Photo story: State-owned barbershop dying out
Tating barbershop, located in Fuzhou city, capital of
East China's Fujian province. （Photo/Chinanews）
Old-fashioned door frames with peeling paint, faded hairstyle posters,
tarnished razors and hair clippers, worn-out barber chairs that seem to be used
only in the 20th century. One look into the barbershop will bring you instantly
back to the old days, when people who had their hair done at such shops were
nothing but modern and fashionable. But for children born in the 1990s, a shabby
barber shop with outdated tools like this one can only be seen in
movies.
Chen Shuiping, a 59-year-old barber, is cutting, shaving and
dying hair for one of his old customers. The shop he is working at is Tating
barbershop, located in Fuzhou city, capital of East China's Fujian province. It
is the last state-owned barbershop in the city, with a history of more than 30
years.
Chen was hired by a local state-owned company at the age of 19.
After learning the craft for three years as an apprentice, he was appointed by
the company to work at Tating barbershop. Chen is planning to retire after one
year and nine months. That's his time to say goodbye to the shop where he has
spent his entire working life.
In its prime, Tating barbershop once had more
than 10 barbers. Entering the 1990s, as China policy makers started
restructuring state-owned enterprises, some barbers from Tating were laid off.
Now only Chen and one other barber still work there. They still use the old
hairdressing tools and methods to wash hair—they pour water into a bucket on the
wall and let the water flow through a rubber tube into an enamel basin--exactly
how customers had their hair washed in a barber shop in 1980s.
Chen and
his colleague now run the barbershop independently, although they hand in fees
to the parent company as the barbershop is still state-owned. The subway station
on Shangteng street, along which the barbershop is located, is now under
construction. After it's finished, the street will be expanded, and the
buildings along the street are set to be destroyed. Tating barbershop may not be
able to escape its destiny.
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（Editor：HuangJin、Gao Yinan）
