'Sea gypsies' find their feet and prosper

The once-impoverished Tanka people have found new livelihoods and opportunities after moving ashore

Jiang Chengcai can still remember the discomfort he experienced when he slept on a real bed in a real home for the first time.

He was accustomed to resting on planks under a bamboo cover on his boat home.

It was 1999, and he had lived on a boat for 32 years. Growing up, he shared a 10-square-meter sampan with his parents and siblings.

He was married on another small sampan, a wedding present from his parents, where his wife later gave birth to their three children.

"Even today, I cannot bear to recall those memories," said the 52-year-old resident of Xiaqi village in Fu'an, Fujian province.

Jiang is one of the Tanka people, or boat dwellers, who traditionally lived on sampans and made a living by fishing and ferrying on the coastal waters of southern China.

Also known as "sea gypsies", they were not only born on the fishing boats, but also grew up, worked and died there. Though all discriminatory policies against the Tanka have been eliminated since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, few of them could afford to build a house on land.

As a child, Jiang recalled that going ashore with his father was almost like an adventure and he would hide behind him to avoid people's stares.

Modern facilities are impossible in floating homes, with no tap water, no electricity and no access to education and healthcare. The bamboo cover at the stern of the vessel shelters the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, and is sometimes used for keeping poultry.

"We worked in the prow, and lived in the stern. Our life was like this for as long as I can remember," Jiang said.

He remembers a feeling of desperation when his children contracted high fevers, and there were no doctors available.

Life on shore

In 1997, a report about the plight of the Tanka people caught the attention of President Xi Jinping, who was then the deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China Fujian Provincial Committee.

There were 18,466 Tanka people from 4,125 households living on boats at the end of that year, local media reported.

Xi visited the boats and chaired a meeting in Fu'an, and called for efforts to resettle the Tanka people ashore as soon as possible.

He oversaw the resettlement program in person, and visited Xiaqi village in 1998 and 2000.

With a total investment of over 7 million yuan, authorities offered free land and a 1,300 yuan housebuilding subsidy for each person as part of the resettlement program in Xiaqi village.

A total of 2,310 people were able to leave their boat homes and move to resettlements, where tap water, electricity, cable television, medical facilities and schools were also provided.

In 2013, the government relocated another 642 people from 120 households to new homes as the old resettlements became overcrowded.

The resettlement program was a life-changer for Jiang and his family who were among the first group of villagers to secure a house and move ashore in 1999.

The initial period took some getting used to, he said. Jiang's father, like him, missed the sampan rocking them to sleep, and the family did not know how to use gas cookers given to them by the authorities.

"But it was warm, and we no longer had to withstand the freezing cold snaps during winter and worry about our boat being broken into pieces by typhoons," he said.

However, the fact that they were uneducated made it difficult for them to find jobs.

"Schooling was impossible for us because we had nowhere to go after school," he said, explaining that the Tanka people had to fish for their livelihoods.

To make a new living, Jiang learned from other fishermen how to raise razor clams in coastal waters.

Within a few years, he had guaranteed annual income of 70,000 yuan from the clams.

Jiang remembered his nervousness when Xi, when he was the governor of Fujian province, visited his family in November 2000.

"I almost trembled when I met with him. He was smiling, and greeted me with a handshake. It warmed my heart," he said.

"He said that 'You should continue the hard work now that you have resettled ashore'. I have been inspired by these words all my life," he said.

The Tanka people have good stamina and the difficult life on boats helps them endure hardships, Jiang said.

Secure future

After years of raising razor clams, Jiang has saved enough money to launch a private business as a building project contractor, with a pile driver he bought for about 1.1 million yuan.

He has also been able to afford to expand his home from a bungalow to a four-story house.

"I was virtually homeless before, and now I am building homes for others," he said.

Last year, the income generated by Xiaqi village reached 117 million yuan ($16.5 million), with per capita income of over 12,000 yuan.

The success of the Tanka people's resettlement program in Fujian province has also attracted international attention, including from Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit, also general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, who visited Xiaqi village on April 29.

"The local successful practices reflect General Secretary Xi Jinping's idea of targeted poverty reduction and the CPC Central Committee's purpose to benefit the people. There is still a large poverty-stricken population in Laos, so we will bring China's poverty-alleviation experiences and measures back to our country," Bounnhang was quoted by China Central Television as saying during the visit.

Among the prestigious visitors were lawmakers from seven countries in Central America.

Zheng Yue'e, Party chief of the village, said dramatic change is most evident in the number of college graduates it has produced.

"We did not have a single child entering college before we moved here. Now we have 260. They left their boats and went ashore and across the nation," she said.

"Being Tanka made us feel inferior to others when I was a child. Now we can take pride in that," she said.

A resident of Xiaqi village in Fu'an, Fujian province, sweeps a street in August. Xiaqi village is one of the resettlements of boat dwellers.Hu Meidong/china Daily