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Story Publication logo February 22, 2015

Sim Chi Yin Interviewed on CNN

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Media file: rat_tribe_liu_hao.jpg
English

Living beneath Beijing's skyscrapers and residential blocks are an estimated 1 million migrant...

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Media file: rat_tribe_liu_hao.jpg
Liu Hao—budding writer, poet, photographer and filmmaker. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2014.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout interviews photographer Sim Chi Yin on her work for the project "Beijing's Rat Tribe." The term 'Rat Tribe' refers to low-income migrant workers living in windowless, tiny apartments in Beijing's underground. Beijing is home to 20 million people and over one third of its population are migrant workers. Despite the poor living conditions, Sim Chi Yin says that "what I've found is that people actually make the best of their lives down there."

Many of these workers choose to live in such tiny apartments underground in order to save for their future because living above-ground is much more costly. "They're just gonna put up with this conflict for a few years, the first few years in Beijing, and then, they're gonna make it in the capital. They're gonna move up the social ladder," says Sim Chi Yin.

Watch the full interview on CNN.

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