Motorcycle Taxi

Motorcycle taxi: You ride on a motorcycle instead of sitting in a cab. It appeared in china in early 1990s, and disappeared around five years ago because of government ban. Motorcycle taxi was very popular because: 1) It is very cheap. The price is no more than 10 yuan (correspondingly 1.5 dollar) 2) It is…

People’s Commune

People’s commune is a kitchen where everything was shared. People cook here, dine here, and share all cooking ware. From 1958 to 1962 in China, it was a time called Great Leap Forward. That was a time when China wanted to chase United States and Soviet Union’s developing pace, so it came up with a few…

Doorman

Doorman, this job has not disappeared yet. Maybe you live in an apartment, which has a doorman at the lobby. He receives packages, checks in with strangers, or even helps you move your luggage when you have too much for you. However, it is not necessary for every apartment to have a doorman in it….

Breaker Boy

A breaker boy was a coal-mining worker whose job was to separate impurities from the coal. The coal that had impurities could not go to market and would be left in the mine as a waste. Break boys would pick slate, rock and other debris from coal by hand. Until 1900, the coal breaking had…

Coffin Man

“Death may be the termination of a life, but it’s not the end of humanity.”                                           —Departures   This is a line from the movie, Departures. I watched it many years ago; the leading character…

Newsstand Operator

Yes, this job is still around. However, the concept has changed. You see a newsstand it in the subway station. It is a vender where you can buy gummies, candies, lastly, newspapers. It may be a little incorrect to call that vender newsstand. In the past, you bought newspaper and other various magazines at newsstand….

Bus Conductor

  Bus conductors were a common feature in UK until the late 1970s. In those times, double-deckers buses were used as main urban transit services. The special bus design determined the need of a two-person crew (driver and conductor) to run a bus-running service. The entrance door was at the rear end of the bus,…

Tea Lady

A tea lady is a woman who works in an office or a working environment, her sole job is to serve beverages and snacks during the tea break. Tea ladies were British custom that became mainstream during the Second World War. Tea ladies helped boost efficiency in workplace,  people have a period of time when…

Rickshaw Puller

Things people take granted for now might be extremely luxuries in the past. From the past to now, human changed technology, technology changed human, time changed everything. Can you imagine a transportation tool like Uber could only be used by rich and important people one hundred years ago? Can you imagine that you sit in…

Popcorn Man

  In late 80s and 90s of China, popcorn was not a kind of snack that everyone could get easily. Back then, you needed special cookware to make popcorn, and it was not easily manipulated or stored in household.   But, you still could get that at a popcorn station on the street. At station,…

Cigarette Girl

Cigarette girl is the person who sold cigarettes from a tray held by a neck strap. The job started in roaring twenties (1920s) usually in restaurants, clubs. The job disappeared as vending machines and other street vendors emerged.   The 1920s era was the age of “wonderful nonsense” of United States. It was the beginning…

Computer

Computer used to be a job title refers to people who worked on computing and calculating math back in early 17th century. There was a quite funny gender inequality in this job. For some men, being a computer was a temporary position until they moved on to greater advancements. For women the occupation was generally…