On my most recent trip back to Xiamen my cousin took us to this little shop that she had been going to ever since she was little. She would always get their xiao long bao. (These xiao long baos are different from soup dumplings, which are also called xiao long bao.) The place serves other dishes as well, like porridges, noodles, dumplings etc. But looking around us, everyone had ordered atleast one basket of baos.
I did not have the courage to talk to these shop owners with my Mandarin, so all the information I have was gathered based off assumption and what I saw around me. There were three women working non stop in the shop. They juggled taking orders from people sitting inside, making the baos, steaming towers of baos, tending to people who wanted take out, and bussing tables. They looked like family, i’d like to assume they were sisters.
The shop had a sign above it celebrating 33 years in business. Both times we went there was a consistent stream of people. I’d bet they're making over 500 baos everyday. They cranked them out effortlessly, rarely ever looking down at their hands. There was a staircase in the back corner. I wondered if this lead to their home upstairs. The other corner, a pile of things, a makeshift storage space of things that have just accumulated over the years.
As I’ve been doing this series, I’ve noticed this “pile of things” in lot of mom&pops. It has become a characteristic of the types of shops that I tend to be drawn to. To me the pile symbolizes a lot of different things. The messy piles symbolize the hard work and effort it takes to come in each day and run the shop. You start the “pile” to tend to eventually but the tasks of running the business takes over and as time passes by the pile grows and grows. The piles are almost like a time capsule, growing and transforming year after year. Perhaps next time I will have the courage to speak more of these mom&pops in China, but for now celebrating mom&pop going international!
This is part of an ongoing passion project of mine called mom&pop where I talk to and photograph small businesses that I discover and love. If you liked the story be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one (-: