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Badge man on a mission for Expo pins
January 24, 2011, Monday
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VETERAN badge collector Sun Maoxing has accumulated more than 500 badges from the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and he tells Fei Lai that to get them he traded badges from the "cultural revolution."
It's been already several months since the World Expo in Shanghai ended, but Sun Maoxing, 58, still vividly recalls the fair where he collected more than 500 Expo badges.
While some scalpers sell their various pins for hundreds or several thousand yuan, veteran collector Sun from Shanghai's Yangpu District says he won't part with a single emblem from a pavilion or volunteer.
Over 22 years, Sun, a trade company employee, has collected more than 5,000 badges of all kinds.
"My generation is unlikely to experience another World Expo so I cherished the opportunity to collect badges that reveal history and culture and show our Chinese pride. You can't put a price tag on them."
Among the badges, around 200 are flags from countries and regions; the rest are souvenir badges from pavilions and organizations. Some feature the national flags of China and other countries, commemorating the friendship between China and a foreign country.
"No one could collect every badge, there are so many categories," Sun says.
The most challenging category was volunteer badges. They include basic badges, monthly badges, star volunteer badges and badges for volunteers working in the China Pavilion, theme pavilions, and at the Expo Boulevard. There are volunteer badges for the Joint Africa Pavilion, Greenland Park and various zones.
Most volunteers refused to exchange their own pins, he said, so the task was difficult.
Sun paid seven visits to the six-month-long Expo, and five of those trips were dedicated to badge acquisition.
His strategy was to exchange his many historic China badges for Expo pins.
He took 600 of his own badges, mostly duplicates and all more than 40 years old. Most were from the "cultural revolution" period (1966-76).
"It wasn't easy to pass the security check with so many metal badges at one time," he says. He was prepared to be taken to a police office and questioned.
"I predicted the guards would stop me, so I brought an ID card and business card with membership in the Yangpu Collectors Association," he says. "And I proudly showed them newspaper clippings about my badge collecting over the years. It really worked and I entered quickly after I showed them."
Expo badge collectors recognized each other easily because they pinned their badges to the ID card strings around their necks.
Sun pinned around 40 badges at a time on his camera strap.
With that kind of display he attracted a lot of attention and many visitors wanted their pictures taken as they stood next to him.
"Usually, we only display and advertise extra badges to exchange for pins that we don't have," he says. "It's a good way to 'sell' badges that you no longer need."
Sun could exchange as many as 50 badges in a day.
Besides the badges exchanged, Sun bought some other badges to enlarge his collection.
"Exchanging is not as easy as store purchase. Both parties must be willing and fully take into consideration the pins' significance, quality, material and shape."
Since most of Sun's pins were from the "cultural revolution," he figured middle-aged people would show the most interest. He was gratified to find that university volunteers were also keen on collecting his memorabilia, especially those with the image of late Chairman Mao Zedong.
As the Expo went on, more people joined the badge collecting craze, including security guards.
"It was because of the historical significance - people want to keep souvenirs like passport stamps and pins," says Sun. "It's a way to keep alive memories of our participation."
Now that the Expo is over, Sun just keeps on collecting. His collection has been exhibited on more than 20 occasions.
He has also obsessively collected his own salary stubs for 20 years, not missing a single one. They document his salary increase from 50 yuan (US$12.14 today) in the 1980s, to his current 3,000 yuan.
He hopes that young people will be inspired to collect bits of history, saying, "However rich you are, it's impossible to collect everything and however poor you are, you can start collecting something."
It's been already several months since the World Expo in Shanghai ended, but Sun Maoxing, 58, still vividly recalls the fair where he collected more than 500 Expo badges.
While some scalpers sell their various pins for hundreds or several thousand yuan, veteran collector Sun from Shanghai's Yangpu District says he won't part with a single emblem from a pavilion or volunteer.
Over 22 years, Sun, a trade company employee, has collected more than 5,000 badges of all kinds.
"My generation is unlikely to experience another World Expo so I cherished the opportunity to collect badges that reveal history and culture and show our Chinese pride. You can't put a price tag on them."
Among the badges, around 200 are flags from countries and regions; the rest are souvenir badges from pavilions and organizations. Some feature the national flags of China and other countries, commemorating the friendship between China and a foreign country.
"No one could collect every badge, there are so many categories," Sun says.
The most challenging category was volunteer badges. They include basic badges, monthly badges, star volunteer badges and badges for volunteers working in the China Pavilion, theme pavilions, and at the Expo Boulevard. There are volunteer badges for the Joint Africa Pavilion, Greenland Park and various zones.
Most volunteers refused to exchange their own pins, he said, so the task was difficult.
Sun paid seven visits to the six-month-long Expo, and five of those trips were dedicated to badge acquisition.
His strategy was to exchange his many historic China badges for Expo pins.
He took 600 of his own badges, mostly duplicates and all more than 40 years old. Most were from the "cultural revolution" period (1966-76).
"It wasn't easy to pass the security check with so many metal badges at one time," he says. He was prepared to be taken to a police office and questioned.
"I predicted the guards would stop me, so I brought an ID card and business card with membership in the Yangpu Collectors Association," he says. "And I proudly showed them newspaper clippings about my badge collecting over the years. It really worked and I entered quickly after I showed them."
Expo badge collectors recognized each other easily because they pinned their badges to the ID card strings around their necks.
Sun pinned around 40 badges at a time on his camera strap.
With that kind of display he attracted a lot of attention and many visitors wanted their pictures taken as they stood next to him.
"Usually, we only display and advertise extra badges to exchange for pins that we don't have," he says. "It's a good way to 'sell' badges that you no longer need."
Sun could exchange as many as 50 badges in a day.
Besides the badges exchanged, Sun bought some other badges to enlarge his collection.
"Exchanging is not as easy as store purchase. Both parties must be willing and fully take into consideration the pins' significance, quality, material and shape."
Since most of Sun's pins were from the "cultural revolution," he figured middle-aged people would show the most interest. He was gratified to find that university volunteers were also keen on collecting his memorabilia, especially those with the image of late Chairman Mao Zedong.
As the Expo went on, more people joined the badge collecting craze, including security guards.
"It was because of the historical significance - people want to keep souvenirs like passport stamps and pins," says Sun. "It's a way to keep alive memories of our participation."
Now that the Expo is over, Sun just keeps on collecting. His collection has been exhibited on more than 20 occasions.
He has also obsessively collected his own salary stubs for 20 years, not missing a single one. They document his salary increase from 50 yuan (US$12.14 today) in the 1980s, to his current 3,000 yuan.
He hopes that young people will be inspired to collect bits of history, saying, "However rich you are, it's impossible to collect everything and however poor you are, you can start collecting something."
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