关于穷人 | About the Poor
袁冬平
我是在上个世纪九十年代初执行民族画报社的采访任务时，才接触到了这些穷苦的农民。我至今仍然清楚地记得，当我面对他们的时候，给我的震动是多么的巨大！我们从小就被灌输"世界上还有三分之二的劳苦大众生活在水深火热之中"，所以怎么也不会想到，就在我们的社会主义新农村里，居然生活者这么多赤贫的人群。
很多国家都根据本国的国情，制订了自己的贫困线标准。例如美国，它是以家庭来计算的，2005年美国3口之家的贫困线是16090美元，平均每人每天14.69美元。世界银行对于发展中国家也有一个标准，即人均纯收入每天1美元．低于这个标准的，就是穷人。
1994年中国政府划定的贫困线是人均年收入400元人民币．换算成美元(即使按现在1：8的汇率计算)。人均每天只有14美分．按说这己经是一个非常低的标准了，可当时至少有好几千万中国人就生活在这条贫困线之下，极端的例子是云南省的鲁甸县，人均年收入只有120元人民币，平均每人每天还不到4美分。按照当时中国的物价水平，这些钱只值0.25公斤末加工的玉米粒。不要说温饱，就连延续生命的最低标准都难以达到。直至今天，虽然中国的贫困线标准随物价的上涨有所提高，达到了人均年收入668 元人民币，平均每人每天0.23 美元。但按照官方公布的数字，生活在这条贫困线以下的人口还有2600万.
这么多人如此艰难地生活者，简直是在挑战人类生存的极限。可是在那些年代，全中国没有一家媒体刊登过哪怕是一篇这方面的报道，或是发表过一张反映他们生存狀况的照片：因为这样的事情是绝对不允许报道的，那叫"给社会主义的脸上抹黑"。但那些穷苦农民的日子过得实在是太艰难了，所以当你面对他们的时候你真的无法漠视他们的存在．。也许就是因为这一点．促成了我对他们长达两年的拍摄。尽管我知道，我拍摄的照片可能没有地方发表，更不敢奢望对改善他们的境况有多少帮助。
上帝告诉我们：人人生而平等。社会中每一个个体都有追求和得到幸福的权利。但是对于我所见到的穷人来说，这些似乎距离他们极其遥远。。。
2006年10月10日
Yuan Dong Ping
I began to have contact with these poor people when I was conductingan interview assigned to me by The National Pictorial in the beginning ofthe 1990s. I still clearly remember the great shock I received when I wasfirst facing them! When we were young we were told that "in othercountries of the world two thirds of the working population were living inan abyss of misery. " I never expected to see so many destitute people inour own socialist new villages.
Many countries draw the poverty line according to their own economicsituations. Take the United States for example it is based on the familyincome; the poverty line for a family of three in 2005 was s16 090 onaverage, $14.69 per person per day. The World Bank also set the standardfor the developing countries, namely, if the average income per person perday is lower than $1, s/he is below the poverty line.
In 1994 the Chinese government set the poverty line of ¥400 a yearper person. Converted to the US dollars (by the exchange rate of 1 8) theaverage income was only $0.14 a day. This standard was already verylow but tens of millions of Chinese people were living under this povertyline. Take an extreme example of Ludian County of Yunnan Province theaverage annual income was only ¥120, less than $0.04 per person perday. According to the price in China at that time, it was enough to buy only 0. 28 kilograms of unprocessed kernels of com. which was barelyenough to sustain a person's life, Today, although China's poverty line hasbeen raised to ¥668 a year along with the rise of prices, on average ¥0.23 per person per day. There are still 26 million people living under thepoverty line according the officially published number.
So many people were living such a hard life, a challenge to theextremity of human existence. However, in those years, not a singlereport, not a single photo about this kind of existence was ever publishedin the media, because doing-so would "bring shame on socialism" and inwas absolutely forbidden. The life of those poor peasants was so hard thatwhen you faced them, you could not pretend not to see it. It was becauseof this that I photographed them for as long as two years, although I knewthat I would not be able to publish the photos, and I did not expect to beable to help these people.
God tells us that we are born equal. Everyone in the society has the right to the pursuit of happiness, but for those poor people I saw equalityand happiness seemed so far, far away from them...
October 10 2006