Angie Liao
Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers
Beijing, China
I’m really excited to start blogging about my experience in Beijing this summer. To introduce my fellowship project for what feels like the 500th time, this summer I’m working at a public interest law firm in Beijing, China. The law firm, Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers, is an umbrella organization with pro bono branches dealing in migrant workers’ law, women’s rights law, children’s welfare/children’s legal aid, criminal legal aid, and social development law.
I have two research projects to juggle this summer. One is within the children’s legal aid department of Zhicheng, where I have commenced the hefty task of researching child welfare and children’s legal aid policy in 12 different countries. My research notes will be compiled into a gigantic research brief for the law firm’s director, Tong Lihua, who advises several Beijing children’s rights committees and is in an opportune position to make policy recommendations to the Chinese government based on the research of his lawyers.
I have to say, at several other internship positions I’ve struggled with the frustrating feeling that my work was jettisoning off into a void of unused oblivion, but this is not one of those cases. I’m very excited about this research project and really enjoying the work, particularly because it’s teaching me a lot about juvenile justice and attitudes towards legal aid all over the world. A lot of countries, like the United States, have declared it a constitutional right to receive legal representation in criminal defense cases, but it turns out that these policies have a lot of loopholes and still leave open a lot of questions. Should civil legal representation also be a constitutional right? What happens when public defenders’ case loads are simply too full to represent anyone else in need? What about special standards for the prosecution and defense of juvenile offenders? And so on.
In my spare time I also created an English-language website for Zhicheng! I’ve gotten some very kind feedback about it, and I think it’s important that Zhicheng makes its resources and news about its projects and lawyers as accessible as possible.
I’m also pursuing an independent research project outside Zhicheng with an attorney supervisor, but it’s likely I won’t write much about it until the end of the summer, when I can give a more well-rounded report!
In terms of general life, I’m loving my experience so far. The Zhicheng lawyers are wonderful, kind, generous people, and I’ve already made really great friends with the other interns. This weekend, thirteen more interns will be arriving at Zhicheng, all from the University of Sydney – really exciting for me, as I think I developed a mild obsession with Australia last semester.
So far I haven’t had time to explore Beijing except on weekends, but the excursions I have been on were all wonderful. (I recognize that my list of adjectives for describing this project is limited). My first weekend here, I went to Houhai with another intern, James, and our supervisor. James and I were supposed to go on a trip that weekend to Yanqing, which I hear is very beautiful, but our transportation was cancelled due to rain! I was really upset about that but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When we decided to go to Houhai instead, the sky was still gray and rainy, but by the time we got there, the clouds had opened up to show a beautiful blue sky (rare in Beijing) that we were able to enjoy, followed by an incredible sunset. We even got to see a rainbow! So I guess the trip cancellation was really a blessing in the skies! Heh, heh, get it?! Sorry, I don’t get too much sleep these days.
Houhai is flanked by two man-made lake-ish bodies of water. We managed to cram a lot into a stay of a few hours – we ate a delicious hot pot dinner, walked the promenade, took a pedal boat out into the water for an hour and a half, and listened to some sweet jazz from a retired man who was playing by the water. Here are some pictures from Houhai:
Beautiful, right?! I definitely want to go back soon.
Last weekend, on Friday we went swimming and afterwards to a famous fish head restaurant in the Fengtai District. Amazing. On Saturday, I visited Sanlitun with one of my friends from high school, who also happens to be in Beijing until the end of the month. He speaks way better Chinese than me, so it was nice to let him navigate. We walked around and I got to soak in the Sanlitun vibe (which is really interesting), and then had dinner at a Mexican restaurant! Sanlitun is in the Chaoyang District of Beijing, where most of the embassies are located. Consequently, there’s a lot more access to foreign conveniences like imported foods and international restaurants than in other parts of Beijing. It was like a little piece of home!
This weekend we’re planning on going swimming again, and hopefully at some point I’ll be able to go to the cinema to see Godzilla. I’ve wanted to see that movie so badly since it came out, but never had the opportunity before I left the States. So far I’ve found two other people willing to go with me: James, a lawyer at Zhicheng, and Guoke, my flatmate. Keep your fingers crossed for me because, seriously, you don’t know much I have wanted to see Godzilla.
It’s almost lunchtime and one of our lawyers who is attending a conference in South Africa this week just dropped off more work on my desk so I’d better go. Before I do, a little humor: we recently got a Nespresso coffee machine in the office (if you don’t know about Nespresso, it comes with a bunch of different flavored coffee bullets with really elaborate Italian names that no one can figure out). So no one knew what flavor of coffee they were getting until James wrote out descriptions of the coffee flavors for the office. I found them extremely humorous so wanted to share! My favorite is the description for Fortissio Lungo.
OH ANOTHER THING, which is also humorous: Did you know that Nespresso has exclusive “clubs”? Like, they’re Nespresso store-type venues, but only MEMBERS of the club can enter the store or order coffee. There’s one in Sanlitun. I just don’t understand.
Okay, I have to go. Look forward to more titillating blog posts in the future!