When strolling upon the streets of a megacity, you might stumble upon towering skyscrapers, dazzling lights that ignite the night sky, bustling crowds swarming on the streets. You might also slip into a small alley, with paint peeling off from the wall of tattered structures, windows sealed with concrete, with no man in sight. When you venture deeper into one of those alleys, the murmur of conversation crescendos into the bustling market, hidden in the depths of these lifeless concrete buildings.
When entering the market, my attention was caught by a bent back over a sink. Cutting open the back of a chicken, picking out the clotted organs, washing the edible parts clean, the woman managed to process the chicken within a few minutes. Astounded by her proficiency, I approached her, craving for a good story.
She was quite shy and reluctant when she first spotted us, nevertheless, she agreed to answer our questions.
When I asked what a common day was like for her, she answered: “I get up around 5:30 a.m., get the stall ready for customers, then return to my apartment around 11:30 a.m. Sometimes I take a nap after a busy morning, and 6:30 p.m is about the time I finish work and arrive home.,” she said with a smile. “That’s it, that’s a day in my life.”
For stall owners, sustaining a small business in a demolition area is not easy. With the residents relocated, and the houses surrounding the small market about to be torn down, there are scarcely any customers here. The market itself is also on the brink of being demolished. Pathetic realities tend to demand pessimistic responses, yet life's monstrosity didn't find its anticipated answer within this woman. Shockingly, she demonstrated unyielding positivity in face of drastic transformations.
“What should we (stall-owners) do then? A good mentality is everything. At my age, no matter how the business is going, as long as I can make enough to sustain my daily needs, that is good enough for me. I don’t seek too much wealth, and no longer have the energy to work too hard. I used to get up at 3 or 4 a.m. when I was young, my mindset is now different from then. Everyone wants to be rich, but no one can change how difficult maintaining such a business is.” Her face was always lit with a smile when she leisurely recounted her story, her fingers still working, uninterrupted.
Her calm acceptance of the social conditions was much different to colleagues. There was a warmth in her smile that lingered, offering silent reassurance to everyone around her as if to say, ‘Everything is going to be alright.’
Her children are not living in Shanghai, they are back at her home city -- Jiangsu. It is only her and her husband working here to sustain the family. Her separated family is only one of the many here at the market. “Most of us were born in the 1960s or 1970s”, with similar family conditions. She laughed again, “there are not a lot of young visitors like you guys.” She plans on reuniting with her family in the upcoming New Year, and was excited by the thought of being able to meet her parents and children.
I asked her where she would like to go if she could set aside her current burdens and travel wherever she wants. “Travelling… That is something that I really want to do, but I can’t leave behind the economic burdens that I have to bear.” “What if you do not have economic pressure?” I asked in addition. “I don’t think it is possible,” she smiled again, “In the countryside (where I lived), you hardly get any money when you retire. Especially for us, who do not work in a company. We don’t get pensions.” It seems that she dared not to dream so big, as she was quite reluctant and hesitant when answering. She proceeded on, talking about economic pressures. “We don’t usually get new customers here; it is mostly familiar faces that still come here to buy groceries. The internet also brought quite a lot of pressure for us physical-store owners.”
We watched her dissect the chicken with ease, trying to distinguish the organs and parts of the chicken. Noticing our curiosity, she asked, “Are you all from Shanghai?” We nodded. She smiled and added, “No wonder. Your generation has never done this kind of work in the markets. Perhaps your grandparents, or great-grandparents, might have worked in the markets.” “Anyways, a good mentality determines everything,” she summarizes, as if it is a remedy for herself. “We don’t have pensions, or any other alternative sources of economic income. We can only create wealth with our own hands and work. I have been doing this (selling chickens) for more than 20 years now.”
As we finished the interview and walked away from the small stall, her words echoed in my mind: “A good mentality determines everything.” In a world that often feels overwhelmed by the pursuit of wealth and success, her calm acceptance of life's challenges seemed like a quiet rebellion. Despite the uncertainty surrounding her business and the absence of financial security, she had found peace in simply doing her work with dedication and gratitude. It wasn’t about dreams of wealth or escape—just about the everyday resilience and healthy mindset that allowed her to keep going.
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