06.08.07

Last Day on the Job

Posted in Barbershop at 1:46 pm by Benjamin Ross

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After a long month at the barbershop, I have finally ended my tenure as a 学徒. I say “long” out of habit, because in actuality the month went quite fast. When I first began this project I was viewing the month-long tenure as somewhat of a test. I would never have admitted this on the blog, but I was not 100% sure I could make it all the way. Neither were my co-workers, who I could tell for the first week were all thinking “Well, he’s here today, but I will give it a 50/50 chance he shows up tomorrow.”

Truth be told, on my last day I did not want to leave. Granted, I had only worked for a month, and I was reminded several times by co-workers that had I stayed for a year, I would have certainly hated my job. But in the end, I ended up enjoying my coworkers and lifestyle more than I ever could have imagined. With each passing day the eleven hours came and went faster and faster. Making new friends, and enjoying my work day were not reasons I decided to do this project, but they were nice, unexpected, bonuses.

When I first began this project, one of my goals was to understand what the life of a Chinese worker is like. As much as I enjoyed my month at the barber shop, I wish I could say the same for my coworkers. As Westerners, we are often shocked and appalled when we hear of the long hours Chinese workers work and the low salaries which they are paid. However, most Chinese service workers come from the countryside. Their families have been living agrarian lifestyles for centuries, the long hours and low salary of a city job are actually an improvement on their previous lifestyles.

What I found the most discouraging from a humanistic perspective was that with the possible exception of Jiang who gets creative pleasure out of designing hairstyles, I can honestly say that nobody in the barber shop likes their job. Even Mr. Zheng, if presented with the right opportunity, would leave the industry if he could. There is an overwhelming sense of lack of self-actualization, and many of my coworkers view their job as pointless, literally.

A final picture with Mr. Zheng and the masters: front row left ro right: Cheng Qing, me, Jiang. back row left to right: Guang Tou, Mr. Zheng, Xiao Wang, Adamum

Throughout high school and college I worked many mundane part-time jobs which would be comparable to working in a barber shop in China. When talking to the full time employees (mostly adults who did not go to college) I never remember feeling the sense of disparity towards their jobs that the workers do in my barber shop in China.

So why do they stay? A quick answer would be that the hair industry is the best they can do. None of my colleagues have a college education. To my knowledge, only two of them have high school certificates. The rest only finished middle school. China has very few continued education opportunities. The only way to go to college is to pass the entrance exam at the end of high school. There are no night classes, no correspondence courses, and no DeVry. Failure to pass the college entrance exam (or the high school entrance exam for that matter) will almost certainly lead to a life in the working class.

Every single worker in the barber shop comes from the countryside. Most of them came to Fuzhou around the time they would have been graduating high school. They begin work as a little brother or little sister with hope of one day becoming a master, and after that possibly opening their own store. They do not have the capital nor the time to work on ventures outside the industry. Even a move within the same industry is difficult. Two of the masters at my shop had previously opened their own shops, but both failed, and after a considerable loss of capital, they had to return to working for somebody else.

Mr. Zheng is one of the rare success stories. On my last day in the barbershop, he told me he wanted to take me on a bike ride. As we rode through busy Fuzhou streets dodging motorcycles and buses Mr. Zheng turned to me and said, “You know Ben, I am trying to move away from cutting hair. Right now I am not taking any new customers, and the only people whose hair I cut are those whom I have cut for a long time.”

“So are you thinking about doing something else?” I asked.

“Well sort of. Eventually I want nothing to do with hair cuts anymore. I want to focus less on hair, and more on management. I want to take you somewhere so you can have a look,” he said.

After a dash through downtown, we ended up at another barber shop. This, I correctly assumed, was Mr. Zheng’s other shop that I had heard about from my coworkers, one in which he was only a shareholder, and did no manual work. As I walked in the new shop I was impressed. A month ago, I had barely been able to tell the difference between Chinese barber shops, but now I could decipher that this new shop had made vast improvements over our own, and all the services were priced the same as ours. The interior design was red and white with a modern theme, the barber chairs were newer and more comfortable, and all of the hair washing beds were located in a back room (no, not that kind of back room!) providing a darker, quieter, and more relaxing hair washing atmosphere than that of our shop. They also had a small break room where employees could store their belongings and grab a quick bowl of instant noodles. As Mr. Zheng showed me the break room, one of the shop’s little sisters brought us each glasses of lemonade, a much needed upgrade from the hot water in plastic cups at our shop. But what impressed me more than anything was the waiting area. In our shop, the waiting area consists of two tables placed in the middle of the shop. In the new shop, the waiting area was a slightly elevated area located off to one of the corners. It was surrounded by stones and live plants, and included cushy sitting chairs. The was also a computer, where customers (or idle employees) could play games, check their e-mail, or QQ all throughout the day.

“What do you think?” Mr. Zheng finally asked.

I did not know how to respond. This shop was clearly a big step up from ours. I did not want to sound as if I thought this store was so much better than our own, since Mr. Zheng’s only role was as an investor, whereas our shop he has built from the ground up.

“It’s really nice. I like the computer and the break room,” I told him.

“Yeah,” Mr. Zheng nodded. I could see he thought the same things about the shop in comparison to his as I did. It was an awkward moment, as the look on his face was not that of one who has just recently achieved a proud accomplishment.

We sat in the cushy chairs as Mr. Zheng introduced me to the managers and masters at the new shop. We chatted, ate peaches and drank lemonade for a few minutes, and then Mr. Zheng told me it was time to go.

On the bike ride back I asked about the business in his new shop.

“Is the new shop making money?” I asked.

“No, not at all.” Mr. Zheng said shaking his head.

“What is the problem?” I inquired.

“Not enough customers around here.”

From his body language, I could tell he had said enough. The frustration rang clear. Mr. Zheng is one of the hardest working managers I have ever worked under. He is intelligent, has excellent people skills, and knows more about hair than anybody I have ever met in my life. Yet even for him, it may be nearly impossible to realize his dream of not cutting hair. He has only a middle school education, and has been working in salons since he was 18. He has reached now the pinnacle of the barber shop world by becoming the boss of his own shop, but is now finding it difficult to achieve the ultimate goal of a service worker—leave the service industry. If the new store ultimately fails, chances are Mr. Zheng will just continue his life as the boss of our shop, working as both a manager and as a master. With the difficulties Mr. Zheng is having moving up and out of the working class, one can only imagine how difficult it must be for the workers who are not as driven as he is.

As several commenters have pointed out, the biggest difference between me and the other workers is that at the end of the month I will leave and have the option of choosing a completely different career path. For the my coworkers, their choices are simple. They can either try to keep moving up the barbershop ladder, with hopes of if not changing careers, at least increasing their incomes. They can switch industries and start back over from the beginning. Or they could return back to their hometowns and work barber shop jobs with even less pay and opportunity.

While I would be lying if I claimed I had truly experienced the life of a Chinese worker, I can honestly say that I feel more in tuned with the hardships and joys that they face on a daily basis. As the hours ticked down, I began to get a bit nostalgic about my life for the past month. I knew I would remain friends with my coworkers, but it would not be the same as spending 11 hours with them every day. After cleanup, we all went out to play pool and then sing karaoke. I topped off the sleeping in the dorm for an evening. The next morning I woke up and I was no longer an employee of the barber shop.

For the past two days, I missed the barber shop. I have gone into the barbershop both days to visit, and share some pictures I had taken with my coworkers. It was admittedly a little weird to be wearing shorts, and not be wearing my work apron, and to see hair on the floor and not rush to sweep it up. As I was sitting one of the tables with Cheng Qing and Adam when a customer came in. In instinctively shouted out “huang yin guang lin” before I could remind myself I was no longer an employee. I guess some things are hard to change.

A lot of readers are probably wondering what will happen of this blog now that my month as a xiao di is over. One of the biggest limitations of this blog the past month was that I only had a couple hours every day to write about my thoughts at the barber shop. Therefore there have been many happenings and ideas which have yet to be blogged in their entirety. I plan to use the next few weeks as sort of “clean-up” time to share some of these thoughts, and hopefully spark some more discussion. My parents will be coming to China for their first time from June 12 – June 26, so during that time my blog will be on a bit of a hiatus of sorts, although I do plan to make updates when I can. After that I hope to have a better idea of where I will be for the next few months, and if my time schedule and work commitments will allow any further projects like the barbershop experience. I want to thank everybody who has been keeping up with this blog for the past month, those who have given support, and those who have offered constructive criticism. But most of all, to Mr. Zheng and the other employees for giving me this chance to begin with. This is by no means the end of line, so keep on reading in the coming weeks for more barber shop banter, but for now just in case you missed it the first time….

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