A common practice among beggars in China is writing text in front of them. Often this is their life story, written on a sheet of paper or cardboard. An example can be seen in the following picture (synopsis: supermarket cashier, got pregnant, had baby, got fired, baby got sick, all money spent on medicine). In other cases, the text is scrawled on the pavement, using chalk. In some cases the text written is an elaborate story, while in others it can be a very simple “need 6 yuan to buy a bus ticket home”. And occasionally, the text is part of a street show in its own right - such as a beggar without hands using his foot to write it, in a pretty calligraphy script.