If you want to get to know a city in China, you must visit the street markets in that city, where the stalls are small but big enough for various local-style goods, where the stall owners are by nature honest and kind, grabbing every chance to start a conversation with you, and where the smell of special snacks makes every passer-by linger. Sometimes, it seems that the charm of an entire city is all here on these streets.
The summer of 2020 surely was special to Nanjing University Renjianyanhuo Team. Most of the students in the team major in foreign languages. And so, when practicing their language and communication skills, they also hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the state of the nation and tell their own stories about China.
Joining forces to conduct their social experiment on the stall economy, a.k.a. street markets, the team went back to their respective hometowns (Shanghai, Nanjing and Dongyang in Zhejiang Province), to explore hidden cultural memories and unearth the stories behind the stalls.
Shanghai
After careful analysis and comparison of street markets in Shanghai, we finally chose Midsummer Cool Market to be our first research site.
Open only to the public only in summer, the creativity and diversity offered at the Midsummer Cool Market are always impressive. When walking through the fancy, dazzlingly bright market, we found a stall strangely simple, yet full of mysteries, which was a bit like the Diagon Alley in the magical world of Harry Potter.
The stall owners were two young ladies who greeted us warmly and readily accepted our request for an interview. They said they were now working in a Tarot consulting company and they set up this street stall to offer Tarot reading as well as to promote Tarot counseling.
During the interview, more and more people were attracted to the stall. The owners then started to introduce their magical service. When finishing brief exchanges with customers, they told us that because tarot reading, in most cases, is a one-to-one service, it was a bit embarrassing to come out and set up a stall at first, but the lively atmosphere in the market soon relaxed them by making them feel as if at a gathering of old friends.
We next interviewed some other stall owners. Some busked and sold musical instruments. We saw a daughter working together with her mother to make exquisite handicrafts. The logo and slogan deeply touched us; “Mother Cuts, Daughter Sews, One Stitch and One Thread, from Hand to Heart”. Warmth is never hard to find when you come to these stalls.
Zhejiang
Dongyang is a small county located in the middle part of Zhejiang. As an old Chinese saying goes, “The sparrow is small, but it has all five internal organs”. Dongyang’s prosperity is closely related to its “neighbour”, Yiwu; and its “big brother”, Hengdian. In this prosperous small county can be found the famous, Zhenxing Lu, known as the “Street that never sleeps”. If you come to Dongyang without a paying a visit to Zhenxing Lu, then something mundane, yet typical of Dongyang’s lifestyle is missing from your trip.
In our social experiment, we went to Zhenxing Lu and experienced what it is like to set up a stall. We prepared ice cream and cold drinks, which may be the most popular products in summer but offer a one-time only experience; and knitting wool, which may be the least popular product in summer but can be used for a long time. We believed the differences in the sales of these two types of products could help us better understand the current situation in this bustling commercial street.
When transporting goods, we came across a little problem. The refrigerator we planned to take with us was much heavier than we expected. But fortunately, we met a kind-hearted, middle-aged man who enthusiastically helped us carry the fridge with his tricycle. And he also taught us some of the things he had learned along the way, including many business tips and much valuable advice.
When we finally arrived at our spot, we encountered another new problem; there was no power supply for our refrigerator. And we found that the stall owners next to us either used a generator or the batteries of their e-bikes for power. We, however, had none of those. But we did not give up. Going first to a street shop to see if there was any possible chance that the owner could help us with the power supply, after being rejected, we had no choice but to ask our parents for help. In the end, they brought two large bags of ice to our stall and solved the problem caused by our carelessness.
During our wheeling and dealing, we met old ladies who loved to bargain, young girls who showed curiosity about everything and middle-aged men who took their family for a walk. Every passer by seemed to show interest in the experiment we were doing. We could feel the warmth coming from each word, the gentleness of each smile, the value of each yuan and fen, and something ordinary, yet essential, in our daily lives hidden in the street.
Nanjing
In order to have a better understanding of the stall economy in Nanjing, we prepared many sewing kits imported from Germany as our products, and then came to Nanhu searching for a place to conduct our social experiment. But we soon found out that we forgot to reserve ourselves a stall. After explaining our intentions to an urban management officer and showing him our letter of introduction, we were more than happy to see that the officer was kind enough to help us find a vacant stall. Thanks to the officer, we were now able to lay out all the goods we had and put out our signs and QR code. And all the preparatory work was now completed!
With so many people coming and going, we excitedly waited for our first customer, during which time we also practiced quietly the introduction of our goods to ourselves several times.
Just 5 minutes later, a middle-aged man slowly walked over with a fan in his hand and stopped in front of our stall, showing some interest in our business. “Please take a look at the things we have here. They are German imports. And we have 20 percent off on all products!”, we said, grabbing this chance with enthusiasm. “Young men, your products are surely very good, but here doesn’t seem to be the right place for you to promote your products”, came the reply, with a laugh.
We were at a loss and didn’t know what he meant by “the right place”. The man then suddenly began to passionately talk about some essential elements of the stall economy, including where stalls can attract more people, when is the best season and the right time for the right stuff. There were even a few customers around who did not leave after their purchase just to listen to the lessons he was giving.
“I would have probably bought them a year ago”, he said, before asking again, “Are you sure these things are imported from Germany?”.
After getting a definite, “Yes”, from us, the man changed the subject. “You know what, European standards are really different from our country’s own standards. We still have a long way to go…” He continued on and on and was still in full flow, but left contentedly, having got everything off his chest. We looked at our watch and found out that half an hour had passed, but still there wasn’t any progress with our business.
It was 10 o’clock before we knew it. And it was about time for stall owners to head home. It was the same case with us. After all the checking and calculating, our performance seemed poor. On the way back home, we discussed with each other trying to get something out of it, and came to a consensus that the prices of these sewing kits were surely a bit too high, while we also concluded that we should take into consideration our target consumers and the use of our products. After all, as the man said, “You only buy needles and threads when you know how to sew your clothes. The quality of these sewing kits, of course, is very good, but these days, how many people know how to sew their clothes?”
Before we started our social experiment, we had so many questions in our minds. Will there be many people? What about security and sanitation? Will people rush to purchase our goods? These questions were answered when we were there, down to the stalls. Streets are alive only when they are bustling with noise and excitement.
And we feel more alive when these mundane, yet interesting things spice up our lives.
