China’s homeless take McDonald’s as their homes

A McDonald's in Beijing. The Chinese government allows homeless people to stay in shelters for a maximum of 

10 days, a limit that has led many of them to sleep at McDonald's. Credit Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times

BEIJING — He woke to the cry of the morning janitor. "Put your shoes on!" she said. "Put your shoes on!" She rattled a chair. "This isn't your house! Sit up!"

北京——他被清晨来打扫的工作人员的喊声惊醒。"穿上鞋子！"她喊道。"穿上你的鞋子！"她拉动椅子，发出嘎嘎的声音。"这里不是你家！起来！"

Ding Xinfeng's eyes blinked open. Dawn had yet to break, but inside a 24-hour McDonald's restaurant in central Beijing, more than a dozen homeless people had begun their daily routines.

丁新风（音）睁开眼睛。天还没亮，但在这家位于北京市中心的24小时营业麦当劳餐厅里，十多个无家可归的人已经开始了一天的日常生活。

Mr. Ding lifted his head, revealing a mess of food stains and decorative slogans on the table in front of him. "Wake up every morning with the thought that something wonderful is about to happen," one read.

丁新风抬起头，面前露出一片食物残渣，桌子上有装饰性的广告词，其中一条用英文写道，"每天早上醒来都心怀期待，想着有美好的事情即将发生。"

Mr. Ding could not read the English, but he said he liked the warmth of this table, in this corner, in the peace of McDonald's, the place he had called home for several years.

丁新风不懂英文，但他说他喜欢这张桌子，在麦当劳店里这个安静的角落，他感到温暖。过去几年，他一直把这里当成自己的家。

Every night across East Asia, in major cities like Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo, an invisible class of people — shut out of shelter systems, scorned by their families, down on their luck — turn to a beacon of Americana for a warm, dry place to sleep.

每个夜晚，在东亚地区的北京、香港和东京等大城市，都有一个被忽视的人群——不被收容机构接纳，被家人看不起，时运不济——转向一个标志性美国企业，寻求一个温暖、干燥的夜宿之地。

By day, the McDonald's restaurants host birthday parties and book clubs. By night, when the floors have been mopped a final time and the pop music turned down, they become sanctuaries for the downtrodden, who pounce on half-eaten hamburgers and stale French fries, and stake out prized sleeping spots in padded booths.

白天的时候，人们在麦当劳餐厅会举办生日派对和读书会活动。到了晚上，地板最后一次被拖干净，流行音乐停止播放之后，这里就变成这些落魄之人的避难所，他们拿起客人吃剩的汉堡和已经不新鲜的薯条吃起来，然后在带软垫的餐位中间抢占自己喜欢的睡觉地点。

Often called McRefugees, they vanish at sunrise, some combing their hair with plastic forks before slinking outside into the masses.

他们常被称为"麦难民"(McRefugee)，天一亮就消失。有些还会先拿塑料叉子梳理一下头发，然后再悄悄走出去，消失在人海中。

On an austere November morning, as the wind howled outside, Mr. Ding's McDonald's began to fill up with schoolchildren, yam sellers, retirees armed with chess pieces and red-eyed street patrolmen.

11月里一个寒冷的清晨，外面狂风呼啸，丁新风经常夜宿的麦当劳店里坐满了人，有学龄儿童和卖红薯的，还有下棋的退休老人和眼睛发红的巡逻人员。

He began to circle, making his pitch for donations.

他开始在餐厅里四处乞讨。

"My family has begged for food since the Ming dynasty," he said. "I'm the 19th generation. There will be no beggars in China after I'm dead."

"我家从明朝开始就以乞讨为生，"他说。"到我这是第19代。我死了以后，中国就没有真正的乞丐了。"

A man offered a newspaper. A woman gave 50 cents. A young girl extended a French fry.

一名男子给了他一份报纸。一名女子给了他5角钱。还有一个年轻的女孩递给他一份薯条。

Mr. Ding returned to his seat, opened the newspaper, and began studying the lottery numbers, searching for patterns.

丁新风回到自己的座位上，打开报纸，开始研究彩票号码，想找出其中的规律。

While other restaurants might kick them out, McDonald's generally embraces wanderers like Mr. Ding, who have flocked to the chain as it has rolled out more 24-hour locations in Asia. More than half of the 2,200 McDonald's restaurants in mainland China are now open 24 hours a day.

尽管其他餐厅会把流浪者赶出去，但麦当劳基本上对丁新风这样的流浪人员持接纳态度。自麦当劳在亚洲地区推出更多24小时门店之后，流浪人员纷纷云集。麦当劳在中国内地的2200家餐厅有一多半都是24小时营业。

McDonald's has spent decades cultivating an image of community here, building bright, stylish restaurants and adjusting menus to local tastes. In addition to the standard burgers and fries, the Beijing outlets serve taro pies and soy milk with fried bread. Many restaurants have become neighborhood institutions, symbols of status and cleanliness, popular spots for study groups, business meetings and leisurely chats.

麦当劳在过去几十年里一直努力在这里打造一种社区形象，它建造明亮、时尚的餐厅，调整菜单，以适应当地的口味。除了标准的汉堡和薯条，北京各个店面还提供香芋派、豆浆和油条。很多麦当劳餐厅都变成了社区机构，代表着某种地位和洁净标准，是人们展开学习小组活动、商业会晤和闲谈常去的地方。

"McDonald's welcomes everyone to visit our restaurants anytime," said Regina Hui, a spokeswoman for McDonald's in China.

"麦当劳欢迎所有人在任何时候来我的餐厅，"麦当劳中国公司发言人雷吉娜·许(Regina Hui)说。

How welcoming is up to each franchise owner, the company says. "We are definitely a welcoming place, but I wouldn't call it a policy," Becca Hary, a spokeswoman at the company's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., wrote in an email.

该公司表示，每个店对流浪人员的接纳程度取决于各自的加盟店主的意愿。"我们肯定是持欢迎态度的，但我不会说这是一项公司政策，"麦当劳位于伊利诺州橡溪镇的总部的一位女发言人贝卡·哈里(Becca Hary)在一封邮件中写道。

Tension over when that welcome is overstayed has long been an issue for McDonald's around the world. In 2014, a McDonald's in New York City called the police to remove a group of older Korean patrons who had turned the restaurant into a social club, spending more time than money. And a McDonald's in Manchester, England, came under fire last year for refusing to serve a customer who wore dirty clothing, thinking he was homeless.

长久以来，因为顾客在店里逗留太久而变得不受欢迎，引发与餐厅的紧张关系，对于全球各地的麦当劳店都是一个的难题。2014年，纽约的一家麦当劳店曾叫警察来赶走一群老年韩国顾客，因为他们把这家餐厅变成了自己的社交聚乐部，花一点点钱就在里面长时间逗留。位于英格兰曼彻斯特的一家麦当劳餐厅去年则曾因为拒绝招待一位衣着不净、被他们看作是流浪人员的顾客而饱受抨击。

In Hong Kong, Stevix Ho, a McDonald's manager, said he had to contend with a crowd of heroin addicts and people who appeared to have severe mental illness.

在香港，一位名叫史蒂维克斯·何(Stevix Ho)的麦当劳经理表示，他曾经不得不应付一群海洛因瘾君子和一些看起来似乎有严重精神疾病的人。

"We can't kick them out," he said. "We can only ask them to go away."

"我们不能把他们赶出去，"他说。"我们只能要求他们离开。"

Many homeless people say they have little choice, given a dearth of shelter options and the stigma of sleeping on the street. In mainland China, the government allows homeless people to stay in shelters for a maximum of 10 days.

很多流浪人员表示，他们别无选择，因为收容机构不多，而露宿街头让人感到羞辱。在中国内地，政府允许流浪人员待在收容机构，但最多可以住十天。

Yip Hin-ming, 57, arrived in Hong Kong four decades ago, drawn by stories of neon lights and clanking factories. In April, after two decades of working as a painter, he had to quit when the pain of a job-related arm injury became overwhelming. "That was the end," he said. "I was no longer capable."

57岁的叶献明（音）40年前在霓虹灯及红红火火的工厂的吸引下，来到了香港。他曾因为工作导致手臂受伤，今年4月，在做了20年的油漆工后，这种疼痛变得难以忍受，他不得不辞掉工作。"这就结束了，"他说。"我再也没有能力做了。"

He packed a bag with a toothbrush and toilet paper, and found a quiet spot under paintings of onions and tomatoes in a McDonald's in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

他将牙刷、卫生纸装进包里，然后到香港九龙的一家麦当劳餐厅，找到了一个画满洋葱和番茄的安静地方。

One day, he said he was startled to learn that a homeless woman at a McDonald's across town had died. She had sat hunched over a table for 24 hours, covered by a gray overcoat, before anyone noticed.

他表示，有一天当他得知一名无家可归的女性在该地区另一端的麦当劳餐厅死去时，他感到很震惊。她穿着一件灰色外套伏在桌面上，后来才被人们发现。

"Nobody knows who we are when we're living, and nobody cares about us when we die," Mr. Yip said. "We're invisible."

"我们活着的时候没人知道我们是谁，死了的时候，没人关心，"叶献明说。"我们就像隐形人一样。"

Chan Wai-kwan, 63, a former janitor who had been living at McDonald's from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day for three years, said Hong Kong had lost its sense of humanity.

63岁的陈伟关（音）曾经帮人看门，三年来，他每天在麦当劳从晚上六点待到早晨六点。他表示，香港已经丧失了人情味。

"You'll tell my family if anything happens to me, right?" he asked, turning to Mr. Yip. "You'll make sure they know if I die?"

"如果我出了什么事，你会告诉我的家人，对吗？"他转向叶献明问到。"你确保如果我死了，他们会知道，对吗？"

Mr. Yip nodded, but looked despondent.

叶献明点了点头，但看起来很沮丧。

"My family doesn't know about my life here, and I wouldn't want to tell them," he said. "It's too miserable."

"我的家人不知道我在这里的生活，我不想告诉他们，"他说。"过得太惨了。"

In addition to the daily quest for food and the requisite but demeaning panhandling, the nighttime residents of McDonald's struggle with perceptions that they are lazy and dishonest.

除了每天寻找食物，进行必要但有损尊严的乞讨活动，这些在麦当劳过夜的人还要面对那些认为他们懒惰、不可靠的看法。

Restaurant staff members sometimes frown at their behavior.

餐厅工作人员有时会对他们的行为感到厌恶。

"They can find jobs. They're just too lazy to look," said a Beijing McDonald's employee, Mrs. Chen, who asked to be identified only by her family name because she was not authorized to speak with the news media. "They're driving away customers because they smell so bad."

"他们可以找到工作。他们就是太懒，不愿意找，"北京一家麦当劳餐厅的员工陈女士说。"他们身上有味，导致我们流失顾客。"陈女士没有获得接受记者采访的授权，只愿提供姓氏。

Zhang Wei, 56, a vegetable seller who had lost her teeth, said she longed for a normal life but was ostracized by her family.

56岁的张维（音）是一名蔬菜摊贩，她的牙齿已经脱落。她表示，她渴望过上正常生活，但遭到家人的排斥。

"How nice it would be to be able to cook and eat at your own home," she said. "You could have your own dumplings and buns and sleep in your own bed. If you don't have money, you can barely sleep."

"能在自己家做饭吃饭该多好啊，"她说。"可以自己做饺子和馒头，在自己的床上睡觉。如果你没钱，几乎睡不了觉。"

Mr. Ding had a reputation at McDonald's as a gadfly. He had a habit of offering loud, indelicate social commentary, telling government workers they were corrupt and men in suits they were greedy.

丁新风在麦当劳餐厅被视作惹人讨厌的人。他习惯大声说话，骂骂咧咧地谈论社会问题，称政府工作人员腐败，西装革履的人都很贪婪。

He does work, however. Most days, he leaves McDonald's around 8 a.m. to comb trash cans and bins in back alleys for scraps of copper and steel, which he sells to a friend for 80 cents apiece. He returns by suppertime, waiting for customers to abandon their leftover fries and smoothies.

但他确实在工作。大多时候，他会在早上八点离开麦当劳餐厅，到偏僻巷子的垃圾箱和垃圾桶里翻找废弃的铜和钢，然后再以每斤8角的价格将它们卖给一个朋友。晚饭时间，他会回到麦当劳，等着吃顾客剩下的薯条和奶昔。

"This is my work, this is my way of living," he said. "I have no way out."

"这就是我的工作，这就是我的生活方式，"他说。"我没有别的出路。"

He joked about selling his eyeballs, or moving to America, where he had heard they treat the homeless better. And he continued to study the lottery, jotting down long strings of numbers. He calculated his odds at 1 in 10 million.

他开玩笑称要卖掉眼球，或去美国，他听说美国的流浪人员的待遇要好一些。他继续研究彩票，记下一连串的数字。他估计自己的中奖几率是一千万分之一。

No matter, he said.

他表示，这没关系。

"I came into the world naked, and I leave naked," he said. "There's nothing I can take with me when I die."

"我赤裸地来到这个世界，然后赤裸地离开，"他说。"死的时候，没什么能带走的。"