It was a grey, overcast day as Ivan and I walked his dog, Bao Bao, in a quiet residential area when we came across an old man. He was at a fork in the walking path. The man was sitting in an old, worn out lawn chair underneath a weathered umbrella. His sad eyes were droopy and back, hunched. Sitting next to him was a black bird in a wire cage. It sported an orange stripe by each eye and was carefully preening itself. Wired and nailed to the iron fence next to him was a list of services he provided.
"I used to be a mechanical engineer but now I just repair things; Umbrellas, clocks and bikes. I can clean kitchen exhausts and shine shoes or even sharpen your knife. I don't charge a fixed price. Whatever you can afford is sufficient enough. I even work for free sometimes. I'm 91 and this is just my hobby so price does not matter much to me. Living with my family here in Shanghai and enjoying my life are more important."
He seemed to have gleaned much in his 15 years of fixing and repairing. Perhaps his age is also why he suspected us of working for the government when we started asking so many questions. Constant reassurance that he was not in trouble and that we were simply interested in writing his story were not enough. I'm not sure why he would assume a white girl and an Asian guy dressed so casually could possibly work for a government entity but perhaps his eyesight was not the best. What little Chinese history I do know also lends me to imagining all the vast changes of this ancient country he must have experienced, including the era of Mao. Back then, if you didn't fix what you had, you may have had nothing. Now umbrella fixing is a dying profession. In an age of disposable things, there is no point in wasting so much time. But time is all he's got besides his bird, this humble umbrella man.
"I used to be a mechanical engineer but now I just repair things; Umbrellas, clocks and bikes. I can clean kitchen exhausts and shine shoes or even sharpen your knife. I don't charge a fixed price. Whatever you can afford is sufficient enough. I even work for free sometimes. I'm 91 and this is just my hobby so price does not matter much to me. Living with my family here in Shanghai and enjoying my life are more important."
He seemed to have gleaned much in his 15 years of fixing and repairing. Perhaps his age is also why he suspected us of working for the government when we started asking so many questions. Constant reassurance that he was not in trouble and that we were simply interested in writing his story were not enough. I'm not sure why he would assume a white girl and an Asian guy dressed so casually could possibly work for a government entity but perhaps his eyesight was not the best. What little Chinese history I do know also lends me to imagining all the vast changes of this ancient country he must have experienced, including the era of Mao. Back then, if you didn't fix what you had, you may have had nothing. Now umbrella fixing is a dying profession. In an age of disposable things, there is no point in wasting so much time. But time is all he's got besides his bird, this humble umbrella man.