Original title: The invisible man without an identity

He has no social security, can't open a bank account, can't sign a contract, can't get on a train or plane, can only rent a house in someone else's name, and can't marry a woman he loves. Zhang Qiang felt that the word "black household" was disgusting, but in reality, he still couldn't get rid of this identity that made him ashamed and inferior. From December 31, 1996, the day his ID card expired, "freedom from fear" became a pipe dream, and a bad life has been haunting him for 18 years.

Reporter _ Guo Liping

Reporting from Shenzhen

Photography by Zhao Yanxiong

On the evening of March 15, at the gate of Shenzhen University, a black off-road vehicle drove by. "Well, people can freely take a driver's license and buy a car, but I can't." His steps slowed and his voice was a notch lower than the previous one.

He is nearly fifty years old, and for the past eighteen years, the city he lives in has swelled and run rapidly, while the radius of his life has been firmly defined. He has no social security, can't open a bank account, can't sign a contract, can't get on a train or plane, can only rent a house in someone else's name, can't marry a woman he loves, and even the package sent by a friend a long time ago, all he can do is put the postal notice and other most important documents neatly into the bag and let the package continue to lie in the corner of the warehouse......

This is far from the original intention of his father to name him "Zhang Qiang". "It's like a bow and arrow that doesn't start, it's always tense and tired." He said.

This qiē stems from the card that is 85.6 mm long, 54 mm wide, and 0.9 mm thick, which he no longer has. It's unremarkable, but it has an authoritative official name: the National ID Card. Southern Weekly reported in 2011 that the sixth census found that there were 13 million such "black households" across the country.

Zhang Qiang felt that the word "black household" was disgusting, but in reality, he still couldn't get rid of this identity that made him ashamed and inferior.

The Invisible Man

Zhang Qiang's current residence was rented in his younger brother's name before his younger brother returned to his hometown in the northeast. After the police in the area got acquainted with him, they usually joked, but when they encountered the problem of documents, they would say to Zhang Qiang mercilessly: "This is my jurisdiction, don't make trouble for me!" ”

It was the day after the end of the National "Two Sessions", and it was getting dark, and Zhang Qiang was rushing to the restaurant where his cousin worked. In Shenzhen, a city that has become rich because of reform and opening up, Zhang Qiang, who has no regular job, seriously considers what to eat for three meals a day every day. And when you go to your cousin's, you can not only eat good things, but you don't have to pay for it yourself.

When he walked not far from the Nanshan District Government, the blue and white mobile police room entered Zhang Qiang's field of vision, and a policeman inside was busy with his head down.

Zhang Qiang reflexively tensed. From 31 December 1996, the date of the expiration of his identity card, "freedom from fear" became a pipe dream. Zhang Qiang was also in Guangzhou when the "Sun Zhigang Incident" broke out in 2003, and he clearly knew the cause and effect of the incident -- the young man was taken away by the police because he did not have his papers, and later died.

"That can happen to me, too." Zhang Qiang was worried. In the past 18 years, he has experienced many documents checked, subway stations, train stations, and even ordinary roads, and the police he will encounter at any time.

Ten years ago, when passing through Zhen, Shihumen, Dongguan, Zhang Qiang's bus was stopped, and more than a dozen police officers wearing helmets and miniature submachine guns were on duty to check the passengers' documents.

The first time Zhang Qiang saw this kind of posture, he was called out of the car. reported the ID number, and after checking it, the other party said that there was no such person, and the police with guns became alert. Although he didn't know what he would face, Zhang Qiang comforted the other party in turn: "You don't have to be nervous, I wear glasses, it doesn't pose much of a threat to you, if you can't identify my identity, it's okay, I'll tell you my basic situation." ”

The leader who was called looked at it and let him go back to the car. It is easy for outsiders to smell Zhang Qiang's "harmless" atmosphere: he has a stocky figure, a shaved head, a pair of black-framed glasses on a square face, likes to wear casual clothes and sneakers, and is polite and polite -- he belongs to the group of people who have "read books and are educated."

But the policemen Zhang Qiang has encountered have good and bad attitudes. Okay, I will apologize to Zhang Qiang for the arrogance of my colleagues; Bad, wave and shout "Hey, come here!" It's like "barking a dog," he said.

"I respect them and don't complain or don't cooperate." Zhang Qiang already has a set of relatively sensible coping rules, and knows how to convince himself to keep his heart balanced, "Even if the attitude is poor, I know that it is not aimed at me, although I feel uncomfortable, I can bear it." ”

The first time he entered the police station, Zhang Qiang remembers it vividly. It was November 2012, and at about 10 o'clock in the night, he was taken from his residence by two plainclothes men. The car with an ordinary license plate passed through a remote road without street lights in the Shenzhen Science and Technology Park, and the factory on the side of the road had already left and there was no one in sight, and plainclothes sandwiched Zhang Qiang in the middle, and no one spoke. Zhang Qiang thought that he could only resign himself to fate.

As soon as he entered the police station, the security captain greeted him: "How can you send this thing, is that what you said?" Zhang Qiang saw on Weibo that some of the leader's brothers and sisters have gone abroad, and they have foreign identities, but I don't even have a legal identity. I transferred it to a QQ group.

The problem arises when taking notes to verify identity.

"What's your name?"

"Zhang Qiang."

"Where's the ID card?"

"Nope."

"ID number?"

Zhang Qiang gave him the only expired first-generation ID number. "Everyone is 18 figures, why are you only 15 figures?" The security captain surnamed Shen wrote down his name and number, and turned to another small room with a computer. Zhang Qiang, who was born and raised in the Northeast, could hear his Northeast accent, and his original hanging heart had calmed down a little.

When he came back, the security captain was a little unhappy and stern: "You tell me honestly, what is your name, you can be big or small, tell me the truth, what is your name?" Who are you? ”

"My name is really Zhang Qiang."

"Then you can't get the papers."

"I can't get my documents, and my name is Zhang Qiang."

The security captain who made the transcript looked it up on the computer and returned again to no avail: "You honestly explain what your name is." The voice was sharp. The other five or six people in the police station also stared at Zhang Qiang and enlightened: "Look at you, you don't look like a bad person, you can leave after making the record, you hurry up and tell me what your name is, what is going on with you." ”

Zhang Qiang explained: "I don't have to lie to you, I know at least a little about the law, and I can't lie about my identity." If you really don't believe me, I'll give you a plan and call the Tianhe Branch of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau to verify, as well as the South China University of Technology, where I used to study. If it doesn't work, I'll go to school with you at dawn. He also gave the names of some school leaders.

Tossed until dawn, Zhang Qiang, who could not drink water or sit, was able to be led to the toilet by a security guard. Zhang Qiang heard a police officer discussing with the other end on the phone that the year of 15 digits was incomplete, and the two digits of "1" and "9" were added, and the last digit was represented by "X". Zhang Qiang now has an 18-digit ID number, and the regulations on the promotion of Chinese citizen ID numbers from 15 to 18 digits have been in place for 13 years.

When leaving, Zhang Qiang asked the police officer if he met the police outside to check his documents, and whether it was valid to report the 18-digit number. He received an affirmative answer. Zhang Qiang didn't want to dwell too much on this issue, he just wanted to leave quickly. At that time, he did not expect that when he was taken to the police station again in March of the following year because he forwarded a cartoon, the Ministry of Public Security system still could not find his information, and he was still an "invisible person".

His lawyer, Li Zhiyong, later analyzed that it may be that someone in the public security department was negligent in failing to report Zhang Qiang's information to the Ministry of Public Security, and that there was no information about him in the Ministry of Public Security's population information database.

Zhang Qiang's current residence was rented in his younger brother's name before his younger brother returned to his hometown in the northeast. After the police in the area got acquainted with him, they usually joked, but when they encountered the problem of documents, they would say to Zhang Qiang mercilessly: "This is my jurisdiction, don't make trouble for me!" ”

Loss of identity

Over the years, Zhang Qiang's most repeated words in the face of the police are probably how he was mishandled as a dropout because of a failing grade in college, which then affected graduation, household registration, ID card, and now a butterfly effect.

In the past ten years, Shenzhen, the "window of reform and opening up", has evolved from the previous border permit and temporary residence permit to residence permit and ID card, but in the end, it is inseparable from the word "certificate". Zhang Qiang's tossing experience caused by his lack of documents is still repeated in every corner. Last year, in Nantou, Shenzhen, Zhang Qiang was summoned by three or five policemen guarding the intersection. Like every document check he encountered in the past, Zhang Qiang tried to restrain the resistance and uneasiness in his heart, and spent more than ten minutes "reciting" the reason for not having documents again.

Zhang Qiang neatly grouped all kinds of important texts and materials into different folders according to categories, and then put them into a red plastic bag with a cartoon pattern of Spider-Man on it. One of them is the handwriting written by Yang Aiyun, secretary of the party branch of the chemical machinery department where he works, to the student section in 1990, mentioning that Zhang Qiang's "withdrawal was incorrectly processed after review". The yellowed tissue paper was almost discarded by Zhang Qiang, and the traces of crumpling were still clear. He wondered whether to deposit these important documents with his lawyer, fearing that he would be robbed on the street one day - these were "valid chains of evidence" that could solve the problem of his identity card.

After being admitted to South China University of Technology, Zhang Qiang applied for his first ID card in 1986, which was the third year of China's first-generation resident ID card, which was marked with the words "valid for 10 years". Zhang Qiang in the photo, with a popular three-seven-point head at the time, the 20-year-old did not realize that this inconspicuous card was accumulating enough power to change his later life.

Zhang Qiang's junior year coincided with the surging idealism of the late 80s of the last century. When classes resumed, a notice of withdrawal followed, citing the fact that he had failed both a compulsory exam and a make-up exam.

After a review by the Academic Affairs Office of the school, it was admitted that there was a mistake in the handling and the course was changed to 1990 summer vacation. The word "graduation" is undoubtedly a shame for Zhang Qiang, who is strong. He found out the 1990 regulations on student status management at South China University of Technology, and believed that he had the right to take the re-examination again. The then head of the department commented on Zhang Qiang's application for the make-up examination: Please ask the leaders of the Academic Affairs Office to try their best to accommodate and solve the problem. Zhang Qiang was dissatisfied, so the head of the department added another sentence: In my own name, I agree to Zhang Qiang's application. And then there was no follow-up.

In the graduation season of 1990, Zhang Qiang went through the procedures for leaving school one by one and got 6 bright red stamps, but there was a blank in the box of "handling household registration and grain migration procedures" in the catering department. Since then, Zhang Qiang has become an "empty registered household" who has left school but still has a household registration.

After finishing his studies, Zhang Qiang did not go to Shenzhen and Zhuhai, the cities where he was first and second assigned. Although these two SEZs are the windows of China's reform and opening up, they are heavily checkpointed, requiring a border permit to enter the country, and they are only valid for three months. Zhang Qiang stayed in Guangzhou and joined an American-run trading company, but did not solve the hukou problem. He was entrusted with a heavy task, and although he did not have a diploma, he looked like a rare college student of that era, and the prospects were bright.

After 1996, Mr. Zhang's ID card expired. He pinned his hopes on the school to negotiate with the public security organs to resolve the issue of household registration and identity cards. He approached the school's party committee, security office, academic affairs office, and several school leaders, and received the unanimous response that he had completed his studies and needed to move out of his hukou. However, Zhang Qiang insisted that before moving out of the hukou, the application for a make-up examination and the determination of "completion" or "graduation" related to it must first get a fair response. Zhang Qiang also looked for Yang Aiyun, the secretary of the department in charge of graduation, but she was impatient and called the school police team.

In recent years, especially the death of department and university leaders who were aware of the death of the department and university leaders, and the retirement of retirement, the remaining issues have been put on hold. In August last year, Zhang Qiang sent a courier to the principal's office, asking for a solution to the problems of household registration, ID card and "injury compensation", but he did not hear back.

In 2010, Zhang Qiang attended a class reunion, and the teachers from more than 20 years ago are still alive, and they are all gray-haired. In the early years, Zhang Qiang had always been suspicious of those teachers who dealt with his withdrawal from school. But more than ten years later, Zhang Qiang took a photo with them one by one, smiling, just like other ordinary teachers and students, including Yang Aiyun. That day, the former branch secretary apologized to Zhang Qiang and said he was sorry for him.

Black Life

Because Zhang Qiang couldn't get on the train, from Shenzhen to Yingkou, Liaoning, the family could only choose to take a bus. Shenzhen-Xiamen-Wenzhou-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Shandong-Hebei-Liaoning, this 3,300-kilometer-long route is like a vine, slowly going north along the winding highway, stopping and changing provinces one by one.

The apology failed to reverse the declining trend of Mr. Zhang's life. In 2011, the woman he had been in love with for more than ten years chose to leave and took their son with him.

"Girlfriend" and "son" are the topics that Zhang Qiang is most reluctant to touch, and when he is in a bad state, mentioning these five words will make the middle-aged man's eyes red. He took off his glasses, wiped away tears with one fingertip, and then clasped his hands behind his head and buried his head deep between his arms.

It was only on a Saturday afternoon in the spring, with a slight drunkenness, that he put away his old fatigue and was willing to talk about the two most important but sorry people in his life.

"She is 1.72 meters, very beautiful, and has a pungent personality." When describing his girlfriend, Zhang Qiang's voice will become softer, and a slightly shy smile will bloom on his face. But because he didn't have an ID card, Zhang Qiang couldn't register his marriage with her, even if this girl became his son's mother in 2006, she was only a "girlfriend" in name.

Around 2010, he took his mother and son back to his hometown. Because Zhang Qiang couldn't get on the train, from Shenzhen to Yingkou, Liaoning, the family could only choose to take a bus. Shenzhen-Xiamen-Wenzhou-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Shandong-Hebei-Liaoning, this 3,300-kilometer-long route is like a vine, slowly going north along the winding highway, stopping and changing provinces one by one, although it is more troublesome, but at least you can rest, it will not be so hard. A one-way trip back to my hometown takes a whole week, but if you can take a train, you can get there in 32 hours.

The son is small and adaptable better than adults, sleeping when he is tired, eating when he is hungry, and drinking when he is thirsty, and he feels very fun along the way. What Zhang Qiang admires is that his girlfriend is also quite able to endure hardships. She once told Zhang Qiang that she still wanted a second child and a daughter, and she was not afraid of hard work.

But the merciless reality, before this longing daughter, shook the home again and again, until it cracked and shattered. has children and still can't register for marriage, which makes Zhang Qiang's girlfriend unable to hold her head up in front of her parents' family and friends; The birth permit is a fake certificate that she managed to get with a big belly and spent money; Zhang Qiang does not have an ID card, so he has no stable job and income, and she has to raise the child's living expenses and tuition fees; Due to the "illegitimacy", her son could not get a household registration, she did not want her son to follow in his father's footsteps, and after complaining and losing his temper with Zhang Qiang again and again, she completely detonated the crisis buried at the beginning of the family union.

Zhang Qiang did not fight for custody, "I have no right to speak, if he is with me, I can't solve the hukou problem, I can't solve the school problem, it's like a negotiation, I don't have the qualifications to negotiate, I can't go to the table." ”

His heart was full of guilt: "I'm sorry for the two of them......" Even when the two quarreled the most, Zhang Qiang could only keep making amends, saying that you hit me a few times, and then tense his muscles to meet the falling series of fists.

The son went to Huizhou with his mother, which is only a little more than an hour's drive from Shenzhen, but Zhang Qiang did not have many opportunities to see him. As the son said, "I have two fathers now", the mother and son have a new family. Last year, he paid 29,768 yuan in social support fees, and his son was registered.

"This life is ruined"

For the media to interview, Zhang Qiang felt both happy and scared. He asked reporters and lawyers more than once: "I don't have an ID card or a document, and if it's exposed, the police will arrest me as a 'three-no' person, and what should I do if I have no place to file a grievance?" ”

After his family fell apart, his cousin Zhang Wu (pseudonym) never heard this kind of hearty laughter from Zhang Qiang again.

Zhang Wu is a round-faced, strong, upright person, who spends 14 hours a day in a northern-style restaurant in Nanshan\ District, Shenzhen, taking care of the boss for ten years. Zhang Wu's wife and children are in his hometown in Northeast China, but he hasn't been back for two years. 365 days are restaurants, staff dormitories two points and one line.

Even if you go to a restaurant to find a job, you have to get an ID card. Zhang Wu understands very well what it means to not have an ID card. Although Zhang Wu and Zhang Qiang did not have too in-depth communication at the initial level of Chinese, he saw what happened to his cousin in his eyes and felt uncomfortable.

The help provided by Zhang Wu was simple and straightforward. He said to Zhang Qiang: "If you don't sleep anywhere, you can sleep with me, if you don't eat, come to me for a meal, and wear my clothes if you like them." On Chinese New Year's Eve this year, he sent a message to Zhang Qiang that if he had nowhere to stay, he could go to a restaurant to celebrate the New Year with him.

Zhang Qiang is a rare college student in his hometown, and he can be regarded as a "show talent". "Normally, if he had an ID card, he might have been a corporate executive, or even gone abroad, maybe I borrowed his light and he helped me."

When Zhang Wu talked about him, Zhang Qiang would bow his head and not speak, or avoid the next room.

In recent years, Zhang Qiang has tried to put away his radical posture and consciously maintain rationality and calmness. Except for his family and lawyers, few others know about Zhang's experience. He was afraid that if other people knew that he was a "black household", their originally equal relationship would be unbalanced. He also knew that all he poured out was bitter water, and others would be impatient to listen to it.

He devoted more energy to the study of the law, and "natural human rights" and "freedom" became almost his mantras. He has cleared the "Regulations on Household Registration", "Resident Identity Card Law" and other domestic laws and regulations related to household registration and identity cards.

In the process of studying law on his own, he also found that the 1954 Constitution stipulates that "citizens have the freedom to reside and move", but the 1975, 1978, and 1982 revised constitutions do not clarify this issue.

After seeing the Open Government Information Regulations last year, which had been in effect since May 2008, Zhang Qiang rekindled his hopes and sent express mail to the Shi Public Security Bureau in Guangzhou, the Tianhe Public Security Bureau, the Wushan Police Station, and the South China University of Technology. Only the Tianhe Branch of the Guangzhou Shi Public Security Bureau gave a reply: after moving back to his hometown, he will apply for other relevant documents.

Lawyer Li Zhiyong's view is that before Zhang Qiang moves his hukou out of Guangzhou, the public security organs still have this obligation and responsibility, and the second step is to get his ID card first, and whether to move his hukou or not is the second step. Zhang Qiang hopes that through the lawyer, the school and the public security organ will solve this problem that has spanned more than 30 years.

For the media to interview, Zhang Qiang felt both happy and scared. Just like those who have come into contact with him, it is easy to see some contradictions in his personality, which is more sincere and reasonable, but also carries the sensitivity and cowardice of those who have been in a weak position for a long time. He asked reporters and lawyers more than once: "I don't have an ID card or a document, and if it's exposed, the police will arrest me as a 'three-no' person (no ID card, no temporary residence permit, no employment certificate), what should I do if I have no place to redress?" ”

Years of fear of the police have not faded, and Zhang Qiang is reluctant to contact them. Lawyer Li Zhiyong advised: "Be positive, keep communicating, say what you need and think, and try to solve this matter well." ”

Sometimes, Zhang Qiang's gaze would penetrate the glass window and focus in the distance, and place names would flow out of his mouth: the Mesopotamian plains, the Mayan civilization, the ports where the Mayflower docked in the United States...... It was as if he had a clear map in his chest, and he was just about to set off.

He once imagined making a career in Shenzhen, the window of reform and opening up, and then going to the United States and Europe to study for graduate school. But now that he is nearly half a hundred years old, the children of those classmates have studied abroad, and his original idea can still only roam in his brain.

On March 14, a week after sending a letter to the Ministry of Public Security and the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department requesting information disclosure, Li Zhiyong received a phone call from the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department. However, even if the new ID card can be handled smoothly immediately, Zhang Qiang's golden 20 years as a man working hard for his career, watching over his family, and proving his value by struggle have been missed, and he cannot be restarted.

As Zhang Wu said, "His life has been ruined, his career and family have been ruined." ”