Man on the Street is a regular series where we talk to someone doing an everyday job, in order to gain insight into the lives of normal Chinese people.
It’s just after noon on a Sunday when we spot our guy: a youngish-looking man wearing a neon vest, broom and dustpan in hand. He’s balancing precariously on a white railing that faces Tianhe Dong Lu, leaning into oncoming traffic to sweep up an unruly plastic bottle.
Our eyes meet momentarily as he steps down, but in a second he’s off again, navigating the sea of cigarette butts littered across the pavement. We jog to catch up.
“Hey there, you patrol this street every day?” It’s a random question to break the ice, as he’s eyeing our camera timidly and doesn’t look like the loquacious type.
“Uh, no, we switch neighborhoods every month,” he mumbles in a thick accent we later learn is Sichuanese. It takes a short spiel about how invaluable his work is before he stops sweeping to give us his full, albeit guarded, attention.
For 12 straight years, Yang, who asked that we use his surname, has been cleaning the streets of Guangzhou eight hours a day, six days a week. He sweeps alone, since getting caught jabbering with cohorts can result in a deduction from his already-meager salary of RMB3,000 per month.
Stopping him to chat in broad daylight suddenly seems terribly inconsiderate, but Yang declines our offer to walk and talk.
“Don’t worry about it, my boss is at lunch now,” he insists, looking rather determined to make the most of this precious interruption. He says passersby rarely give him the time of day, much less strike up a conversation, but their attitude doesn’t faze him.
“They see my job as the lowest line of work there is. Me? I’m just getting by. I moved here from Sichuan for better shebao and retirement benefits, but this city isn’t as good as it used to be – there are no opportunities.”
He tells us Tianhe District alone has seven sanitation bases, each staffed with hundreds of employees assigned to pick up garbage along different street corners. Yang has reasonable shifts – 10am to 2pm and 5-9pm – but others work all night, from 1am until dawn.
“I used to work the night shift,” he says. “It’s cooler at night but I don’t like cleaning up vomit. Like this place… see the KTV there? There will be vomit here tonight.”
Unlike taxi drivers and security guards, sanitation workers employed by the state enjoy enough annual leave to travel back to their hometowns once a year. Yang sees the journey more as a chore, however, since his wife and child already live with him in Guangzhou.
“My relatives don’t want to hear about garbage,” he grunts when we ask if he’s become an advocate for environmentally friendly behavior. “You tell them not to litter and they’ll curse you.”
Yang’s daughter, on the other hand, is different.
“My kid knows enough not to throw trash on the street, but she’d never do my job.” He pauses. “She wants to be a policewoman.”
THE DIRTY DETAILS
Salary: RMB3,000
Days per week: 6
Hours per day: 8
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