Confessions of a Shanghai subway security staffer

Photo by Qiao Da Ye

Recently, an alleged metro bag screener went on Tianya to vent his frustration – and since we usually only hear the passenger side of this major inconvenience, I figured it’d be interesting to see what he had to say. Apparently, the poor kid gets verbally abused a lot by irate travelers and, though for the most part he takes it in stride, there’s a few choice words of advice he’d like to have with you.

Note: My Shanghainese is nonexistent, plain and simple – so some of the more “colorful” conversations I had a lot of trouble translating. Just FYI. If you have a better translation, feel free to correct me in comments.

Hello everybody. To start off, let me introduce myself. This year I’m 25 years old, I don’t have much education and work is hard to find – this year through a street ad I managed to find a job as a subway security guard. Now I’m currently the security attendant for Line 2′s Nanjing Dong Lu station (Exit No.3).

My work hours are “do four, rest two” with two days of early shifts (7am to 2:30pm) and two days of midday shifts (2:30pm to 10Pm).

Right now I’ve worked for two weeks; in these last eight days I’ve been berated by multiple people at my post and the curses are all very unpleasant to hear (they’re all Shanghainese people). To be honest, I really want to tell them, “Do you have to? Everybody is Shanghainese, Shanghai’s young people. Earning money is not easy for anyone, it’s just work, and also this job is just temporary – once it gets to November, where I’m going I still don’t know yet! Right now, every month I only get 1200RMB, plus 300RMB meal supplement. I was really enjoying this bento lunch I was holding!”

The best passengers are those who come to Shanghai to work or are vacationers from abroad – including foreign staff – they’re very accepting of our safety measures. While there are individual exceptions, by and large they have so much more quality (note: in terms of upbringing) than Shanghainese! I finally understand why so many outsiders look down on Shanghainese people, curse Shanghainese people. We should thoroughly reflect a moment, it’s us who smashed our own reputations!

3.25 afternoon, around 3 to 5pm: I blocked a Shanghainese guy (early 20s), asked him to undertake a security check and asked for his backpack to go through the security scanner. He refused the check and then, with his girlfriend, stormed past me. I used my body to block him and didn’t stop saying “Very sorry, please comply with the security check.” But he still wouldn’t help me with my job, saying queueing made him unhappy. I responded that nobody was telling him to queue and that if he’d just give the backpack to me, I’d put it on the machine for him.

Finally, he grumbled and gave me the backpack to put through the scanner. This battle had gone on for three to four minutes, and as he was leaving, he muttered the phrase “Gang luan (stupid egg),” and once he picked up his bag again, he said “If you had any ability, you wouldn’t be doing this (有本事还了该个的啊).” I ignored him, when putting his bag in the machine I had my back to him, instructing other people on safety measures. (To be honest, my temper’s very hot, I really wanted to rush him, say “You’ve got what kind of ability yourself if you had to bring your girlfriend to ride the subway? Did you get tired of the BMW? Your mother – while you’re young racking up this karma, you’ll be eating it later, asshole. All you know how to do is flap your mouth. Dad gets off at 10pm, if you are going to be an asshole then wait for me after work and we’ll find somewhere to eat. “)

3.27: I blocked a girl (around 23 or 24, who was around 160cm) and my co-worker asked her to go through security. She refused to cooperate and stormed past the security machine and so I had to block her, tell her to cooperate. Because the location I was standing in wasn’t very convenient, I tugged on her clothes, but I didn’t use much strength. She freaked out, shrieked from her throat and told me “Hey, what are you pulling at!” Another girl beside her said “You pulled her hard!” I replied with “Sorry, please go through the security check” but this girl didn’t listen, and continued to walk on her way.

I used my hand to block her, didn’t let her go. She said again “You’ll pull again? You’ve got issues.” I replied, “please go through the security check.” Turns out it’s also because she didn’t want to queue. So I suggested she give the bag to me and I’ll put it into the security screener and she wouldn’t have to queue. She gave the bag to me and I put it in. This girl – with her back to me, muttered “The staff’s attitudes here are terrible.” My temper rose and I responded, “If you want a different attitude, go to Japan!” While I wanted to say some more, because I was working, there was nothing I could do. At most I can say one or two phrases to air out my temper. There’s so many people in the subway, I could say she has no face at all. Plus, she wasted her own time, battled for three to four minutes.

From the above two examples, 1) they’re all Shanghainese, 2) boys and girls are the same, 3) they all want to skip security. Frankly, security is just a small thing to let customers feel at ease in the subway. The government even thought of how it would waste people’s time, but if something happened in this [Expo] time period, it wouldn’t just affect the individual – but the family, the city, the country. Everybody really should cooperate with security. Even though it annoys you, please just let it happen, it’s only for eight months. I hope everyone on the subway can remind themselves of our jobs as security people! Also, I hope everyone can tell their friends and family to cooperate with security!

I also want to say: about the deficiencies in our subway security system and our subway security staff, please continue reading. Thanks!

Right now, Nanjing Dong Lu station is set up to have two – West and East – entrances to the metro, with two security scanners and 12 security staff. This station is a little different, The morning rush hour isn’t very problematic, those exiting the station are more than those entering it. Usually, the morning rush hour is pretty easy to deal with, and when everyone is lining up, please be a little patient.

(Also, the inside of the station is not your own car, even if you walk faster past us, you still have to wait for the train. Lining up on top and lining up at bottom are the same. There’s no reason to be so rushed. There are a lot of people who pretend like they’re about to be late in the morning, but their night life is quite fulfilling. If you’re really worried about being late, maybe sleep a little earlier at night.)

Nanjing Dong Lu station during afternoon rush hour is a nightmare. No. 3 exit is also the Eastern door’s location, there are so many people, queueing will always take a long time. There’s two particular problems that I’ll discuss with everybody -

1) This stop has a lot of people who flowed in from the morning rush hour. The transportation bureau didn’t really consider this, but they should have set up two security stations so that each can do checks at the same time. It’d really speed up the process. This really is someone not thinking through their job.

2) The other problem is that the people getting off work are all going into the subway through the Eastern entrance and don’t consider just rerouting through the Western entrance instead. Therefore the Eastern entrance just gets more and more crowded as more and more people come. Please consider going through the Western entrance instead to enter the metro! If we divide the stream it can also help lower the appearance of a giant line. The No. 3 entrance also has people coming in from Cheng Huang Miao, Qipu Lu, and the close malls, so there’s a lot of people. If you’re getting off work, consider going through the No. 1 door instead!

I’m just giving an introduction to Nanjing Dong Lu station’s special points, and I hope those who come through the station cooperate with security and perhaps take my suggestions – try it, it’ll be good! Other stations I can’t be too clear on, so if you have opinions, please state them for everyone to follow! Everything can be solved, arguing battling is not the way to solve it, and it only exacerbates the problem.

Also, today my partner and I confiscated a small pistol – inside were ball bullets – and it was already loaded. Even if this commuter didn’t want to do bad things, but pulled it out to play – well, there could be bad consequences. Even though imitation guns do not have the power of real guns, but their killing effect is still not small. Especially with special bullets…!

50-year-old Aunts and Uncles, please don’t think it’s funny. Bringing explosives into the subway… if you really wanted to explode something in the subway, nobody can escape. You should also think about other dangerous goods. For instance lighters – if they fall the could cause an explosion. Even though it won’t kill anyone, it will cause panic and maybe even cause a stampede, which is extremely dangerous. Nowadays, how can you not be clear on what wouldn’t pass security?

Don’t complain, I believe the World Expo will show our current wonderful living sitaution, and it’ll only happen once. Just bear it. Really, thanks for your cooperation~~~!
Security tips: Before you enter the station, please take off your earphones, if convenient place them inside your bag and place that in the machine. Don’t wait until you’re at the machine to start busying yourself, you’ll be wasting your time and everybody behind you’s.

Also, when you’ve put your back into the scanner, make sure all your pockets are zipped – when something falls out, it causes huge problems!

Also, in terms of packs, big bags need to be checked and small bags are randomly checked, but that still means they need to be. It’s not that you don’t need to have your small bag checked, just randomly checked. Don’t say “Do I really need to scan this small bag?” Also don’t say dumb things like “This bag doesn’t have anything in it.” The bag’s your own – you know what’s in it, even if you told me, I’d still have to throw it in the scanner.

Once again, please cooperate with my work, I will continue to work hard and try to ensure that everyone has the shortest security check possible.