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It's your official place of residence paperwork. It can be used to limit internal migration as many official government activities like voting or paying taxes o
by bane 7y ago
It's your official place of residence paperwork. It can be used to limit internal migration as many official government activities like voting or paying taxes or whatever have to be done in the area for which your hukou is for. Housing is also suppose to verify you have a hukou for the place you are trying to buy/rent....that sort of thing.
- Ill_ban_myself 7y agoIn the west the idea of a hukou has been used by kings, lords, police, governments big and small of all kinds for more than 1000 years. It’s not a new idea it is one that I think most western countries would say, “we tried it and it failed.” For me it brings to mind racism, slavery, a good excuse for genocide. In the west the idea of hukou isn’t “foreign” it is too familiar and ugly. Like an alcoholic father you have left behind.
- krageon 7y agoThere really is no call for this sort of vitriol, especially when it isn't really paired with any information that we might learn from what you said. If you gave some actually tangible examples, perhaps this anger could at least be intellectually interesting.
- Ill_ban_myself 7y agoI'm not angry. As they say in America, "I have no dog in this fight." It does not bother me in any way that the government in China gets to decide whether and where people can travel or work or live. I'm glad they don't do it where I live, but I am sure the average Chinese citizen is glad they don't have to suffer many indignities and strange quirks of western life. I cannot, for instance, let my child play with a water gun at the public park for fear he will be shot and killed by a police officer. I do not need to pretend that's unquestionably good. It is certainly not the way I would prefer to live. It is just a fact of life.