The Fading Jobs

By Jiang Lan

Many jobs have vanished and are fading in the long river of Chinese history. People have more and more thoughts and reflections upon the times they existed by examining them and their forgotten details and stories.

Honeycomb Briquette Maker

In an age of scarce gas supply in Chinese cities, the only available fuel was a honeycomb briquette.At the time, you needed both cash and “coal tickets” to buy some. The honeycomb briquette makers, with dirty faces and hands, were men of respect and power. Naturally, it was even easier for them to find wives.

Only the anthracite coal of high quality could be made into honeycomb briquettes. The coal was smashed, mixed with earth and water, and then be compressed into the shape of honeycomb. The percentage of earth and water is essential in the process . If the earth or water is too much, the briquette would be incombustible； if too little, the briquette would easily shatter.A molding with 12 steel bars inside is used to compress the briquettes. The maker would put the coal mixture in the molding,cover it with a top board, and then pound the board with a wooden mallet until it descends to a desired level. Then he would uncover the molding and take the cylinder-shaped briquettes out.

After some time, machines were used to make honeycomb briquettes, which had much better efficiency, but unstable product quality, as sometimes the coal was not completely smashed before the mixing and molding processes.

The honeycomb briquettes came in two different sizes.A briquette of a smaller size originally cost only several fen (1 yuan = 100 fen). Even after 20 years, the price was only 20 fen, with freight charge included. Compared with other commodities, the price of honeycomb briquettes went up perhaps the most slowly. I don't know whether such low price could be attributed to the low cost of coal or that of labor, but it might be the reason why this fuel is still produced and bought in some regions.

Cold Boiled Water Peddler

In South China, cold boiled water was once an item sold along with herbal tea, sugared water,watermelon juice, and sugarcane juice. This was how many housewives made a living.

If a woman's house happened to be by the road, then she would have the advantage of running this lovely small business.(Nobody would want to rent a house to do it.) Generally, she would put a table and sometimes several benches before the door of her house, and put some glasses of water and other drinks on the table. Each glass would be covered by a square glass sheet； reassuring would-be customers of sanitary conditions.

Cold boiled water was hardly the kids' favorite. A kid of the time would normally empty his pocket to buy a cup of sugared water with 2 fen, or a fruit juice with 5 fen. Some peddlers were dishonest； they would replace sugar with cheaper saccharin. But if the proportion of saccharin was not right, the sugared water would become bitter, and there would probably be a quarrel.

Many adults were peasant workers, and most of them would choose herbal teas. One of the popular kinds of herbal tea was laoyin tea, which was known for its red-brown brewed soup, its efficacy to quench one's thirst,and its unbelievably low price: 1 fen a glass.

Later (I am not too sure exactly when), these peddlers started to sell more modernized drinks,such as coke, bottled water, soda cans, and other commodities like cigarettes and tissue paper.In an age of rapid economic development, many handmade items vanished without a trace,and cold boiled water was one of them.

Itinerant Peddler

The existence of itinerant peddlers was largely a result of a backward economy and inconvenient transportation.Nowadays, the bell of these peddlers can probably only be heard in the remotest mountain areas.

The sound of an itinerant peddler's bell was a bit like the whistle of an ancient armed escort team: it could be heard and echoed beyond silent mountains.When the men and women in the mountain areas heard the bell,they would stop working and go home, where they took some money and waited. Later, the peddler would bring these people goods, such as needles and thread,matchsticks and cigarettes, towels and soaps, pencils and envelopes,and many kinds of oil and cream.His load was like a magic, mobile shop which would bring the people joy. The most excited buyer was one who pre-ordered something from the peddler. He/she might have been waiting for a very long time, and here, the tiny things those they had dreamt of finally came. In the wildest joy,a person would even embrace the peddler as if they were a messenger of hope, like a receiver of a desired love letter would do.

We often say that people will never be satisfied with what they get. But as for those who live in a remote environment, a little pleasant surprise will satisfy them for quite a while. This reaction may be unexpected and even astonishing to a new itinerant peddler.

Country folks think that only those without professional skills will work as itinerant peddlers.However, the hardship of their long travel does make sense. To the mountain villagers, it is these peddlers who connect their lives to the outside modern world.

Midwife

No matter what the word itself literally implies, a midwife doesn't have to be a female.Wang Zengqi, a famous modern Chinese writer, tells the tale of a male midwife in his fictionMr. Chen, the Small Handswho suffers a torturous fate for his uncommon choice of career.The midwife is an honorable baptist of a newborn as well as a fortunate person who first witnesses the miracle of life.

There are many folktales about wicked, bloody-thirsty midwives who rush to women in labor and fiercely cut off the umbilical cords. But actually,most midwives are kind and warm-hearted, and they aim to help, especially a new motherto-be to calm down, before they swiftly do their job.

Giving birth to a baby is never easy. The moments of birth are often accompanied with exhausting struggles and tears,and the midwife is the savior of the entire family. “It's a boy/girl!They're both doing well!” These simple words have a magical soothing power. When the midwife hands out the little pink creature, it immediately attracts the world's attention. She just knows the present mission is complete, and will return to her own ordinary life.

But an ecstatic family will not let her go like this—the midwife will be given a bowl of poached eggs, a red envelop (with money inside), and sincere gratitude.In some places, the midwife will give a gift to the newborn. It is generally a red baby's suit.

Often on a foggy night, the midwife is going home, like a legendary specter floating in the air. Behind her, a new life is born, and the coming dawn is before her eyes.