Blog

It has long been established that the CCP’s main goal of Chinese society is to maintain “Harmony and Stability” due to the deep-rooted social inequality and repressed groups in the nation. The system of “Chengguan” (urban management) is one of many devices implemented by CCP to reinforce its political control over residents in the city and probably the most infamous one so far.

Originated in 1996 and developed in the early 20th century, the system oversees the environmental, traffic, business and other issues that might appear in urban development. One of the most prominent issues that the system deals with is hawkers. CCP and the government believe that hawkers in urban area cause severe environmental and food safety problems therefore are determined to regulate these small business on the streets and Chengguan plays an important role in the process. Since hawkers often run their business in the most populated areas in the city, they can be easily tracked by Chengguan. Though Chengguan officers do not have the power to arrest the hawkers, they may fine the owners under Law of the People’s Republic of China on Administrative Penalty. Needless to say that most of the hawkers are reluctant or even unable to pay these fine because they can barely cover their expenses running these stalls. So every time when Chengguan officers show up, hawkers would pack their things and run as the officers chased after them. Those who are not unable to run may negotiate with Chengguan officers, hoping the officers can spare them the penalties. This oftentimes leads to argument or even violent conflicts.

During the early age of social media in China when censorship in online platforms was not abundant, there were many videos of Chengguan officers chasing and beating hawkers violently. These videos were widely circulated in Weibo and other social media and given enormous attention because of the brutal acts of Chengguan officers. They usually showcased a group of officers surrounding a hawker, questioning the legitimacy of his/her business and when the hawker did not comply to the penalty and tried to argue with the officers, they would pin him/her down until the hawker comply. These cases happened every day in the cities of China and one case stood out because of its extreme violence and its social influence. In 2009, Xia Junfeng, a hawker who sold barbecue food in Shenyang, was rounded up and taken to the Administration of Urban Management for penalty because he run the business without a license. In the Administration, he stabbed two Chengguan officers with a small knife, causing their deaths and fled the scene. He was then arrested and trialed. After multiple appeals, the court maintain the initial verdict and sentenced Xia to death.

The case generated vigorous discussion on the Internet. Netizens criticized the Chengguan system for being rigid and inhumane. Many thought Xia was a martyr that stood against the totalitarianism and state power of CCP. Other believed that the deaths of the two officers were expendable victims under meaningless pursuit of “Harmony and Stability”. Indeed, with the constant coverage of officers acting violently towards powerless hawkers, the term “Chengguan” has become the symbol of power abuse. Though we must not forget the institute that gives them such power and the fact that these officers were merely following the rules set by the state. Yet Chengguan officers become the outlets for ordinary people to express their resentment towards the government and the scapegoats for all the social problem(that we could observe).

Not a few scholars noticed urban planners’ perception of hostile relationship between street food and modernization of cities. Bluestone traced the historical policies about regulating pushcart markets in NYC, pointing out the traditional view that pushcarts are evil as it caused the neighborhood deterioration and street congestion (1991). The pushcart market is a stain on the modernity because of its representation of working class and the poor people. It also occupies the roads thus aggravating the traffic problem. Though the sight in northern side, this consideration is also in China where modernization is the national goal. In Shanghai, now you can hardly find pushcarts on the streets, instead, enclosed markets or officially regulated open-air markets steadily become the social pattern of daily life. Here is a news about the previous street food market at Zhangjianggaoke underground station (link is here). The street food market was complained by students and workers because of its dirty, smell and occupation of the road, though these stalls are the main source of those people’s breakfast. Later, government banned the market. Even the reason of all these modern cities whether in North or South; West or East that the cleaning, tidy look of a city is one symbol of successful modernization. The life of the poor is sacrificed to a bigger blueprint in which they actually and should be involved in but are hidden.  

 

On the other hand, some scholars asked, is street market really the intervention of city development? Ray in his article stated that street market is part of the social infrastructure and the livelihood rather than the representation of backwardness (2020). Pacetta mentioned “there is a strong nostalgic attachment on the part of many of our citizens for these markets” and this nostalgia “tends to predominate over the complaints in contemporary views of street peddlers” (Bluestone, 1991, p. 89). In the case of Zhangjianggaoke, replacing those illegal street stalls, the government licensed a few street stalls and regulated the ingredients supply. These stalls are only permitted to set in the park in order to avoid the aggravation of congestion. In fact, the similar policy is universal in Chinese cities. The official project of breakfast pushcarts can be found in many cities that individuals can apply to the government. These pushcarts are licensed in food safety and street occupation. Yet illegal pushcarts still exist since not every individual has the knowledge and channel to apply for the license. And that would be the problem need to solve.

 

All in all, we can see the possibility to balance street markets and modernity though the current solution may not be fully mature. But that is the hint to us to consider the real status of street market in social life and try to put it into the scope of city planning, I mean, in a positive way. The question, how long will it take?

 

 

Three months after the outbreak of pandemic in China, the phase “stall economy” suddenly became prevalent among media and local governments. It was explained as a temporary appeal to revitalize the domestic economy hit by the chaos in the past months. As Ray claims, street vending requires small capital and less skills, which effectively supports people who lose their jobs in the recession or who intend to increase some income outside formal employment. China’s street vending has been gradually prohibited in the local city governing projects in recent years. It is true that roadside booths have caused clogging of the pavements and the streets and some sanitation issues, which seemingly suggests the clearance of peddlers as a sign of development in city-building. However, as street vendors were roughly driven out of urban public spaces by local regulations that refuse to consider different situations (yidaoqie zhengce), many of them no longer appeared and their unemployment and tough livelihood became invisible, less-concerned to the public. It may also have resulted in more theft, robbery, and extreme crimes. That echoes Ray’s idea that the ban of street vending damages social equality and participatory democracy.

 Chengguans are driving the street vendor out 

Previously, our prime minister Li Keqiang declared that in a city of Western China, 36,000 transient stalls were set up according to the local regulations and more than 100,000 people were employed within a day. Yet since the revival of stall economy extended so fast that the fixed problems of roadside booths emerged again, many local governments had to roughly pause it. It indicates that there is no mature, sustainable management model of street vending in China yet.

Apart from the state restrictions, Chinese hawkers are faced with new challenges in this rejuvenation. First is the threat posed by fast-developing e-commerce and mobile food delivery apps. People once purchased at peddlers because goods there were accessible and cheap, but nowadays they have lost their advantages with the rise of e-commerce platforms, where sellers could provide products with lower prices and the return and exchange of items are easy. Remarkably, Pinduoduo, an e-commerce platform that encourages customers to refer friends and buy products collectively (pintuan), is increasingly popular among students and lower-income employers, who are much inclined to shop at the vendors in the past. Plus, discounts, coupons, refer and earn, and other gamification motivate users to spend more and make them more loyal to the apps. Second, as food security laws and urban residents’ awareness of food security were developed, eating on the street has been in decline and people are less likely to consume food of unknown origin or food cooked in the dusty streets, which make food vendors more difficult to survive.

When Ray rethinks markets as a social infrastructure rather than as a mere sites of capital accumulation, I also agree that hawkers and street stalls should be allowed in Chinese cities, even in metropolis, but it needs meticulous regulations and transformation on the functions of street vending. From my perspective, it is essential to establish a legal system that identifies what departments should be responsible for the vending management and what time, space, and scopes of business of vending are permitted. Nowadays, peddlers clustering at large-scale wet markets and night markets have been asked to register, yet many other vendors circumvent the registration and avoid tax paying. Also, much municipal authority does not adopt effective measures to constantly manage the hawkers. In this case, I think digital social credit system that allows customers to both grade the stalls and expose the unregistered vendors should be introduced.

a temporary market site for the fruit peddlers 

In addition, I believe it is significant to transform the functions of street vending from exclusive daily transaction to cultural, tourist experience. Look at the floating markets in Bangkok and night markets in Taiwan. These markets have become unique cultural symbols of the cities and are often nominated as “must-see” destinations on social media. They are “visually attractive” and the food sold there is empowered “an object of gustatory and aesthetic interest”. I see vendors who sell handicrafts and freshly-cooked food are more likely to survive in this kind of markets, for the making of those products has fascinating exhibition value and could easily let customers distinguish one stall from another and potentially help build their brand. Though it requires vendors to learn some skills, once get the hang of it, they could probably set the price higher and earn a sustainable income.

a night market in Taiwan

a floating market in Bangkok

Wenjun Fang(wf646)

Stall economy during the pandemic time in China

The stall economy has a long history in China. When I was young, there are lots of different kinds of food trucks around the campus. It is the most exciting thing for me to enjoy snack time with my friends after school. Besides food trucks, there are also street vendors selling comic books, funny little toys, or other interesting stuff for young school kids. Those street vendors are part of my generation’s communal childhood memory. However, street vending has then been controlled strictly by the government because the government believes they negatively influence the city’s appearance. The vendors always gathering together around the place where the flow of people is high, include campus, hospital, office buildings, and subway stations, which increased the risk of public safety. They do not have a fixed store, so it is hard to track all those vendors, making food safety issues or other commodity quality problems hard to solve. However, the stall economy has once again conquered the Chinese cities due to its unique economic ecology and strong vitality during the pandemic time.

A few months ago, the stall economy became the hottest topic on social media in China. At the end of this May, street vending has been officially removed from the state council’s city appearance assessment criteria. After being strictly managed for a long time, street vending has been allowed and encouraged by urban planners. The prime minister mentioned at the state council meeting that there are 600 million people in China with a monthly income of 1,000 RMB. Especially during the pandemic time, this large, low-income population losing jobs has become a serious social issue. Those people are usually at lower education levels, and most of them are manual workers. The decrease in lower threshold jobs on the market makes their life even harder. Therefore, street vending became the political expedient during the pandemic time.

Street vending has characteristics of low cost and high flexibility. When there was no job, street vending became the way to create more jobs, especially for low-income people. It doesn’t need high education level or particular skills, even does not need that much investment to start the business. It does not require street vendors to be creative or innovative; it is still a traditional business model. For long-term economic development, the stall economy is not a good idea since it will make the economic system lose its competitiveness and cause a bigger problem. But for the short term, such a low-cost way of starting a new business is an urgent solution to increase job opportunities.

On the other hand, social media also played an important role in encouraging street vending. I found it interesting that most people discussing the street vending and stall economy online are not the vendors but the customers. They are not coming from the low-income group, but their interests in street vending make the business happened. The street vending awakens their childhood memories, which makes them willing to shop at such places. It is also a critical reason why street vending can be so popular during the time.

  In Rethinking Street Vending, Krishnendu Ray talks about the relationship between street vendors and cities. It is pointed out that “street vendors bring life to dull streets, yet urban planners often describe street vending as a manifestation of both poverty and underdevelopment, so that its disappearance is viewed a progress toward the brave new developed world of universal prosperity.”  Also, “urban self-employment is essential to the mix of economic opportunities for the poor”, and “one of the most ubiquitous occupations people have when they move from the country to the city, small town to large city, or even across nations, is street vending because it requires relatively little money or credit or social or cultural capital to get into the business of selling food.” These remind me of a piece of news I saw recently that a wet market in Wuhan is now undergoing an upgrading process. One of the new regulations that is going to take effect along with the upgrading process is that female vendors who are over 45 and male vendors who are over 50 will not be allowed to do street vending in this market. This particular new regulation makes a lot of vendors confused: they think this regulation is too high and unreasonable; at the age of around 50, they depend on selling fresh vegetables to make a living, and if they are not allowed to do so anymore, what else can they do?

  Many people have expressed their views on social media about this news. “Why is it that even doing street vending and selling vegetables can have an age limit?” ” What can those over 45 and unemployed people do now?” “So does this mean that those aged 30-40 should become street vendors selling vegetables?”  “Those street vendors are typically elder people who are jobless and want to make a living by doing street vending, do the guys who make this rule ever go to a wet market?”  Most people think this new regulation is not fair and lack enough consideration of the situation. There has been a heated discussion toward this news since its was exposed on the Internet, and this has pressured the related government department to give a response. Luckily the market was required by the government department to rescind this regulation so those elder street vendors do not have to worry about thins anymore. 

  In fact, the new set of regulations aims to make the overall environment of the market better, to have standard management so that it can have good order. In doing so, previous stereotype like wet markets are messy and dirty  could be changed. It is not wrong to have the market upgraded to become a better place, but this does not mean that any regulations considered too rigorous can be implemented without any opposing voices. Under the present circumstance where everything in China is starting to recover from Covid-19, it is even more important to give more tolerance and understanding to street vendors to help them get through this hard period of time.

read more here

 

The street vending economy is part of the urban economy, and it cannot completely disappear. Therefore, rather than blindly wanting to dismantle or confiscate their carts or other work equipment, we should think about the reasons why they are so tenacious – and how to strike a balance between the issue of stalls and urban road rights.

Here, Porto Alegre in Brazil may be an example of urban governance. When I was in Porto Alegre(POA), Brazil, the teacher once mentioned to me that there would be groups of small vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables, etc., at a fixed time and place every week. The ingredients over there are cheap, good quality, and fresh. So, my roommates and I went to buy food many times. Later, we learned from many parties that the phenomenon of stalls organized by the government is called feira modelo in Brazil, also known as model fair. It is a “fruit and vegetable trade demonstration zone”, which effectively solves the problem of messy stalls.

The feira modelo project is under the direct supervision of the Economic Promotion Bureau, and 35 blocks in the POA have been used as a semi-temporary stall location. The types of hawkers in different places may not be the same, and the opening time of each place is different. If a hawker wants to participate in this kind of market, he needs to apply to the Economic Promotion Bureau. After the application is approved, they can have a stall of their own.

This kind of market has received a very high degree of attention, and many people will deliberately buy fresh ingredients every week. After a long time, I will also have a feeling of love for the unique street food there. At the same time, the types of food there are also very rich, such as the fair I often go to, which has a Taiwanese stall. The couple there runs a Chinese restaurant, and then take time out to set up a stall every week, selling Chinese specialties-steamed buns, tea, moon cakes, etc., some of which are homemade, some of which he brought from China.

---

Such semi-mobile and semi-fixed stalls have advantages and disadvantages. First, it solved the problem that some small vendors had no place to operate. The basic fee charged by such a booth is fixed and not expensive, so it can have a better income; at the same time, such a booth setting also makes the city more organized. Customers who visit the same place many times will have a sense of familiarity with the vendors and purchase more goods. Of course, the downside is that these places are not the most crowded. At the same time, the goods here are more like a retail market. Most people come with a purpose instead of passing them occasionally.

However, this is the characteristic of the Brazilian streets.

Brazilian streets are very unsafe, especially some narrow streets. People try to avoid exposing their mobile phones and other valuable items when walking because there is a risk of being robbed by roads at any time. And in this danger, Brazil’s feira modelo adds a kind of security to the quiet streets-a large number of shops crowds, which makes some obvious robberies impossible, and also makes people walking around more at ease.

From an ordinary point of view, people seem to tend to think that the flow of small vendors will make the streets more dangerous, because the flow of people will encounter obstacles, and the noisy environment will increase the possibility of street theft. But I think the Brazilian example is the opposite. Due to the high rate of robbery on the streets of Brazil, the streets of Brazil always look lifeless, people come and go in a hurry, and with the help of this characteristic feira modelo, some streets start to become vibrant-you can see some young parents pushing Bring your children to the market in a stroller, which usually only happens in large shopping malls.

Therefore, Brazil’s feira modelo now appears to be a move that has more advantages than disadvantages. In Brazil, roadside stalls are not very common behavior now. In fact, the most unique thing about Brazil is also about hawking on the beach and in the subway. I am not going to discuss it here. But if you are interested, try to open the links and watch the videos.