Our reporter/Yang Zhijie

Published in China Newsweek with the number 997,2021.5.31.

It has been more than a week since "mass exile". In mid-May, Hanako, aged 65,438+05, returned to school. He wore a brand-new red and yellow junior high school uniform, took three exams, and couldn't do many questions about English history and politics. Before the exam, the teacher comforted him specially, "Do what you can, and take your time when you can't."

On May 1 day, four Wuqiao acrobatic teenagers "headed by him" left collectively and lost contact during the performance in Chengdu. Among the four people, Huazi is the oldest, 15, his younger brother Hadron 12, and Xiao Xin 14, and the youngest is only 1 1. In late April, they were sent to Chengdu from Wuqiao, Hebei Province to look for Shang Yan. They met Cao Tao, a Chengdu agent who frightened them. The children told the media that Cao Tao refused to give them breakfast and practiced until late at night, and four people were fined 500 push-ups and even abused many times because of their performance mistakes.

(2065438+March 2009, students trained in an acrobatic training center in wuqiao county. Figure /IC)

The unbearable children chose to escape. On May 7th, all four people were found by their parents and brought back to their hometown in Guizhou. At present, Huazi is arranged by Zhuyuan Township, Bijie City, Guizhou Province to study in the first grade in a local middle school. My brother and Xiao Hao went on to primary school, and Xiao Xin was taken to Guiyang by his mother. None of them want to go back to learn acrobatics. Besides hard training, Hanako told China that he was more afraid of going out to perform in the future and "meeting the second and third boss Cao".

After fingerprinting, the child was taken away.

Bijie is a mountainous area, and Huazi's home is on the hillside. A platform was cut on the slope and four bungalows were built. Hanako lives in a room with her brother, her sister in a room, and her father in another room, with the kitchen outside. There is no outer wall in the yard, and there is a half slope in front. Going down is the main road in the village.

Hanako spoke in a low voice and answered questions in the interview. A township cadre who has been in contact with Hanako many times also noticed that "this child is shy and obedient, and will not contradict you". On the other hand, Hanako and his younger brother ran away from home many times and were called "problem of juvenile" in the village.

Father Simomo found that his eldest son was "good-natured, good-tempered, and would not get into trouble, but he left after reading for a few days." . The teacher asked him if he wanted to go to school. He said yes and left in a few days. "In the past four or five years, every few months, he will run away from home with his brother. The longest one was found by the police station four months later. Every time he runs away, there is no warning. Once, Simomo was washing clothes at home. He watched Hanako leave with his younger brother, but he just reacted and chased him out, and he was gone.

More often, Simomo is not at home. His wife has been away for years, and he lives alone with four children. The two divorced last year, and the wedding photos in the room have never been removed. He usually pulls goods by car and works as a cement worker. If there is a wedding in the surrounding towns and villages, he will play Lusheng in the past. Too much energy was spent on making a living, and he never really asked his son why he often ran away from home.

(Zhuyuan Township, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, the home of the escaped acrobatic teenager Huazi. Photography/Reporter Yang Zhijie)

Hanako remembers that he first ran away from home at the age of 10. His mother was working outside at that time. He heard that it was in Bijie, not far from Zhuyuan Township, so he took his younger brother to find his mother. They didn't know the way, so they didn't know how far they had walked along the expressway, and finally they were brought back by the police. In four or five years, Hanako realized that her mother had left them at home and no longer wanted to look for her, but running away from home became a habit. "It feels fun to go out." Many times, he and his younger brother wandered in the mountains and had no money. When they were hungry, they went to pick fruits and once made a living by picking up garbage.

Two sons make Simomo miserable, but these children are the key enrollment targets of the Acrobatic Troupe. An acrobatic troupe practitioner in Wuqiao told China News Weekly that acrobatic training was too hard, and almost all local children in Wuqiao no longer engaged in acrobatics. The difficulty in enrolling students is a dilemma faced by the whole industry in recent years. Acrobatic troupes often go to the surrounding poor towns, and even go all the way to the southwest provinces or related places to recruit students. The recruitment notice on the website of a local acrobatic troupe in Wuqiao even explicitly mentioned that it is necessary to recruit students for left-behind children who are tired of studying, playing truant or dropping out of school, problem of juvenile and poor children, so that they can "stand on their own feet after integrating into society".

According to a teacher in charge of teaching in wuqiao county Vocational Education Center, acrobatic troupe enrollment "has certain social value". Most of the children recruited by the Acrobatic Troupe come from single parents or divorced families, and some are even orphans. "Some scholars will feel bad about their children when they see the news, but the current situation is that the acrobatic troupe takes the children out, cultivates acrobatic skills, and manages to eat and control, reducing the burden on parents. No matter how many years you study, children will be able to earn money and alleviate the poverty of their families. For the family situation of these children, this is their way out. "

In the middle and late June of 2020, Gao Wenjun, head of the Acrobatic Troupe in wuqiao county, Hebei Province, took a teacher and drove to Zhuyuan Township, Guizhou Province. He found a local acquaintance as a guarantor and enrolled students in the name of "Wuqiao Vocational Education Variety Acrobatic Circus Training Center" and "Wuqiao Vocational Education Variety Acrobatic Circus Martial Arts Dance Training Center". It is understood that half of the children of Gao Wenjun Acrobatic Troupe are from Guizhou, and the rest are from Henan and Yunnan. Guizhou is the birthplace of an "ideal". A local told China Newsweek that every family here has at least two children, and young parents go out to work, leaving the elderly and children in the village. Only some children can change their fate by going to school, and more children repeat the fate of their parents' generation, working in the mountains or going out to work.

The guarantor took Gao Wenjun to Simomo and suggested that "disobedient children can be sent to this school to study". He said that he had been to the school in Hebei and the conditions were very good. I remember Mr. Gao introduced that "children can learn martial arts and acrobatics, have food and shelter, and be assigned after graduation". But he disagreed at first. "I don't know Gao Wenjun." A few days later, the three men came to lobby again. Hadron, 1 1 years old, cried when he heard the introduction and said he wanted to sign up. Simomo couldn't stop it, because he trusted the guarantor, Gao Wenjun, to sign a free student contract. After pressing the handprint, Hadron was taken away.

Gao Wenjun also went to another village in Zhuyuan Township. Qin Zheng's family has three children. The guarantor came to the door and told her and her husband, "This is a public school. Children used to learn dance and acrobatics, learn culture, and have food and shelter. Leave if you want, and forget it if you don't want. " Qin Zheng didn't read a book, didn't know acrobatics, and even thought it was dancing. It is a luxury for her to send her children to learn dance. The village where she lives is located in a mountain. Children learn to dance and have to be sent to the nearest Dafang county. It takes nearly 1 hour to drive. Moreover, she and her husband have to do odd jobs on weekends, and they have no time or money.

(Exterior location involved in wuqiao county acrobatic circus. Photography/Reporter Yang Zhijie)

Finally, the boss didn't want to leave home for the distant northern city, but Xiao Hao, the second son of 10, was moved. The guarantor read them the terms of the contract. Qin Zheng didn't agree. The child is too young and she wants to be with her, but her husband insists on signing the contract. Less than two hours before and after, Qin Zheng watched her husband sit in Gao Wenjun's car and sent his son to Hebei.

Hanako, who stayed at home, ran twice again. He once proposed to drop out of school to learn to repair cars. Simomo found him a master, and within two months, he ran away again. Last September, when Hanako came home, he heard that his younger brother was doing well in Hebei and offered to learn acrobatics. "I told him that after giving you a week to think about it, I will support whatever you want." Simomo told China Newsweek. A week later, Wang Fengshou received a positive reply from his son. His name is Gao Wenjun. Soon, Gao Wenjun came to Zhuyuan Township again and took Hanako to wuqiao county to learn acrobatics.

I practiced "kicking people" for seven months.

Wuqiao county is located in the southeast of Hebei Province, at the junction of two provinces (Hebei and Shandong) and three cities (Cangzhou, Hengshui and Dezhou). It takes nearly three days to drive to Zhuyuan Town. Since ancient times, the local land has been barren, and people practice acrobatics and go out to perform arts during the slack season. Known as the "hometown of acrobatics", "Wuqiao Acrobatics" was included in the first list of national intangible cultural heritage representatives.

Today, acrobatics is still an important way for local people to make a living. The relevant person in charge of wuqiao county Cultural Tourism Bureau told China Newsweek that there are more than 300,000 people in wuqiao county. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 30,000 people engaged in acrobatic cultural tourism in China, and there are 97 acrobatic troupes.

In the local area, running an acrobatic troupe is not much different from opening a small restaurant. This is business. Acrobatic troupes are mostly self-employed, training and cultivating apprentices by themselves. Near the local scenic spot "Acrobatic World" in 4A, you can see eight or nine acrobatic troupe stores. In some shops, several children practice basic skills in the living room.

More acrobatic troupes are scattered in the towns around the county seat, and the acrobatic circus of Gao Wenjun involved in the case is in Tiezhen, which is more than ten kilometers away from the acrobatic world. On May 18, China Newsweek came to the circus. From the outside, it is just an ordinary rural family, but a faded dark red sticker of Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School is still stuck on the outer wall facing the street, and a large training room can be seen through the window. At this point, the room was empty.

At the end of September last year, Hanako was brought here for the first time. They called it "hometown". On holidays, thirty or forty students of the Acrobatic Troupe train in their hometown. They usually practice acrobatics in wuqiao county Vocational and Technical Education Center (hereinafter referred to as Vocational Education Center) in the county, and have two Chinese classes on Sunday morning and afternoon.

At 5: 30 every day, the children get up and practice basic skills. At first, Hanako looked at others standing head down against the wall and felt very difficult. But it wasn't long before he came into contact with the first program "Kicking People" and realized that it was not easy to learn acrobatics. Hanako is old and tall, so she can only be a "base", lying on the ground with her legs cocked to support a person to step on it. The teacher asked a child to stand up and find balance. First, insist on 10 minutes, and the time will gradually increase. Every time Hanako gets up, her clothes are wet. What worries him more is the poor cooperation. The child above fell and hit Hanako, or fell to the ground and hurt himself.

Hanako studied in the Acrobatic Troupe for seven months. Except for the two days off during the Spring Festival, he and other children train every day and go to bed around 8 pm. During the Spring Festival holiday for two days, the children sat in the yard of their hometown, chatting in the house, and could not go out. When Gao Wenjun enrolled students, he promised to take them to the park to see the scenery, but when he arrived, he found that he could not go anywhere.

Hanako has been practicing "kicking people" for seven months, and he is still practicing cooperative programs with his younger brothers Hadron, Xiao Xin and Xiaohao. The four of them practiced quickly. As the May Day Golden Week approached, Gao Wenjun decided to let them perform in Chengdu, which they called "internship". At this time, they have been exposed to acrobatics for less than 1 year. A retired acrobatic practitioner in Wuqiao told China Newsweek that going out to perform has little to do with the length of study. "Some people can't go to the internship after studying for more than a year, and some people can go out after a few months of contact. As long as you practice something, you have to go out to perform and consolidate, and you can't build a car behind closed doors. You can finally become an actor after going back and forth a few times. "

"Why don't we run?"

On April 20th, Gao Wenjun took four children to Chengdu by car and arrived two days later. He left the children in the care of Cao Tao, the head of Chengdu Wings of the Wind Culture Media Co., Ltd., and lived in chenghua district with Cao Tao. On April 23rd, Gao Wenjun left Chengdu.

According to the official investigation of Wuqiao, from April 23rd to May 1 day, four teenagers were arranged by Cao Tao to participate in the performance of 10, with each performance lasting about 20 minutes. Hanako remembers that they went to hotels, KTV, celebrations or weddings. On the most day, they went to three places in a row.

The reason that prompted these four people to run away from home was Cao Tao's management style. If there is no performance in the morning, they will get up around 8 o'clock and go home at night. Even if it is 1 1, the four of them will practice until 1 in the morning, review programs and do physical training. Hanako told China Newsweek that during more than a week in Chengdu, the boss Cao never gave them breakfast. On the most transitional day, the four of them ate nothing from morning till night. "So in the third scene, Xiao Xin made a mistake and the child above fell down. After the performance, Boss Cao scolded him backstage. " Some people explained that they made mistakes because they were too hungry, but boss Cao's scolding didn't stop. Hanako remembers that night, they ate the leftover box lunch of others.

1 In the morning, I got up late and was late for the meeting, and was scolded by my boss Cao all the way. When he got home in the afternoon, Xiao Xin secretly said to Hanako, "Why don't we run?" The other two people also gathered around, and no one objected. But Hanako hesitated for an afternoon. He didn't like Boss Cao either, but the four of them only had 200 yuan's cash, which was not enough.

1 At 8 o'clock in the evening in May, Cao Tao went out for a drink, leaving four sons and daughters at home and asking them to continue practicing. "Later, boss cao seems to have forgotten to bring something. When he came up to see that we didn't practice, he scolded again. " This made Hanako determined to escape, and Xiao Xin proposed to escape again, and all three agreed. Soon, they opened the door and ran out.

At first, four people walked along a road. Some people worry that the goal is too big, so they propose to split into two teams. At the request of Xiao Xin, my brother Hanako and Xiao Xin together, and my brother Hadron and Xiao Hao together, each got 100 yuan. "Xiao Xin thinks that my brother and I have the experience of escaping and can lead the team alone." At an intersection, the two teams parted ways. Hanako said that it didn't take long to regret being separated from her brother. But in this strange city, the other two little friends are like raindrops falling into the water, which has long been hard to find.

Members of the Dachuan Rescue Team who helped find the children told the Beijing News reporter that through monitoring, they saw Hadron and Xiaohao staying up all night, running 10 kilometers to the southwest and coming to the shopping mall near Chengdu South Railway Station. During the day, they run and play in the shopping center. When they are tired, they sleep on their stomachs. In the afternoon, they came out of the shopping mall, bought an ice cream, each took a bite, and continued to walk south. Hanako and Xiao Xin went to Shuangliu Airport by bus and found a park to rest that night. Xiao Xin wants to walk back to Guizhou, but she doesn't know the way. They loitered on the road and slept in the park at night. All the money is spent on water and bread. On the fifth day, when all the money was spent, Hanako and her husband began to rummage through the garbage on the roadside for food.

At 7 o'clock on the morning of May 3, Qin Zheng received a phone call from the police, only to know that his son was lost in Chengdu. She didn't understand how Xiao Hao went to school in Hebei and came to Sichuan. She started the whole family to drive to Chengdu, posted everywhere looking for you, tracked and monitored, and searched for her son in various parks.

On the evening of May 6, Hanako and Xiao Xin were walking in a square when they were discovered by two plainclothes policemen. On the afternoon of May 7, Xiao Hao and Qiang Zi were found near a park. Qin Zheng recalled that when he saw his son, he seemed to have just walked out of the garbage, covered in red envelopes bitten by mosquitoes.

The Contemporary Dilemma of Traditional Commerce

(May 19, Wuqiao Scenic Area "Acrobatic World" folk acrobatic troupe, students are practicing basic skills. Photography/Reporter Yang Zhijie)

20 1 1910.2 On October 2, wuqiao county established the Acrobatic Vocational Education Alliance (hereinafter referred to as Acrobatic Alliance) and formulated the articles of association of Wuqiao Acrobatic Vocational Education Alliance, which stipulated that wuqiao county Vocational Education Center should cooperate with folk miscellaneous technical schools.

In the acrobatic league, the acrobatic troupe recruits acrobatic apprentices by itself, and is fully responsible for the daily management of accommodation, professional course teaching and practical training. Vocational education center is responsible for student status and culture teaching, and registers qualified acrobatic apprentices for students. Neither party charges any fees for registered students. There are three modes of cooperation between the two parties, namely, each school group in the alliance sends students to the vocational education center for unified training and unified internship and training; Teaching and training are organized by the vocational education center, and practice and training are organized by the school league itself; Cultural classes are "sent to the countryside" by the vocational education center, and each school group organizes training by itself.

It is understood that at present, there are only 10 local acrobatic troupes joining the Acrobatic League, and Gao Wenjun Acrobatic Troupe voluntarily applied to join, choosing the second mode of cooperation. The school he mentioned when enrolling students is a vocational education center, which provides specialized dormitory and teaching venue training for acrobatic troupes and gives them cultural classes.

The teacher of the above vocational education center said that children who learn acrobatics are special and have a poor foundation. If they take cultural classes in strict accordance with the standards of normal primary and secondary schools, "it is too difficult for them." 12 Some children of normal school age should go to junior high school, but they can't understand the junior high school curriculum. Therefore, for students of acrobatic league, the school takes the third grade as the dividing line, and children with poor foundation take courses below the third grade, learn pinyin, teach Arabic numerals, and teach addition and subtraction. Students with a good foundation take courses above grade three, teaching reading, writing, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions. There are public basic courses every night, including life skills, acrobatics, sports, dance and so on, and there are cultural classes on Saturday. However, Hanako's description is different from this teacher's. He told the media that only two classes are learning Chinese every Sunday morning and afternoon, and the rest are practicing acrobatics.

Among the four teenagers who ran away, except Hanako who didn't enter school late, the other three were the first batch of students registered in 2020. When they first went out, they met a big problem. "For the head of the team personally, in this incident, his safety supervision of the children was not in place and he went out to perform. As a guardian, the head of the team did not always accompany him. " The relevant person in charge of wuqiao county Culture, Radio, Film and Television Tourism Bureau pointed out to China Newsweek.

On May 18, China Newsweek reporter met Gao Wenjun in Tiecheng Town. He is almost 60 years old. He looked annoyed when he saw the reporter. At present, among the more than 40 children of the Acrobatic Troupe, students who have registered their school status have been taken away by the Vocational Education Center, and several of them have not registered their school status and are temporarily staying at home waiting for notice. He said that he was "in trouble" and was currently under investigation.

When enrolling students, Gao Wenjun signed a free student contract with parents in the name of "Wuqiao Vocational Education Variety Acrobatic Circus Training Center" and "Wuqiao Vocational Education Variety Acrobatic Circus Martial Arts Dance Training Center". However, the investigation team found that the seal of the above-mentioned organization used by Gao Wenjun was not filed in wuqiao county Public Security Bureau, and the registration information of this name could not be found in the national social organization credit information publicity platform (trial operation) and Hebei economic household registration management system.

At present, the county public security department has investigated Gao Wenjun's alleged failure to perform his safety supervision duties, as well as issues such as private engraving and buying and selling seals, and gave informed criticism an order to repent and collect the private engraving seals. Wenguang Tourism Bureau temporarily withheld the acrobatic troupe's business performance license and ordered it to suspend business for rectification. The acrobatic troupe was also removed from the acrobatic league, and the league properly placed the students in school.

The school-enterprise cooperation mode of acrobatic league has also been criticized. The official bulletin pointed out that in the process of school-enterprise cooperation, the vocational education center lacked supervision over the enrollment and management of the cooperative acrobatic troupe, and there were omissions in the moral education of students. Zhang Honglu, the executive vice president in charge of the overall work of the vocational education center, was suspended for inspection.

After this incident, in addition to the filing system, Wuqiao Wenguang Tourism Bureau increased the frequency of inspection of acrobatic troupe on the basis of the original normal inspection. One is to standardize training, and the other is to improve the safety supervision during rehearsal. Teachers should always follow the children, increase the safety education of supervisors, and change training equipment in time.

In addition, Gao Wenjun once mentioned that sending children to Chengdu was an internship, but Hanako noticed that after their performance, Cao Tao would charge thousands of dollars for the performance. The person in charge of the above-mentioned Wenguang Tourism Bureau mentioned that according to the regulations, students of this school can go out for internships, but they are not allowed to go to Shang Yan. Whether Chengdu belongs to Shang Yan needs to be defined by the local cultural tourism department, and the investigation team of wuqiao county is also conducting further investigation on this matter.

For acrobatics, a traditional industry, is it impossible to change the devil training mode of extremely hard training or even corporal punishment? Training should start with dolls, but how to prevent dolls from becoming Shang Yan's money-making tools without protection? These problems have not been paid enough attention in the industry.

Qin Zheng didn't want to send her children to learn acrobatics, and the penalty of 654.38 million yuan mentioned in the free student contract became her burden. A local acrobatic practitioner in Wuqiao told China News Weekly that it is very common to write liquidated damages in the contract. Some tour leaders are worried that their children will learn to run for several years or be poached by other acrobatic troupes before writing this article, mainly as a deterrent. Few people really want the money. In addition, Gao Wenjun was suspected of privately engraving the official seal, and the contract signed by both parties was invalid.

Unlike Qin Zheng's attitude, Hanako's father Simomo doesn't blame Gao Wenjun. In the second half of last year, he went to Wuqiao to see two children. It is difficult to understand acrobatics. He thinks there is no problem with Gao Wenjun's training method. He doesn't value freedom. If the child likes it, someone can discipline the child and teach him a skill, even if he pays. At present, the two sons have resumed their studies at local schools. Simomo told China Newsweek that he would agree to send them to learn acrobatics again if they wanted, but only if they respected their wishes.

(To protect the privacy of interviewees, Simomo and Qin Zheng are both pseudonyms. )