China's petitioners, many of whom sleep rough in the underpasses of the capital as they attempt to complain against the ruling Communist Party, staged their own entertainment to usher in the Year of the Rabbit, singing songs of protest and calling for universal protection for human rights.
Despite the detention of the organizer of a similar event earlier this week and numerous attempts by officials to move them along, some of Beijing's hardiest petitioners managed to enjoy the show.
Photographs of the performance posted later on the video-sharing site YouTube showed a humble setting with dormitory-style beds against a background of brightly colored balloons.
One man read out a poem calling on the Communist Party to govern China according to the rule of law.
Another thundered in dramatic monologue style: "If you try to pick up the law to use for your own protection, you will be told that you're picking up a rock to break your own feet!"
"The law belongs to those in power," warned the man in a fur hat. "It won't protect you."
"Black jail"
A woman queuing outside the complaints office of China's State Council, in Beijing, sang to the tune of a well-known popular song from the 1980s about her experience of detention in a "black jail":
"Sorrow, ah sorrow," she sang. "I was detained in Mudanjiang for 10 days."
"I grasp my steamed bun in my hand, and my tears don't stop falling."
A woman wrapped up in a red padded jacket, accompanied by a keyboard, sang about the life of a petitioner:
"I have petitioned, petitioned all the way to central government," she sang. "But the corruption extends all the way there too."
Another performed a song about her father's long battle to win compensation for a mistrial in which he was sentenced to death.
"Human rights, where are you?" she sang.
Redress
China’s army of petitioners say they are repeatedly stonewalled, detained in “black jails,” beaten, and harassed by authorities if they try to take complaints against local government actions to higher levels of government.
Many have been trying to win redress for alleged cases of official wrongdoing—including forced evictions, beatings in custody, and corruption linked to lucrative land sales—for decades.
For many, the Year of the Rabbit brings scant hope that their lives will improve.
Guo Hongwei, a petitioner from the northeastern province of Jilin, said he had lost his child after the family was detained by police when they tried to attend the New Year celebrations in Tiananmen Square.
"We were detained by police and locked up in Jiujingzhang [unofficial detention center]," Guo said. "We were given nothing to eat or drink the whole time we were there."
"My kid was crying, he was so hungry." Guo said that he was beaten after scuffling with security guards who tried to hit his child for crying.
"The security guards ran off and my kid was nowhere to be seen ... The guard pretended we hadn't brought a kid, but I dialed 110 for the police and they spoke to their captain, who [admitted] the child was there."
"Now I am very worried, because there are a lot of bad people in Beijing."
Beijing police detained the organizer of another alternative gala event for the thousands of homeless people pursuing official complaints in the capital.
Event organizer Jiang Jiawen, a petitioner from the northeastern city of Dandong, was taken away by police in the early hours of Tuesday morning, fellow petitioners said this week.
Reported by Shi Shan for RFA's Mandarin service and by Grace Kei Lai-see for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.