China News Agency, Guangzhou, May 15th: China's "Generation Z" Diverse Career Choices: Improper "Office Workers" Make a Living by Collecting Old Things

  Author Sun Qiuxia

  When night falls, the antique and flea market on Wenchang North Road in Guangzhou begins to become lively. This is the famous "Tianguang Market" (folk market) in Guangzhou. It opens every night after dark and ends at dawn.

The stall owners spread a square cloth on the ground, put old furniture, old-fashioned radios, Minqing dishes, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, etc., waiting for someone to buy it. The "post-95" guy Wu Kaisi is one of the few young people who often visit here. .

  After graduating from the Law School of South China University of Technology in 2015, Wu Kaisi did not choose the "9 to 5" office life.

He was deeply attracted by old things and began to collect old things for a living. So far, he has collected tens of thousands of items, most of which are stored in a shop in Lingnan E-commerce Park, Panyu District, Guangzhou, named "Sustainable Old Things".

  "I want to keep the things abandoned by others and pass on their value forever. It can be displayed in my old things space, or it can become another person's favorite." Wu Kaisi recently accepted an interview with a reporter from China News Agency time said.

  The first old thing Wu Kaisi collected was a wine bottle stuck with soil that he bought at a flea market during a trip to Guilin in 2014. The words "Old Guilin" were written on the bottle.

In his opinion, it is more meaningful to take this wine bottle back than to buy a mass-produced tourist souvenir.

  This trip allowed Wu Kaisi to open a door to the world of old things, and it was out of control from then on.

Every time he went to a city, he must go to the local flea market.

When he was a senior in college, he traveled to the United States for a month and visited second-hand stores in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other places.

  "That was the first time I learned that the flea market can be so prosperous, and that collecting used goods can be regarded as a profession. The American flea market was my enlightenment." Wu Kaisi said.

  After returning from the United States, Wu Kaisi began to look for flea markets in Guangzhou. He pieced together the fragmented information on the Internet and spent two weeks on-site visits to sort out the 12 existing flea markets in Guangzhou, some of which became his regular source of receipt.

  In Wu Kaisi's store, there are some yellowed books, old photos, black and white TV sets and other small objects with a sense of age.

Although one of the hanging plates is rusted, the architectural pattern on it is clearly visible, showing the appearance of Foshan, Guangdong in the 1980s.

Wu Kai said frankly that he likes items with information, and he collects old items used by ordinary people.

  In addition to visiting the flea market, Wu Kaisi often goes to the ruins or picks up old things.

He once received the relics of an old Indonesian overseas Chinese. The old man went to Southeast Asia before his life and brought back some daily necessities from overseas, which is very exotic; a pair of old people without children once came to him to collect old things, wanting to take their own Items remain, including the wedding dress worn at the wedding...

  Wu Kaisi told reporters that he once received a large bag of letters in Tianguang Market, recording a person's life from childhood to adulthood.

"After I posted the content of the letter on the Internet, I didn't expect to be seen by the owner of the letter, only to know that it was thrown away by her relatives. She asked me if I could buy it back, and I gave it to her directly."

  Wu Kaisi, who makes a living by collecting old things, has gradually improved his career. He opened a branch in Foshan, Guangdong. Not long ago, he organized a four-day second-hand market. Every day, 20 stall owners sold their idle items or Handmade items, the stall owners range from 70-year-old ladies to graduating college students.

  In Wu Kaisi's view, China's second-hand market is still under the Internet, and many people do not know that there is a second-hand market in the city where they live.

He often organizes some markets to increase public participation and spread the idea of ​​second-hand recycling.

He said: "When people don't think it's a maverick thing for me to collect old things, that's the ideal state."

  In China, there are many young people like Wu Kaisi.

They no longer only favor the "iron rice bowl" in the traditional sense, and their career choices are increasingly diversified and autonomous, and "slash youth" with multiple identities, occupations, jobs and lifestyles have emerged.

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