Humans of China: "You Could Call Me An Antique"

This article comes from Humans of China (WeChat ID: humans-of-china), which aims to document and tell the stories of the many varied people of this vast country, one individual at a time. This edition details an old man in Guizhou province.

A couple of days after I was born, my family planted a tree for me. The plan was for the tree to be cut down when I die to be made into my coffin. This has been the tradition here for generations but it has stopped in recent years.

My clothes are also made with the leaves from this tree so the tree not only serves people in life but also in death. The tree probably won’t be cut down when I die. It’ll be left here to grow.

My father gave me this gun when I was four. I’m 80 years old, which makes the gun around 75 years old or so – you could call it an antique. You could also call me an antique.

Before, we’d use the gun to hunt wild pigs and birds but I no longer use it for hunting. I now use it when I perform for tourists. My father also gave me a knife which I kept strapped to my belt and I would use to cut bamboo and make baskets.

In the '60s, I went to Beijing to work as a soldier. I had to walk a good few hours to reach the nearest train station and when I arrived I got myself onto a train that was carrying coal to Beijing. The train carriage was small and dirty and by the end of the journey, which lasted hours, I was black.

I stayed in Beijing for five years and it was a really great experience.  Even though I earned a low salary – only six kuai a month, but they gave us food and a place to live. I couldn’t carry my gun or knife there though. In the five years I was there I only managed to visit home once. From Beijing, it took me a very long time to get home. I liked Beijing a lot but I think I prefer the village where I’m from.

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Photos courtesy of Cameron Hack