Young Investigator Dives into Life on the Streets

While many people try to avoid beggars, Huang Yan uses every opportunity to approach them.The 17-year-old student spent the last eight months researching an extracurricular social studies report by talking to 265 beggars on the streets and in Metro trains and stations in Shanghai."It was an unusual and meaningful experience. It gave me a deeper understanding of society," said Huang, whose 48-page report earned her top prize at this year's Shanghai Intel Adolescence Science and Technology Innovation Contest, one of the city's highest youth awards.The idea for her research came last summer when Huang took the Metro with some British exchange students from her school, No. 2 Middle School Affiliated to East China Normal University.A boy beggar dressed in dirty rags grabbed one of her friends' clothes and asked for money. The incident drew frowns from fellow passengers but it piqued Huang's curiosity.Her first interview experience was memorable, Huang said.She was on Metro Line 2 one night last September when a migrant woman, with a baby in her arms, asked passengers for money.Huang, who had already finished preliminary preparations for her research program, was the only one to give the woman change, and she asked her about her experiences."It seemed that everybody around looked at me as if I were an alien," Huang said, adding that a security guard even told her she was foolish to hand out money.But money was the one way she could get her interviewees to talk. During her research, Huang noticed that most beggars would become wary if people asked too much about them.However, the young investigator said she stuck strictly to a three-minute limit when asking questions."All I did was prevent beggars from getting suspicious about me, so that they would tell me the truth," Huang said.Once, however, she was forced to run when a large man tried to prevent her taking pictures of a middle-aged beggar. The man was also a beggar and may have thought Huang was from the authorities."I prepare myself for running away at every interview."By Rachel Yan