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Tinker, teaser and wooden tub maker
May 25, 2010, Tuesday
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THE traditional crafting and repair of daily-use items is dying out in today's society, but on Hefang Street the craftsmen still ply their trades - tinkers, cotton teasers and makers of wooden utensils. Xu Wenwen tinkers with the tale.Bao Shunqing is hammering away on a sheet of tin, engaged in a strange and obsolete occupation that draws curious stares from young passersby, inhabitants of a better-off world where people tend to throw things out and buy new ones.
Bao, 46, is a tinker, a worker of metals (though not a blacksmith) and he's making a dustpan in a day of plastic dustpans and plastic utensils of all kinds.
Bao is one of a number of craftsmen still practicing mundane trades seldom needed these days but preserved along old Hefang Street in Hangzhou, an ancient street that was renovated in 1999 and rejuvenated as a pedestrian way featuring old crafts.
He's joined by a man who teases and fluffs cotton wool and a woodworker who turns out wooden utensils and newly fashionable wooden foot baths.
Twenty years ago, Bao's skills were so much in demand that his day was filled with work: fashioning cooking pots, buckets, watering cans and dustpans; he also repaired things, fixed iron utensils and patched up worn pots so they could be used again.
Since factories replaced manual workshops, the number of men like Bao, plus carpenters, blacksmiths and others, are declining into almost nonexistence in cities.
Bao learned his metal trade from his father and has practiced it for nearly 30 years.
"Most tinplate workmen shifted to other occupations," says Bao, "and my main clients have shifted from individuals to small enterprises."
Most of his customers are hotels, restaurants and snack stores and he custom-builds tanks, various containers, cooking utensils, kebab ovens and other items.
Individual customers are mostly old people who are more likely to fix broken things than throw them out. Young people, by contrast, tend to discard things, some in perfect working order or easily fixed, and buy new ones.
Bao says the business is good and says he's the best tinker in Hangzhou (he might just be about the only one, too).
He says there's likely to be demand for decades to come because most factories cannot meet needs for small, customized items.
"It's natural selection," he says of his business survival. "Dinosaurs died out as nature changed and anything that's supposed to die out will die out.
"I never think about promoting metal working as a culture or passing it on," he says. "I just want to help people who still need hand-made items of tin."
Another craftsman, 86-year-old Pan Wenbiao, runs one of the few stores in Hangzhou that still tease cotton (tan mianhua), using tools to fluff up old cotton quilts and plump them up with new cotton. Those huge, heavy, cotton-padded coats also had to be plumped up from time to time.
Pan learned from his father who learned from his own father.
But those were the days when cotton quilts were daily necessities and people had to bundle up. Today most city homes are heated and cotton is replaced by lighter wool or synthetic blankets and quilts. As living standards improve people prefer buying new goods instead of reusing old things.
Pan's store, operated by younger members of the family, demonstrates to visitors the ancient skill of cotton teasing. Young people and many foreigners are fascinated.
Today most of his "teasing" customers are middle-aged and senior citizens.
Most of his revenue comes from custom-making quilts, not teasing, and he sells only around 2,000 quilts a year, valued in the tens to hundreds of yuan. It's not exactly booming and he's not doing as well as the tinker and woodworker.
Pan's establishment is an old-time store on Hefang Street.
When the street was renovated and he had to move temporarily, Pan asked the city government if he could return and open a shop to promote the traditional cotton-processing skills as part of an environmentally friendly lifestyle.
He got a free shop and insists on running it, though he could lease it for as much as 200,000 yuan (US$29,290) a year.
"My store is a window to show people, including foreign travelers, the traditional skill of teasing cotton," Pan says with pride.
Some traditional craftsmen are doing rather well.
Woodworker Qi Jianfei makes wooden tubs, bowls and buckets in his store near the Drum Tower.
Handmade wooden wash tubs and buckets have almost entirely been replaced by cheap, light-weight and colorful plastic containers. Most woodworkers had to find a new line of work.
But fortune smiled on Qi. Wooden containers are again favored by some people because of their eco-friendliness, durability, comfort - and the nostalgia of the old tubs. Plastic looks tacky to many people and factories now turn out wooden tubs.
Qi says his handmade products are preferred by many beauty salons, foot massage shops and people seeking quality goods. His products are around 30 percent more costly than manufactured items. The pieces of wood fit snugly and are fastened with bamboo nails or pegs - he doesn't use glue or metal nails that rust.
The tubs and washbowls he makes today are smaller and lighter than the old ones to save water and make them lighter to lift and easier to pour.
Qi has passed on his skills to his son studying in college, but says he won't force him to go into the woodworking business.
"Wooden things are becoming popular again and I don't need to worry about skills being lost and culture fading away," says Qi. "A business booms when people need it and when people don't need, it goes away."
Bao, 46, is a tinker, a worker of metals (though not a blacksmith) and he's making a dustpan in a day of plastic dustpans and plastic utensils of all kinds.
Bao is one of a number of craftsmen still practicing mundane trades seldom needed these days but preserved along old Hefang Street in Hangzhou, an ancient street that was renovated in 1999 and rejuvenated as a pedestrian way featuring old crafts.
He's joined by a man who teases and fluffs cotton wool and a woodworker who turns out wooden utensils and newly fashionable wooden foot baths.
Twenty years ago, Bao's skills were so much in demand that his day was filled with work: fashioning cooking pots, buckets, watering cans and dustpans; he also repaired things, fixed iron utensils and patched up worn pots so they could be used again.
Since factories replaced manual workshops, the number of men like Bao, plus carpenters, blacksmiths and others, are declining into almost nonexistence in cities.
Bao learned his metal trade from his father and has practiced it for nearly 30 years.
"Most tinplate workmen shifted to other occupations," says Bao, "and my main clients have shifted from individuals to small enterprises."
Most of his customers are hotels, restaurants and snack stores and he custom-builds tanks, various containers, cooking utensils, kebab ovens and other items.
Individual customers are mostly old people who are more likely to fix broken things than throw them out. Young people, by contrast, tend to discard things, some in perfect working order or easily fixed, and buy new ones.
Bao says the business is good and says he's the best tinker in Hangzhou (he might just be about the only one, too).
He says there's likely to be demand for decades to come because most factories cannot meet needs for small, customized items.
"It's natural selection," he says of his business survival. "Dinosaurs died out as nature changed and anything that's supposed to die out will die out.
"I never think about promoting metal working as a culture or passing it on," he says. "I just want to help people who still need hand-made items of tin."
Another craftsman, 86-year-old Pan Wenbiao, runs one of the few stores in Hangzhou that still tease cotton (tan mianhua), using tools to fluff up old cotton quilts and plump them up with new cotton. Those huge, heavy, cotton-padded coats also had to be plumped up from time to time.
Pan learned from his father who learned from his own father.
But those were the days when cotton quilts were daily necessities and people had to bundle up. Today most city homes are heated and cotton is replaced by lighter wool or synthetic blankets and quilts. As living standards improve people prefer buying new goods instead of reusing old things.
Pan's store, operated by younger members of the family, demonstrates to visitors the ancient skill of cotton teasing. Young people and many foreigners are fascinated.
Today most of his "teasing" customers are middle-aged and senior citizens.
Most of his revenue comes from custom-making quilts, not teasing, and he sells only around 2,000 quilts a year, valued in the tens to hundreds of yuan. It's not exactly booming and he's not doing as well as the tinker and woodworker.
Pan's establishment is an old-time store on Hefang Street.
When the street was renovated and he had to move temporarily, Pan asked the city government if he could return and open a shop to promote the traditional cotton-processing skills as part of an environmentally friendly lifestyle.
He got a free shop and insists on running it, though he could lease it for as much as 200,000 yuan (US$29,290) a year.
"My store is a window to show people, including foreign travelers, the traditional skill of teasing cotton," Pan says with pride.
Some traditional craftsmen are doing rather well.
Woodworker Qi Jianfei makes wooden tubs, bowls and buckets in his store near the Drum Tower.
Handmade wooden wash tubs and buckets have almost entirely been replaced by cheap, light-weight and colorful plastic containers. Most woodworkers had to find a new line of work.
But fortune smiled on Qi. Wooden containers are again favored by some people because of their eco-friendliness, durability, comfort - and the nostalgia of the old tubs. Plastic looks tacky to many people and factories now turn out wooden tubs.
Qi says his handmade products are preferred by many beauty salons, foot massage shops and people seeking quality goods. His products are around 30 percent more costly than manufactured items. The pieces of wood fit snugly and are fastened with bamboo nails or pegs - he doesn't use glue or metal nails that rust.
The tubs and washbowls he makes today are smaller and lighter than the old ones to save water and make them lighter to lift and easier to pour.
Qi has passed on his skills to his son studying in college, but says he won't force him to go into the woodworking business.
"Wooden things are becoming popular again and I don't need to worry about skills being lost and culture fading away," says Qi. "A business booms when people need it and when people don't need, it goes away."
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