International Law

?Chinese Cities Need Slums?

By Stan

Today in Xinhua:

A Chinese scholar from one of China’s most prestigious universities claimed slums should be allowed to exist in China’s big cities to provide shelters for the urban poor.

"It is no shame for big cities to have such areas. On the contrary, Shenzhen and other cities should take initiatives to build cheap residential areas for low-income residents including migrant workers who want to stay in the cities where they work," said Tsinghua University Professor Qin Hui.

"By building those areas, big cities could show more consideration for low-income residents, and provide them with more welfare," Qin said in his speech at a public forum on urbanization in Shenzhen over the weekend.

It’s too bad that there isn’t a better word than "slum" to use here. This really does this professor, who was discussing an extremely important issue, a disservice. For someone to advocate "slums" (in English) is quite a negative, sort of a Marie Antoinette "let them eat cake" kind of thing.

Very different from advocating adequate low income housing, yes? The Chinese term used was "???" - if anyone knows a better translation than "slum" please let me know.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on April 16, 2008 (boomark / email).