Time： September 2nd, 2012

Place： East Garden Hutong

Character： Auntie Wang, 57

After a delightful and amicable conversation with Auntie Wang, she refused our request for a photograph with her sofa, “No photo… no photo!” Instead, she enthusiastically enthusiastically directed Candy on how to sit in her favorite position. “Lean your head a bit more… take off your shoes and put your feet on the couch…” “Look over here,” Wang Ayi  directed Candy to look down the street and away from the bathroom.

Beijing’s hutong are made up of a maze of households. Each alley of households has its own public bathroom. Each morning, residents wearing pajamas and slippers shuffle from house to bathroom to use the facilities and dump buckets from the night before.

Auntie Wang is responsible for the sanitation of two of these hutong bathrooms: East Garden Hutong and Firewood Hutong. Each day she can be found sitting across from the East Garden Hutong bathroom. Three days ago, she came across a white sofa beside the trashcan. The loveseat looked to be in good shape- probably somebody had moved out and didn’t want it anymore- so Auntie Wang moved it to her post in front of the bathroom. This was not the first sofa Auntie Wang had picked up. She had saved a number of sofas before, all of which would sooner or later disappear. “I put them here, and they’ll be gone later. I don’t know who took them.”

Passing Auntie Wang curled up in the love seat, head propped up against her arm, it would seem she was sitting front of the TV, not a public bathroom. Auntie Wang cleans the bathrooms and eats her meals at the same time each day and spends the rest of her time chatting up the neighbors while sitting on her loveseat.

Her accent is think but this does not stop her from getting to know the neighbors. If you ask her what she thinks of Beijing, she’ll gaily respond, “Good! Everyone’s around here is really nice.”

Auntie Wang arrived from Gansu Province only a few months ago because of a relative, “My husband’s brother’s wife is in Beijing.” She has three children and five grandchildren who are all in Gansu.

“I won’t go back for Chinese New Year.”

Like the previous sofas, Auntie Wang doesn’t know how long this sofa will be here. But, this isn’t something she worries about. If the sofa disappears she still has her small stool or perhaps another sofa will come along.

After seeing the photos of Candy, Auntie Wang cautiously asked “[Taking a photo] won’t cause any problems? It really won’t cause any problems? I’m just scared that it might bring trouble.” We “swore on Chairman Mao” several times that this was nothing but our own project, and Auntie Wang decided to let us take her photo. She wasn’t shy at all.