Time: 9:21AM September 21th, 2012
Place: Front Garden Alley
Character: Big Sister Bian
“This is my sofa,” Big Sister Bian calls out to usas we come to a halt in front of the Front Garden Alley armchair. With short-cropped hair and wearing a black sweater with a red pattern knit into the middle and a pair of black pants, her eyes twinkle with warmly and her face lights up with smile. When we offer to take photo of her, she openly strikes a pose on the mahogany armchair: legs crossed, arms comfortably on each armrests, smiling confidently at the lens.
Across from the armchair is the 15-square meter neighborhood market Big Sister Bian opened to sell vegetables, fruits, meats, seasonings, and other sundries. A God of Wealth statue oversees the entire shop from the wall above the cauliflower. Alongside which are two large cross-stitched embroideries hanging from the wall. The first embroidery is of the character for “happiness”, the second reads “Family harmony leads to success in everything.” Big Sister Bian proudly tells us that she embroidered all three herself in her spare time. Each one took half a year.
The shop begins to get busy a little after 11 o’clock. We are speechless watching Big Sister Bian simultaneously greets the hutong’s residents, tells another customer how much today’s “fragrant pears”costs, slices pork to put onto the scale, taps away on a calculator, all while keeping track on the needs of the four or five other customers coming in and out.
Big Sister Bian works while continuing to chat with us.” I work everyday. I don’t get off work,” Big Sister Bian smiles as she introduces her life to us. “My husband shelves the goods and I sell it.” Each day, her husband gets up at 3AM to go pick up fresh produce. Big Sister Bian gets up at 7AM to take her son to kindergarten and then opens her market. Other than an afternoon nap and picking her son up from school, her day is spent tending the market until 8 or 9 at night. “It’s not as tough as before.” From when she left Anhui province for Beijing than a decade ago, from a setting up a her stand each day at the morning market to her running own storefront, Big Sister Bian has spent about 15 years traversing Beijing’sproduce markets.
Although her store has only been open for a couple months, Big Sister Bian knows everyone who enters her market. Her customers include people from her home province of Anhui, migrant workers working in the hutong, and neighborhoods old Beijingers. “People in the hutong are really nice,always helping out.” Big Sister Bian watches the store on her own. When she needs to use the bathroom or has something to do she knows the neighbors will watch over the store for her.
“Oh! That’s a bad guy!” Big Sister Bian exclaims as she greets a regular.
“You’re the real bad guy! Beijng, China’s number one hutong bad guy!” he jokes in return.
“You’re looking good today!” a woman compliments Big Sister Bian’s new sweater before she starts shopping.
It’s a small market. People come and go not only to buy produce but also swap small talk and crack jokes with each other. Amongst the chatter, Big Sister Bian’s laugh rings the clearest.
“She might be a ‘bad guy’ but she’s actually really great,” the regular tells us a few moments later.