Beggars, Masks, and Survival: A Different Kind of Street Economy
Before we talk about professional begging in China, let me start with a story my father once told me—one that’s completely true, a little grim, and very revealing. Because I’ve been blind since childhood, my father always had a soft spot for disabled beggars. Back in the 1980s, he was extremely wealthy, powerful, and well-connected—let’s just say not the kind of man most people argued with. Still, whenever he saw a disabled person struggling, he would stop his car to help them cross the street. If a beggar was visibly disabled, he always gave money. One night at a Taiwanese night market, he noticed a beggar sitting by the roadside. The man appeared to have no arms—empty sleeves hanging at his sides. My father didn’t have much cash on him at the time, so he gave the man $50. Later, feeling it wasn’t enough, he went to the bank, withdrew more money, and returned to give the beggar more. But just as he reached the nearby parking lot, he saw the same man walking away from...