Sunday, June 25, 2006/9:07 am
Uniquely China


Going for a little photojournalistic approach here. The two Chinese characters you see on the right says "banzheng", which very roughly translates to "we can help you obtain all kinds of identity documents and licenses". There are basically two natures to this business: one, some crook could obtain for you a forged piece of identity document or driving license or virtually any form of credentials you might need; and two, someone less of a crook would obtain a legal piece of the document you wanted.

This uniquely China phenomenon underlines two problems. On one hand is of course the illegal forgery of documents, which is comparitively minor. On the other, however, is the apparently retarded process of obtaining documents through proper means. To apply for a passport, for instance, one would have to travel between three to four agencies, queueing for hours at each. This is where the someone-less-of-a-crook comes in. With some inside connections, he could get the thing done much faster and more easily than you. And that's how he earns his pay.

Such graffiti advertisements are all over any form of flat vertical surfaces in China, be it in cities or villages. And the authorities are either out of resources to tackle it, or simply don't find the incentive to. My guess is the latter.


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