流浪在纽约的中国移民
2013年07月19日
宝维瑞81号(81 Bowery)四层的居住条件很差，而且空间狭小：几十个人挤在各自的小隔间里，共用一个卫生间。他们大多是从中国来的新移民，年龄从19到88岁不等。但是，对于那些既没钱、又无处落脚的人来说，比如52岁的建筑工人朱本金（音译），这些壁橱大小的隔间便是家了。
然而，这里的生活被打乱了，3月7日那天，一些城市官员突然到来，他们拆掉了房门，下令人们离开这里。市政府在关闭该层宿舍时称其违反安全规定，以前政府也曾这样做过。
这次突袭让这里的居民感到迷茫并开始到处寻找可去之处，他们中有餐厅服务员、打零工的人、洗衣店工人和一个需要做透析的退休男子。
朱本金说，"我没有地方可去。我能住在地铁里吗？"他和其他人一样，支付这里每月200美元（约合1228元人民币）的房租。
对其他人来说，这次被驱逐不只是失去了一个睡觉的地方。一些人在这层楼里已住了30年了，在他们的眼里，这里有一个亲密的社区，邻居帮别人做饭，他们之间相互借钱，还一起看京剧。
62岁的陈秀康（音译）在一家中餐馆当厨师，他说，"我们就像一家人一样。互相帮助，互相依赖。"
市政府已给那些能证明自己是合法在此居住的人提供了临时住所。而那些没有文件证明的人则仍在寻找落脚点，目前只能是给亲戚和朋友增加负担了。
62岁的江金荣（音译）曾在餐馆工作，现已退休，他说，"我们从没想到会有这种情况。这里是美国，他们就这样把你赶走时，我们能怎么办？我们只能希望他们会早点让我们回来。"
纽约摄影师凌安妮（Annie Ling，音译），出生于台湾台北，她从2009年开始拍摄居住在宝维瑞81号的人。凌安妮关注中国城里移民面临的问题，她称自己的经历让她认识到这个社区是多么重要，但又是多么不稳定。她在中国城的暂居所曾在2008年烧毁，有一年时间她居无定处。她的首次大型个人摄影展将于今年晚些时候在美国华人博物馆(Museum of Chinese in America)开幕，其中将包括在宝维瑞81号拍摄的作品。
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July 19, 2013
Ousted by the City, Tenants Seek a Home
The accommodations on the fourth floor of 81 Bowery were meager and tight: dozens of people, mostly new Chinese immigrants ranging in age from 19 to 88, crammed into small cubicles, sharing a bathroom. But for people with little money and nowhere to stay, like Zhu Benjin, 52, a construction worker, the closet-size cubicles were home.
Life there was upended, however, on March 7, when city officials arrived unexpectedly, broke down the doors and ordered people to leave. In shutting the floor down, the city cited safety violations, as it has before.
The raid has left the residents — including restaurant workers, day laborers, laundromat attendants and a retired man on dialysis — bewildered and scrambling for somewhere to go.
"I have nowhere to go," said Mr. Zhu, who like others paid $200 a month in rent. "Am I supposed to live in the subway?"
For others, the crackdown meant more than just losing a place to sleep. Some residents had lived on the floor for 30 years, and they described a tight-knit community where neighbors cooked for one another, lent one another money and watched Chinese operas together.
"We were like a family," said Chen Xiukang, 62, a cook at a Chinese restaurant. "We help each other. We rely on one another."
The city has provided temporary housing to those who were able to prove that they were legally occupying their spaces. Others, without documentation, are still searching for places to stay — for now, imposing on friends and relatives.
"We never thought it would come to something like this," said Jiang Jinrong, 62, a retired restaurant worker. "Here in America, when they kick you out like this, what can we do? We just hope they let us back in soon."
Annie Ling, a New York-based photographer born in Taipei, Taiwan, photographed the tenants of 81 Bowery over a stretch beginning in 2009. Concerned with issues that affect Chinatown's immigrants, Ms. Ling said her own story — her Chinatown tenement burned down in 2008, rendering her homeless for a year — helped show her how important, yet precarious, that community is. Her first major solo show, including work from "81 Bowery," will open later this year at the Museum of Chinese in America.
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