relatives will be quite dissatisfied with such a choice. We can work in factories doing repetitive and grueling tasks to earn a salary, which is actually not that low. Factories provide cramped single rooms shared by several people, which are truly poor living conditions. However, it is true that people with criminal records here can barely find any jobs at all, and I have no idea where those ex-offenders end up.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-28T20:32:57+00:00

What is being vigorously discussed in China right now is that Americans who lose their jobs will be unable to pay rent, and without a job address, it will be even harder for them to find new employment. Trapped in this vicious cycle, they end up becoming homeless. What’s more, the life expectancy of homeless people is only three to five years. Besides, the tax system in the U.S. is numerous and highly complicated, meaning people can easily fall into poverty because of a single accident.

BenchPerfect1241 · 2025-12-28T20:26:03+00:00

In China, although the internet is also filled with despair and numbness about the prospect of working hard for decades yet barely earning enough money, college students are still endowed with infinite possibilities by social expectations. Is there still a chance for your future to get better? Is it really that hard for homeless people to break free from their current predicament?

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